Conscious Technology and Technological Change in the Light of Tawhid: Artificial Intelligence, FINTECH, and Other

Abstract

A general theory of appropriate technology as a social artefact is presented in its ontological sense of concept and application. The essential point of the emergent meaning of moral/ethical appropriateness of the general theory of appropriate technological choice is explained to rest upon endogenously complementary interrelations between the moral and material variables that together signify the dynamics of socioeconomic development. Technological choice and change are thereby explained in respect of their contribution to social wellbeing in a technical way that would contribute to sustainability. The general theory of such evolutionary learning embodiment of technological choice is particularized to the case of FINTECH in the financial world. The Islamic appropriateness of FINTECH is critically reviewed in terms of its compliance with the general theory of appropriate technology or is it otherwise. Monetary policy and real economy implications of dinar as micro-money are formalized in an institutional perspective. This chapter is a first of its kind to combine modelling with institutional implications of choice of technology and its underlying epistemological context so as to give permanence of meaning to the modulation provided.