Men det är precis vad som erbjuds på Thothica Waterfall Garden i form av ännu en episod i THE EXISTENTIALIST PROJECT ikväll 20:00.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Clemson%20University%20Dev/242/181/25
De tar sig själva mycket seriöst. detta notecard medföljer inbjudan:
What mindset are we entering in our use and development of technologies?
Heidegger suggests that the ‘essence’ of technology cannot be found in any one example of technology, to understand such a thing we would need to find what is present in every example of technology and not what is a generalisation. This must be rigorously sought for, as it would be easy to mistake an essence. For example, the thought occurs that the essence of grass has the quality of being green, however, grass which is yellowed from drying out does not cease to be grass because it no longer green. Therefore the essence of grass does contain ‘being green’ because not all examples of grass are green.
Heidegger avoids this confusion by not assessing all kinds of technology, but looking at the methodology of making technologies. He describes technology as having an instrumental and anthropological definition; it is first a means to an end; it is second human activity.
To reconcile these two he gives the example of a craftsman making a chalice out of silver. The end here is to bring about the creation of a chalice, in order to achieve this the silversmith needs to master the resources of both the material, silver, and the design of the chalice, into his finished article – the newly made chalice. Inherent to achieving his end of creating a chalice is a will of mastery over the circumstance (the material silver being an aspect of this).
It is crucial for Heidegger’s point to highlight here that in engaging in making technology a person engages in a will of mastery over circumstance.
He backs this up by returning to an ancestral word of technology, the greek ‘techne’; which means that which does not show itself initially, but can be shown by human manipulation of the circumstance in a certain way.
So far this is obvious to the nature of technology and no danger in it has yet been explained. It is at this point Heidegger makes a distinction between technology and modern technology. Technology such as a windmill harnesses naturally occurring movement to apply it to an end (grinding wheat) WITHOUT impoverishing the naturally occurring movement; a windmill does not interfere with there being wind.
In contrast, what he terms ‘modern’ technology dispenses with the natural state of things wherever this is demanded by the desire to reach that end. He examples quarries, which gouge huge trenches out of the landscape, sacrificing the natural order in achieving of acquiring those minerals. I too would add the example of a landfill, which sacrifices land and ecosystem for the end of waste disposal.
But what is the problem here? Wouldn’t we very clever humans spot a destructive practice in achieving an end and stop it? Couldn’t we stop using non-renewable methods at any time?
The answer is yes, of course we could, but it still remains as to whether we would.
Now it is not that we humans are destructive or selfish or irresponsible by nature, it is a much more subtle aspect – according to Heidegger it is the human quality of being impressionable that is the root and problem. Each thinker, each practitioner only responds to what is addressed to them. Therefore, in a culture vastly permeated by means which sacrifice natural order and flow in order to achieve an end will be an ideological feature that is addressed to every person within that culture; it becomes ‘the way of things’. This suggests that by and large humans carry on working with whatever is already established and it would take an incredibly strong influence to prevent this dynamic.
Here we have our danger and our warning from Heidegger. In the sense that ‘techne’ as the dominant way to view the world, that is a focus not upon natural order but upon what can be taken from it by human manipulation; In the sense that ends are sought even to the destruction of the natural order and in the sense that the products and methods of modern technology is everywhere and humans innately continue the established way of things.
What it means is that humanity is engulfed in a paradigm of destroying the natural state to reach an intended aim.
And whilst that attitude is definitely present in modern technology in our prodigious reliance on oil, our heavy fishing of the oceans, our endless distribution of multimedia technologies using un-recycled components. But the attitude is not limited to technology.
It is way of looking at things, a way of questioning and a mindset.
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