Technological Manipulation and Threats to Meaning in Life

This chapter discusses whether technological manipulation poses threats to our opportunities to live meaningful lives, have meaningful relationships, or do meaningful work. It starts with a discussion of what we should understand by technological manipulation, which makes use of Marcia Baron’s more general account of manipulation. It then discusses four different views about what technological manipulation might be taken to involve, landing on the hybrid view that technologies can relate to people in manipulation-like ways and that it is possible for human-technology teams to manipulate people. After this, the chapter reviews a number of common ideas about what values create positive meaningfulness in life. The chapter then comes to its main argument, which is as follows: if technological manipulation threatens one or more of the values commonly associated with meaning in life considered in the chapter, then it poses a significant threat to our opportunities to live meaningful lives. Technological manipulation poses serious threats to all of these values and therefore poses significant threats to our opportunities to live meaningful lives. The chapter discusses this argument in some detail and ends with a concluding discussion that, among other things, answers some potential objections to its main line of argument.