Abstract:

Human societies and institutions are increasingly subject to rapid technosocial changes caused by mobile computing， artificial intelligence， robotics， genetic engineering and other new technologies. This paper confronts the question， “How can humans hope to live well in a world made increasingly more complex and unpredictable by emerging technologies?” In an abbreviated form， my answer is this: “by collectively and deliberately cultivating in ourselves a specialkind of moral character， one that expresses what I will call the technomoral virtues.” This paper is devoted to explaining three things: why the question I have posed challenges humanity at this historical moment; how the future of human flourishing depends upon our ability to answer this question well; and why doing so will require an explicit account of technomoral character and virtue. My account responds to a growing phenomenon I call acute technosocial opacity， a phenomenon which， by weakening our ability to reliably anticipate the future， also complicates our efforts to plan for and bring about a good way of life for ourselves and others. I argue that virtue ethics， a moral theory with roots in disparate cultures from classical China， India and Greece， is an old approach that is ideally suited to modern conditions of technosocial opacity. I then outline an account of seven technomoral habits and twelve technomoral virtues that 21^st century human beings must collectively seek to cultivate if we are to have any hope of living wisely and well with emerging technologies.

Key words: technomoral self, new technology, technosocial opacity