Humane Technology Working group
About us
This working group is committed to the stimulation and application of meaningful techniques and technical products where human dignity and integrity are not violated.
Technology exerted and increasingly exerts a profound influence on the life of man and his environment. Man fully benefitted from this in the past and the present by means of technical ingenuity. But the flip side of the coin is that man has become largely dependent on ever-advancing technical and technological developments. In many cases, technology resulted in inhuman situations caused by human actions.
The Humane Technology Working Group was established in 2008 and aims to:
Stimulating awareness in society of the moral dilemmas that technology and technology can cause and of the responsibility that ensues to make technology and technology more humane.
Humane technology is characterised by the harmony between a meaningful development of mankind and the world in its intent and in its execution and application with respect to the required products.
Job description
- Studying the technical developments in society and thereby making an inventory of techniques that affect human dignity in the above sense;
- Investigating these techniques and their consequences for society;
- Gaining insight into the essence of technology, in particular of the mechanical world.
- The study of the essential characteristics and foundations of a decent (morally founded) technique.
- The preparation of documents in which an ethical code of conduct and the characteristics of a decent technology are expressed.
- The preparation of advice and principles that can be used to produce decent technical products, intended for managers, developers / designers, producers, users and other stakeholders.
- Searching for / studying existing initiatives in the field of moral improvement of technology and possible cooperation with them.
- The preparation of publications and the presentation of presentations that help to raise awareness of a technology that is considered worthy of humanity.
- And furthermore all subjects that are relevant to the objectives of the Humane Technology Working Group.
Because “technology” is embedded in all layers of society and encompasses all natural science domains, a limitation of the domain under investigation has been made in advance. To this end, the research field is limited to “lifeless technology”, in particular physics (physics) and subjects and products derived therefrom.
In this context, the Humane Technology Working group is based on anthroposophical humanities and the human image mentioned therein, which people recognize as an authentic and autonomous being in the making, endowed with an independent mind and a potential free will that enables him to act as a creative being. In his actions, people can judge what is morally right or wrong.
Workgroup members
The current permanent core of the working group consists of:
- Hendri Hondorp Hengelo (OV)
- Tom van den Muijsenberg Nijmegen
- Diederick Sprangers Nijmegen
Former members of the Human Technology Working group:
- Carl Pesch, Hengelo (OV) (founder of the working group) …. discontinued as of December 2022
- Erik de Vries, Almelo (co-founder of the working group) …. died November 2009
- Henk Stolk, Essen-Wildert, (member (of honour) Dutch Expert group Obstructive Light NSVV); member TC4_58 CIE………………………………………………..…….…… died January 2022
Experts are invited on a temporary basis, as required.
