Abstract
All artificial devices are machines, but not all machines are artificial devices. This is the starting point for a proposal aimed at establishing the basis for a Theory of the Artificial (TA). On the one hand we have a conventional technology, aimed at helping man to survive by controlling the world. On the other, we have a technology oriented at reproducing some existing reality. We would name the latter technology the technology of the artificial.
While natural and also conventional technological objects have an autonomous and independent 'existence status' of their own, the artificial wouldn't have any meaning without its reference to something natural or, in any case, without reference to something man assumes as a reproduction exemplar. The need for a theory comes both from scientific and from practical interests. According to the former we have to understand the artificial in order to discriminate it from the purely technological activity and try to understand also their different anthropological roots and intellectual motivations. According to the latter, we have to understand the different requirements needed for the use of conventional machines as compared to the 'use' of artificial devices. The intensity of today's technology, both artificial and conventional, makes such theoretical work legitimate both on technical grounds and also because of its urgency socially and culturally.
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