From Newton’s apple to the Large Hadron Collider, Technology promises progress —
but is the world getting better because of it? Or worse?
For German philosopher Martin Heidegger, in order to understand the value of technology,
we fist need to understand what modern technology is.
For Heidegger, “the essence of technology is by no means anything technological.”
If that made no sense to you, stay with me.
You see, hammers, computers, and blasters are all tools that we would consider technological,
but the essence of technology doesn’t exist in physical objects.
Tools are simply means for completing a particular task.
Heidegger argues that the essence of technology lies in a particular type of thinking.
Modern technology is distinct from the technology of the ancient Greeks.
They considered technology, or Techne, as a way of revealing the potential of the world — as an art or a craft.
It is a way of revealing what is concealed, of seeing a beautiful vase in a lump of clay.
Modern technology focuses purely on utility of an object — it manipulates the environment
for the greatest potential output — the poetry, art, and beauty of the world is unimportant.
The name for this type of thinking is "Enframing." Enframing is a particular way of viewing the world.
To enframe the world is to consider the various elements of nature — rocks, animals, and trees —
as merely a potential resource and nothing more.
Modern technology asserts the perspective that the world is important only in as much as it has value for humanity.
Everything that exists is potentially exploitable in order to make life easier and more manageable.
The beauty, wonder, grandeur of the planet is reduced to utility.
Green pastures are converted to space for factory farms, majestic mountains are mined for uranium,
and chia seeds are grown for… whatever it is that chia seeds are good for.
Technological thinking finds its expression in the desire for efficiency —
for the quickest and easiest solution to all of life’s idiosyncratic problems.
Heidegger doesn’t have beef with robots and flying cars — technology isn’t the problem —
it’s the thinking that drives technology that is dangerous.
The will to efficiency, to calculation, the constant frenetic energy of keeping busy with life is the real danger.
It’s the kind of thinking that has led us to a world of atom bombs and nuclear waste.
With all of our needs satisfied, we risk forgetting to ask important philosophical questions.
There is no need to think, to question, to create art. And a world without wonder is no world at all.
So Dear Viewer, would you give up your iPad for a serene sunrise?