Technology in Tenebris

Radical History Review, 2017

This paper discusses Martin Heideggers´ essay, ‘The Question Concerning Technology’, written in 1953. I will critically assess Heideggers´ description regarding the ambivalent value of technology, using a quotation from the poet Friedrich Hölderlin as a reference point: ‘But where the danger is, grows the saving power also.’ I will use two examples of video art of Nam June Paik and Bill Viola as the context in which to critically assess Heidegger’s essay. The paper is divided into 4 parts. In Section 1 I want to define my understanding of Heideggers´ Essay with regard to Hölderlins´ influence and his quotation mentioned above. Section 2 then moves on by critically assessing Nam June Paiks´ work of Video Art ´Venus` from 1990, in which TV monitors circle a large painted aluminum disk that features windows revealing other TVs. Section 3 will critically assess Viola´s latest Video Art Piece from 2014 called ´Martyrs` (Earth, Air, Fire, Water). ´Martyrs` went on display at St Paul's...

International Journal of Science, Technology and Society, 2020

The paper exposes the non-neutrality of modern technologies in general and communication and information technologies in particular by focusing on the biases and discriminations that are built-in or embedded in the designs and operation systems of technological artefacts of now a days. The central argument of this paper is that modern technologies are shaping and controlling our life on daily basis often unknown to us, though they appear neutral objects at first glance. The current controversial status of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and human thinking is another main theme of the paper in which it is clearly and strongly argued that it is not worth living to delegate the works of our mind to AI or thinking machines, though there is a tendency of co-acting and sharing the most important distinctive feature/character (creative thinking) of human beings among thinking machines and human beings. Here, arises the need for democratizing and transforming the mainstream of design, operation and decision making in the realm of modern technologies, which in turn requires a thorough critical evaluation and philosophical enquiry into the design and operation of modern technological artefacts.

Technology and Culture, 2014

The Social Science Journal, 2006

Although first published in 1941 Herbert Marcus' "Some Implications of Modern Technology" (published in Studies in Philosophy and Social Sciences) suggested that the modern machine age with its' efficiency fetish has substituted for commodity fetish at the hands of an authoritarian state. A typical Marxist ideology of the old left during that period of time. However, many of the implications located in postmodern technology Marcus failed to see as a volunteristic behavior, mainly due to the time span between the modern and postmodern age. Predominate among these effects is the loss of individuality. Today the impact of the computer age leads to standardization of thought, social conformity, and should be seen as a volunteristic social by-product of the nature of advanced technology, and not the tool of an authoritarian state.

Brownstone Institute

Heidegger's influential essay, 'The question concerning technology', was a radical critique of modern, 20th-centry technology - as opposed to ancient technology - and is presented here in necessarily summary format, as backdrop to the currently hegemonic form of technology, which is termed '(bio)technical programming'. Heidegger's distinction between technology and its 'essence', which he termed 'Enframing', is explained by comparing the latter to the 'theocentric' conception of the world during the Christian middle ages, which comprised the fundamental assumption of God as Creator to approach any question or problem about society, nature or culture. Similarly, in the 20th century the centrality of technology as the reduction of everything - nature as well as society - to a 'standing reserve', or a repository of resources, cannot be denied, and formed the presupposition of any attempt at answering questions or solving problems. One of its effects was, Heidegger argued, to undermine what he called 'letting-be' (Gelassenheit), that is, allowing things and living creatures, including humans, to 'be' themselves. By comparison contemporary technology, or '(bio)technical programming', goes much further. It does not merely reduce things to a 'standing reserve', but 'programmes' things in various ways through assessing and predictive algorithms, or worse, at a biological level by 'invading' their biotic being with a view to altering it. The most extreme manifestation of this has been highlighted by a whistleblower who has produced evidence of mRNA (pseudo-) 'vaccines' being nanoscale bioweapons which programme, and hence alter, the very evolution of human beings by introducing non-human DNA into their bodies. (Heidegger would turn in his grave.) This, it is argued, calls for the most resolute resistance possible to the agents (ir-)responsible for such a monstrous assault on our being-human.

