Analysis On Human-Machine Relations From The Perspective Of Philosophy Of Organism

The development and application of machines have largely enriched the social life of human beings,as well as brought about various problems that should be coordinated between humans and machines.From the ancient hand tools to the production machines in modern industrial revolution,and then to the intelligent machines in contemporary information age,with the increasing update of types and functions of machines,the relationship between humans and machines gets more complex.The relationship between humans and machines shows the conflicting side,as well as the coordinating even embedding side.What are those deep effects on humans,social life and the mental world by this complex human-machines relation?What kinds of potential risks that should be dissolved will emerge?What kinds of corresponding measures should be taken?Those are not only the significant social and historical questions,but also the practical issues should be urgently solved in the field of Philosophy of Technology.Traditional Philosophy of Technology focuses on the ontological,epistemological and ethical issues initiated by the human-machine relationship,separately from the perspective of humanism and engineering.However,these researches still are short of the perspective of Philosophy of Organism.The Philosophy of Organism based on Chinese culture could provide the new theoretical and investigative resources.Philosophy of Organism mainly concentrates on the philosophical reflection of structures,functions and the evolution rule of all kinds of organisms.Meanwhile,the Philosophy of Organism based on Chinese culture pays attention to analyze the essential features of the organism and the interrelation among all organisms from the theory of types.It is a new research approach.One of the most significant features of the organism is that it has vitality which not only is possessed by biological organisms,but also by social,mental and technological activities.These are so called social organisms,mental organisms and artificial organisms.The relationship between humans and machines,actually,is the interaction among these four kinds of organisms.Reviewing the history of the human-machine relation,it shows the different periods,from the originally intimate period to the relatively alienative period and then to the recombination in modern society.This change reveals different ways and consequences by different interactions.In modern society,the interaction among all kinds of organisms gets more complex.The human-machine relation shows the progressive trajectory of development,from dependency to permeation and then to embedment.This complex relation not only blurs the traditional boundary between humans and machines in ontological sense,but also leads to some new issues on the multi-intentionality and multi-values,which even results in some alienation during the usage of machines.From the perspective of Philosophy of Organism,the reason why the human-machine relation is such complex is that humans constantly give their own organic features to machines,as the artificial organisms,in practical activities.Applying the methods of theory of technology mediation,the theory of technical functions and the theory of responsibility ethics,it can be found that the process of giving humans' organic features to machines includes three sections that are the transformation of functions,intentions and responsibility.First of all,it is the transformation of functions.Humans successively give the limb functions,perceptional functions,thinking functions and moral decision-making functions to machines.It leads to the development of machine functions from simplexes to complexness,from the part to the integrity and from low level to high level.Secondly,it is the transformation of intentions.Human intentions and demands can be found in machines.In the section of using,designing and explaining,machines are constantly given the intentional factors by humans,in order to realize the purpose of gaining more obvious benefits by using more efficient methods.Last but not the least,it is the transformation of responsibility.Humans ceaselessly give their own responsibility to machines in the technological practice.It makes that machines are embedded with value sensitivity and responsibility sensitivity in their functions.With this,it is benefit to prevent the social happening caused by technological risks and accidents.In the process of giving human's functions,intentions and responsibility to machines,it also accompanied with the reverse effects on biological organisms,social organisms and mental organism of human beings by artificial organisms.The new features emerging from the interactions among these four kinds of organisms are the ideological roots of this complex human-machine relation.It has raised a series of ethical issues by this complex relation in contemporary.From the perspective of Philosophy of Organism,if the development of human-machine relation will damage biological organisms,social organisms and mental organism,it should be restrained ethically.It shouldn't set up a changeless limitation of the intelligent development of artificial organisms,but it should take into full consideration of the harmonized relationship among all kinds of organisms.In this respect,the idea of "Grand Tao" in traditional Chinese culture plays a curial role on inspiring and leading the development of it.The future of human-machine relation should make human life more beautiful,more harmonious and more energetic,rather than bringing about more troubles and conflicts.