Book Review: Technology Ethics: Responsible Innovation and Design Strategies by Steven Umbrello
Technologies permeate and transform modern life in complex, profound ways that often escape our full understanding. The cars we commute in, the smartphones in our pockets, the apps and platforms mediating work and relationships—these advanced systems shape how we experience, communicate, find partners, eat, and even sleep. Yet the common perspective of technology as a set of neutral, instrumental tools obscures their deep integration into human societies.
In his new book Technology Ethics: Responsible Innovation and Design Strategies, Steven Umbrello challenges this limited conceptual lens. He constructs an original framework seeing technologies and societies as intertwined systems continually shaping each other. This “interactionalist” position grounds an ethical responsibility for those designing, developing, and deploying technology to conscientiously consider social impacts, and explores both theoretical foundations and practical methods for responsible and ethical technology innovation.
Across nine chapters, Umbrello examines longstanding conceptions of technology before building his “interactionist” model emphasizing technology’s reciprocal relationship with society.
Instrumentalism sees technologies as merely neutral tools that can be used for good or ill, but don't inherently embody values or transform societies. This position sees technologies as instruments that have no moral dimension in themselves - they simply operate as implements subject to the user's intentions.
Technological determinism is the view that technological developments determine social changes and drive the progression of human societies. This perspective minimizes human agency and sees technology as an autonomous, self-driving force that shapes norms, behaviors, institutions, etc according to its trajectory.
Social constructivism holds that technologies do not have inherent characteristics, but rather their meaning and impacts are socially constructed. So a given technology could have vastly different implementations and effects depending on the cultural context and subjective interpretations of various social groups. This view risks minimizing the concrete material dimensions and functional capacities designed into technologies.
Umbrello's interactionalist theory challenges all three positions by recognizing technologies as neither value-neutral implements nor an autonomous force, but rather as sociotechnical systems embedding values and mutually evolving with societies. Technologies shape human behaviors and social systems through their embedded constraints and affordances, while also remaining contingent on human goals and values designed into them. Meanwhile, societal needs, norms, and practices also guide technological innovation trajectories.
Technologies carry moral dimensions and consequences. Against technological determinism, societies maintain agency in influencing technological change rather than being passively transformed by it. And countering social constructivism, technologies have defined capacities and real effects beyond just social interpretations. Overall, Umbrello argues for an integrated view recognizing the interdependence of technologies and societies.
This conceptual reframing opens vital questions about the ethics of technology innovation and the responsibilities of technology creators. Umbrello spotlights promising approaches for responsible innovation, like inclusive design and value-sensitive design. He shares real-world examples and an “ethicist’s toolbox” so these philosophical insights can guide technology development to promote human flourishing. Ultimately, the book frames responsible innovation as an ongoing process, not an endpoint—perfection should not paralyze progress in improving technology’s societal impacts.
However, in developing his framework, Umbrello risks minimizing the key role of power in enabling and driving technology development. While helpfully spotlighting methods for inclusive and ethical technology design, his focus overlooks addressing the structures that have long allowed uncontrolled, unaccountable technology innovation by those like Robert Moses, whose manipulation of the development of New York in the mid-20th century he highlights throughout the book. In emphasizing constructive design principles, he risks deflecting from the vital work of confronting and reforming the innovation power hierarchy.
Ultimately, Umbrello's interactionalism stops short in applying the very reciprocal critique it directs at other theories. If technology and society evolve interdependently, then "technology" itself requires comparable scrutiny. We must examine not just the downstream design, but upstream innovation direction and control. Three key questions remain unaddressed: What counts as innovation? Who should be innovating? And, how should we value innovations? Without tackling those questions and requiring those in power to address and be held accountable for their answers, then design-focused responsibility risks only a superficial impact, which while not problematic in itself, leaves open too much room for interpretation by those for whom such moral critique is of little consequence.
The battle is thus not with "technology" as a concept but with those who were, are, and soon will be in positions of power, like Robert Moses, Bezos, Zuckerberg (or Sauron, as Umbrello incorporates many apropos - though sometimes obliviating - LoTR references). Their decisions fundamentally shape technological trajectories along with societies. So responsible innovation requires accountability and restraints for these leaders as much as inclusive design. Umbrello's framework enables progress but primarily addressing downstream design without confronting human power networks minimizes the agency and responsibility of current tech oligarchs in enabling broad harms. Reform requires a symmetrical critique of the innovation hierarchy itself.
Technology Ethics presents a vital and timely philosophical perspective on aligning emerging technology with social progress through ethical design. Umbrello’s interactionalist model and practical tools offer essential guidance for constructive technology development. But fuller assessment of structurally unchecked innovation control remains imperative to challenge the root causes of our societal failures. The book’s oversights limit its ability to hold past and present innovators accountable (though, perhaps I am being too harsh and in the interest of brevity and clarity, Umbrello saved these answers for later - one can only hope, or perhaps inspire!). Nevertheless, his framework: 1) marks a clear review of the last few decades of work in the philosophy of technology; 2) delivers thoughtful progress; and 3) should be required reading, indeed.