There are three particular aspects of Heidegger’s argument upon which this paper will be focused. Firstly, this paper will analyse the way in which Heidegger traces the development of technology from the Ancient Greek conception of technê, which constituted a form of knowledge rooted in the reshaping and utilization of the resources and gifts of nature, to the modern conception of technology, which is rooted in a radically different relationship with the natural world where, rather than working with the gifts of nature, man sets-upon nature in order to break it down into composite parts, extract the energy or material that man needs, and transform these into a standing reserve. Secondly, this paper will analyse the account provided by Heidegger of what one might describe as the “logics” of technology and the way in which modern technology and the natural sciences have, in gaining hegemony over the way in which people understand truth, served both to enframe the natural world within this logic and also to transform the way in which man understands himself and others within this paradigm. Finally this paper will focus upon the last element of Heidegger’s argument. Heidegger does not merely want to gain an understanding of technology, he feels that we are in danger of being overcome by technology and that it is necessary for man to re-assert his mastery of technology so that it can serve as his tool, and as one more in a number of ways in which man can bring the concealed into unconcealment in pursuit of truth. In Heidegger’s words, “Everything depends on our manipulating technology in the proper manner as a means. We will, as we say, “Get” technology “spiritually in hand”. We will master it. The will to mastery becomes all the more urgent the more technology threatens to slip from human control.” (Heidegger, 1977, p. 6).

Philosophy of technology is a relatively recent addition to philosophy. It was not until the late 1970s that a few philosophers started to consider technology as a potential topic in philosophical reflections. In 1979, Mario Bunge even complained that “[philosophy of technology] is an underdeveloped branch of scholarship… So far no major philosopher has made his central concern or written an important monograph on it” (Bunge, 1979, p.68). However, in the past three decades, rapid developments have embedded technology into human society and even human bodies (e.g. biomedical engineering). Philosophers have thus felt obligated to think about the ways technology fundamentally alters living conditions and what it means to be human. Such a challenge has given rise to the philosophy of technology. Nevertheless, gaps still remain in the philosophy of technology. On one hand, technological advancement requires intellectual resources to guide its trajectory wisely. On the other, philosophy of technology has not completely been established as an institutionalized field. Contemporary philosophy of technology is attempting to bridge this gap. Since “no major reference work on the philosophy of technology is in existence,” this Companion to the Philosophy of Technology (hereafter simply Companion) edited by Jan Kyrre Berg Olsen, Stig Andur Pedersen, and Vincent F. Hendricks, is the most up-to-date attempt to synthesize all sorts of historical and contemporary efforts and to point toward further research (p.1).

AKSUJA: Akwa Ibom State University Journal of Arts, volume 5, number 1, 2024

There is no doubt that the contemporary society in which we live is one typically noted for technoscientific progress. The level which the contemporary man has reached concerning scientific cum technological developments is quite amazing. Unfortunately, there has been a basic tension between the awareness of the "limit to growth" and the idea of "continuous progress" in science and technology. Behind these great ideas and discoveries is an awful desire to drag humanity to the precipices of nothingness and meaninglessness. Science and technology has gone too excess such that it has moved from pro-man to contra-man. While some scholars attribute this ugly scenario to negligence of moral sense of science and technology by modern man, Heidegger in inquiring into the mood-basis of modern technology however appeals to the Greek understanding of techne which connotes a 'bringing forth' and maintains that technology itself is not good or bad, rather the problem lies with technological thinking which has become the only form of thinking. Using expository, analytical and critical methods of Philosophical research, this work attempts to expose and critically analyse Heidegger's critique of science and technology and its implications for the being of man. The paper agrees with Heidegger that although technological advancements are quintessential for the growth of every society as it helps man to develop and facilitate life, yet many scientific inventions/creations endanger and degrade the being of man. Hence their excesses should be checkmated.