Tecnologia per, nonostante, o sull’essere umano? Tracce per uno ‘human based design’ della tecnologia digitale

Technology is not good or bad, neither humanizing or de-humanizing per se: what truly qualifies its meaning and impact is defined by designers and users, and by their complex interaction, thereby showing how this matter assumes deep ethical implications. The following pages assume as a premise that the purpose and the way technological tools are designed highly determines how they interact, impact and affect human users. This is remarkable in the context of a publication aimed at critically reflecting on the ethical and legal implications of the Metaverse, whose pervasive and immersive character will likely play a strong role in shaping people’s lives already in the near future. After some philosophical considerations on the problematic relationship between human beings and the technique, my reflections will briefly focus on some ways in which technology may result in creating or enhancing discriminations between and among human beings, thereby negatively impacting their lives and relationships. From this conceptual platform, I will seek to show that a restorative and mediative approach can offer important conceptual and ethical standpoints for legal designers and technology developers in order to design digital technology around users, their interests and their needs rather than imposing such tools «on», or «notwithstanding», them. My final aim is to underline how this approach matches a “critical openness” towards technological innovations with the issue of ethically safeguarding the protection of their human users, without missing the point of facilitating users in their ability of consciously and successfully accessing the potentials offered by the digital world.