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Editorial
. 2025;38(3):124.
doi: 10.1007/s13347-025-00962-w. Epub 2025 Aug 30.

Vertical Technologies and Relational Values: Rethinking Ethics of Technology in an Age of Extractivism

Jeroen Hopster  1
Affiliations
Editorial

Vertical Technologies and Relational Values: Rethinking Ethics of Technology in an Age of Extractivism

Jeroen Hopster. Philos Technol. 2025.

Abstract

Critical reflection on the material, environmental, and social conditions underlying technology remains peripheral to the field of technology ethics. In this commentary, I underwrite the diagnosis by Vandemeulebroucke et al. (2025) that the field suffers from an "extractivist blindspot", but propose a somewhat different cure. First, rather than focusing on the material ontogenesis of technical artefacts, a more radical turn away from artefacts is called for, towards layered socio-technical systems as the field's core object of analysis. Second, notwithstanding the merits of their intercultural proposal, I argue that in overcoming extractivism the conceptual resources of more adjacent philosophical traditions should not be overlooked.

Keywords: Empirical turn; Extractivism; Intercultural philosophy of technology; Relational values; Socio-technical systems; Vertical technologies.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. All co-authors have seen and agree with the contents of the manuscript and there is no personal or financial interest to report.

References

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