Thoughts/comments on "Philosophical Engineering: Toward a Philosophy of the Web"

hi all,

I just finished the book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Philosophical-Engineering-Toward-Philosophy-Metaphilosophy-ebook/dp/B00GV8NJB2%3FSubscriptionId%3D14BJ8ZEX3WNZS76SDCG2%26tag%3Dwwwwileycom-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB00GV8NJB2

Here are some thoughts I had when reading the book (the not too philosophical
parts that I was able to understand :-)

More than 60% of Web traffic is bot traffic - yet bot traffic is seldom
mentioned in the book.

It is difficult for me to see a *qualitative* difference between the pre Web 
state and now. What is so special about the Web ?

Chapter 8 and 11 hint at a qualitative difference - a border we may not want 
to cross: The dominance of the digital over the real. But it could be argued
that human made media has been dominating the real for a while now.

The border that should definitely not be crossed IMO is the dominance of 
algorithms over the real. So I agree with the claim for search engine
governance in Chapter 7 - even if I am not sure if we know enough about the 
algorithms to draw the conclusion that personalized search threatens 
objectivity.

Why is the Semantic Web - which is based on formal logic to a good extent - 
seen as natural next step in extending the human mind ? Chapter 9 seems to 
underline this question (intentional or not).

The reasons why people participate in the Web "1.0" and "2.0" are outlined in
one chapter but I think this question deserves more attention. And what is
the economy - what are the incentives - of the Semantic Web ?

My conclusion is that the Web is formed much more by society than by engineers
or standards. We probably all know the slogan that the Web is a mirror of 
society. IMO, "the Web" and "the society" are often interchangeable
(it may be interesting to reread some parts of the book this way).

So I would say for both the Web and society: They are difficult to understand 
and to control - but governance is sometimes desireable and a good foundation 
helps.

Regards,

Michael Brunnbauer

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