Technology And The Human-Product (02.06.2002)
The present day world is filled with technology in every step of our lives. We wake to the buzzing of a digital alarm clock, turn on the TV or computer, microwave our breakfast, open the automatic garage door, drive to work talking on a cell phone, and sit at the desk on another computer reading emails. While in all of this techno activity, few actually think about what it means to live in such a technologically inclined society. Though as the discipline of philosophy of technology will attest to, considering the nature and implications of modern culture in a technological setting is of grave importance to the nature of humanity itself. Martin Heidegger in his essays "The Thing" and The Question Concerning Technology shows a way of understanding the technological existence which laid the groundwork for much work in the philosophy of technology. Heidegger certainly considered a number of issues which lead up to the general understanding of the essence of technology. He stated that the essence of technology is it’s revealing the world as a resource. In which context this inquiry will concern itself only party with the essence of technology, but primarily with expounding the nature of such a resource as Heidegger states it. An endeavor is to be made in considering the implications of such a situation as well.
So indeed, the essence of technology is nothing technological. It is not a gadget. It is not the PDA with a wireless Internet connection that is carried around at all times and depended on for a connection to the world. It is not the hydroelectric dam producing power for the alarm clock, the microwave, or the computer. The dam that takes a section of river, and of a habitat out of the natural setting, is not the essence of technology. It takes a certain type of pervasive mentality in society as a whole in order to take such things into the realm of existence in a transparent reality. It takes a certain type of understanding, or lack thereof, of a technological existence in which the dam is implemented and the PDA is put in the coat pocket. However, Heidegger points out that this mentality is in itself technological, and thus cannot be the essence of technology. It cannot be the essence of technology if the initial statement that the essence of technology is nothing technological is to hold true.
The essence of technology is the fact that it reveals the world as a resource. Technology reveals the world as a resource in that it presents a challenge in the world, and a challenge is something which, by its very nature to humans, must be taken on and overcome. However, this is not the challenge of a mountain to be scaled by climbers. It is the challenge of a mountain to be logged and mined for resources. It is not the challenge of nature to be painted, or traveled and seen, or experienced and appreciated. It is the challenge of nature to be used, subdued and dominated. So too, the essence of technology is not the view of nature as such a challenge or resource, but rather the fact that technology reveals it as such in the first place.
Furthermore, it is important to examine the character of what this resource is, and what it really means for the world to be revealed thus. When nature becomes a resource, it is not seen in the light of any value except for the value of the resource of nature. The natural world no longer exists as a network of interdependent organisms, but becomes raw material. This is a material that can and must be shaped and molded for the technological purposes of humanity. Though technology, in this view, becomes a resource in itself. The technological way of thinking about the world is in itself a revelation of technology as a resource, or tool, for the domination of other resources. This occurrence is due to the change in ability. At one point in history, tasks could not be accomplished because of limited ability. The present-day machine can accomplish almost any physical challenge on this planet. Because this ability has become a reality, it is not a matter of whether the mountain can be mined or logged, but has become a matter of legality. The matter of ethics and morality rarely even enters into this debate in the actual circumstances. In countries such as Mexico, where environmental laws do not exist, Conoco and Exxon, among others, come in and clear cut very large areas of native forests to build great plantations of eucalyptus trees for the production of paper and other uses. In doing so, the soil is completely depleted of any nutrients within a period of thirty years, at which point the companies take down the plantation, leaving the land barren. They do it because they can, and ethics and morality have no significance.
Humans ultimately become a resource in this progression, too. The techno economy produces educated human-product. The education factories, i.e. Rocky Mountain College and Montana State University, churn out a good number of human-product each year. This human-product advertises a resume-label to businesses and is then bought at small cost for many years of use. That is the higher quality of human-product for the techno economy. However, a good portion of the economy, in order to sustain community, identity, and stability, does not require high quality human-product. Average quality human-product fuels the techno economy in mass consumption and production. Every activity uses some form of technology. Even in times of leisure and recreational activities it is necessary to purchase expensive equipment. Skiing, for instance, requires several hundred dollars of equipment. Then one must pay for the use of the slope, and if lunch has been forgotten, a hefty sum of money must be paid for food at the lodge. The character of the skiing business can be easily summed up in a recent computer game released under the title of Ski Resort Tycoon, a game of making money by building your ski resort. Given all of these factors, modern culture seems not so different from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.
Nevertheless, even if all of the preceding points are agreeable, a question of their significance still remains. The implication of a continued existence in which technology is the revealer of the world and of being in the world must needs be addressed. Verily the fact that technology is the revealer of such things is a threat to the very essence of humanity. Before the advent of technology, humans have been the revealers of the world and of being in the world and, to a large degree, still are. However, the essence of technology is a threat to the essence of humanity. This means that humanity may loose its essence to technology. If this were to happen, humans would become the servants of technology—slaves to technology with an inability of even imagining a world without it. Such a servitude to technology may invariably result in an inability to understand the world without technology revealing it.
This is not to say that technology must be subdued and dominated and be made the servant of humanity. For that is precisely what is occurring in present society. Such a perspective of technology is in itself technological, as mentioned before. The answer to the question of technology, and what must be done with it, is not to be found here. In fact, it may not have been answered by anyone to date in a satisfactory manner. However, it can be said that technology must first be realized for what it is. It is a revealer. It is also indubitably something good in a number of circumstances. The technology of modern culture has its place, and it is the general consensus that technology cannot be eliminated from society. The devices that are used today, as discussed earlier, are not the problem. In fact, there is not one problem that can be identified, as the issue is composed of so many factors that they cannot all be examined. However, they all must relate to the essence of technology as discusses here and by Martin Heidegger.
Works Cited
Heidegger, Martin. “The Thing.” Poetry, Language, Thought. Trans. Albert Hofstadter. New York: Perennial, 1971.
Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology. Trans. William Lovitt. New York: Harper, 1969.
