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Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc's Ethics of Technology: Artificial Intelligence, Indigeneity and Human Society is a philosophical examination of the ethical, social, and political implications of technological development, particularly the growing influence of artificial intelligence on human life. The book explores a fundamental question of our time: How can humanity embrace technological progress without sacrificing human dignity, cultural identity, social justice, and the values that sustain communities? The work opens a philosophical space for considering how Indigenous worldviews, cultural traditions, and collective experiences can contribute to a more inclusive understanding of technological development.
Dr. John Weckert, emeritus professor at Charles Sturt University in Australia, wrote the Foreword. Maboloc brings together perspectives from technology ethics, social and political philosophy, and indigenous thought to examine the relationship between technological innovation and human flourishing. A particularly important dimension of the work is its engagement with Indigenous communities. By bringing Indigenous knowledge systems into discussions about artificial intelligence, the book challenges the assumption that technological progress should be understood exclusively through Western scientific and industrial paradigms.
MAJOR PHILOSOPHICAL THEMES
1. Artificial intelligence and human dignity – Examines the moral responsibilities that accompany the development and deployment of AI, including its implications for human agency, autonomy, and critical thinking.
2. Technology and human freedom – Engages philosophical questions concerning whether technology genuinely liberates people or creates new forms of dependence, control, and social constraint.
3. Indigeneity and technological change – Investigates how artificial intelligence and modern technologies affect Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, identity, and ways of life.
4. Social justice and technological inclusion – Raises questions about who benefits from technological innovation and whether marginalized communities have a meaningful voice in shaping the digital future.
5. The human future in the age of AI – Reflects on how society can direct technological development toward human flourishing rather than allowing technological efficiency to become the ultimate measure of progress.
PHILOSOPHICAL FOUNDATIONS
The book's intellectual framework draws on important thinkers in the philosophy of technology, including:
Martin Heidegger – Technology as a particular way of revealing and understanding the world.
Andrew Feenberg – The democratic appropriation and social recontextualization of technology.
Herbert Marcuse – The relationship between technological rationality, domination, and human emancipation.
John Weckert – Ethical questions arising from information technology and the digital society.
These perspectives provide a foundation for examining technology not merely as a collection of instruments but as a force that transforms human relationships, institutions, and social arrangements.
CONTRIBUTION TO INDIGENOUS STUDIES
One of the book's distinctive contributions is its attempt to bring Indigenous experiences, particularly those of the Ibaloy and Bagobo Tagabawa, into contemporary debates on artificial intelligence.
This perspective is important because much of the global discussion on AI is dominated by technological development, economic competitiveness, and Western philosophical assumptions. Maboloc introduces a different point of departure: the experiences and knowledge systems of Indigenous communities in the Philippines.
His work asks whether AI can become more inclusive and culturally responsive, rather than simply reproducing existing inequalities and dominant cultural assumptions. His published research on the T'boli and Obu Manuvu also provides a related foundation for understanding how Indigenous communities negotiate technological change.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORK
The book is a contribution to applied ethics and the emerging philosophy of artificial intelligence from a Southern Philippine perspective. It connects global philosophical debates with questions arising from Mindanao and other Indigenous communities.
The central argument can be expressed in one proposition:
Technology must serve humanity, not the other way around. Its ethical legitimacy must be measured not simply by innovation and efficiency but by its capacity to respect human dignity, cultural diversity, social justice, and the freedom of communities to determine their own futures.
PRAISES FOR THE BOOK
Technology has become so ubiquitous that the study of its ethics and philosophy encompasses just about all of life. Studying and talking about the issues raised by Dr. Maboloc will be a big step in helping to understand the role of AI and all technology in modern society.
Dr. John Weckert
Professor Emeritus
Charles Sturt University, Australia
Grounded in rigorous philosophical and ethical scholarship, this volume offers rich, interdisciplinary perspectives on the promises, perils, and implications of AI. The volume illustrates the indispensable value of philosophical and ethical critique in understanding and evaluating emerging technologies.
Juichiro Tanabe, PhD
Professor
Waseda University, Tokyo
In this thought-provoking book, Prof. Dr. Christopher Ryan Maboloc rekindles the enduring philosophical question of technology, particularly in the age of artificial intelligence. Drawing on the philosophy of technology, this book offers critical insights into the socio-cultural, economic, and political implications of AI.
Dr. Jeffry Ocay
University Professor
Eastern Visayas State University
This book is a compilation of thought-provoking essays by Professor Maboloc as he reflects on the future of ethics, with urgent issues for our reflection such as the appropriate use of artificial intelligence (AI), computers, and the societies that we are reconstructing through excessive reliance upon technology.
Dr. Darryl Macer
President
American University of Sovereign Nations
Versed in modern and contemporary philosophy and illuminated by local predicaments in the Philippines, with special emphasis on indigenous perceptions, this volume serves as an outstanding starting point for discussing contemporary values, identities and the ethics of technology in our rapidly changing reality.
Dr. Daniel Mishori
Professor
Tel Aviv University
Dr. Maboloc leads an initial inquiry into the people's considerations and their hopes and dreams for a future that includes technological advancement, but one in which they themselves participate and which they put to use. The pages that follow offer some examples of what this might look like.
Dr. Layne Hartsell
Research Professor
Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok
HOW TO ORDER:
Paperback (Philippines): https://forms.gle/M2N1W8hRVtXdvci58
Paperback (Worldwide): https://link.amazon/B05eZCHrO