Eurograd message

Message posted on 07/01/2025

New Open Access Book Out - Technological Utopianism and the Idea of Justice

Dear colleague,

Happy New Year! This is to announce the recent publication of my new book Technological Utopianism and the Idea of Justice, which is available as an open access publication.

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-75945-1

Abstract This open access book advances a modest defence of technological utopias. While technological utopianism is not devoid of risks and elitism, their benefits should not be discounted in an overall assessment. Rather than rejecting them based on a too narrow definition of utopianism, we must acknowledge their potential to exceed the individualist vs. collectivist dichotomy ascribed to traditional utopias. The author argues, with reference to Rawls idea of the basic structure that technological utopias challenge our understanding of the scope and location of justice and, thereby, advance the idea of justice. The book critically reviews the most recent literature in political philosophy, where utopias are understood as ideal theories of justice and sides with recent contributions to Utopian Studies, where utopias potential to estrange from the present and galvanize action are underscored.

In this fascinating book, Martin Sand argues that futuristic visions of technological utopias can radically alter our perspective on the world, ourselves, and the role of justice in human life. Throughout the book, Sand convincingly argues that technological utopias can inspire new conceptions of justice and forcefully responds to many anti-utopian arguments. A must-read for anybody interested in the controversial topic of technological utopias!

Sven Nyholm, Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at LMU Munich.

As in his previous work, Sand manages to redraw the boundaries of the bourgeoning debate about technological futures by focusing sensibly on justice issues in this field. He asks us to interpret technological futures as utopias and considers their potential to improve our understanding of justices scope and location. Another highly original approach!

Prof Armin Grunwald, Ethics and Philosophy of Technology at the Karlsruhe, Institute of Technology (KIT) and Head of the Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS)

Sand makes an intriguing proposal can technological utopias teach us anything about the scope and location of justice? While many technological visionaries will hope so, certainly no one has ever so ambitiously defended that claim before him

Prof. Dr. Vincent Blok, Professor in Philosophy of Technology and Responsible Innovation (Wageningen University), Professor in Philosophy of Data Science and AI (Erasmus University Rotterdam) EASST's Eurograd mailing list -- eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net Archive: https://lists.easst.net/hyperkitty/list/eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net/ Edit your delivery settings there using Account dropdown, Mailman settings. Website: https://easst.net/easst_eurograd/ Meet us on Mastodon: https://assemblag.es/@easst Or X: https://twitter.com/STSeasst

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