modern technology

is responsible for the shrinking of all distances in time and space, but this does not make things nearer, for a small separation is not yet nearness, and a large separation is not yet distance.

The lecture begins on a gripping contemporary note. According to Heidegger, all distances in time and space are shrinking. The new forms of modern technology destroy all former distances and make everything in the world available in an instant. But this does not give us true nearness to things. A small separation is not yet nearness, and a large separation is not yet distance.

is problematic in that its for-the-sake-of-which is without an endpoint. There is no purpose; everything feeds on itself, moving in an endless vicious circle. Technology exists for the sake of technology, feeding endlessly on itself. The earth is now plundered for its coal, ore, crude oil, and fish.

Unlike a jug, minerals lying in the ground do not need to be produced by humans. Even so, they are ordered and arranged by humans for the purpose of generating heat. A hydroelectric plant is placed in a stream, and its turbines are spun by water pressure; this motion is converted into electrical current, which is then extended across a large-scale power grid. None of these things comes to presence unless this has already been ordered or arranged for some purpose. But where does this system of purposes come to an end? In Being and Time, the system of tools ended in Dasein’s “for-the-sake-of-which,” meaning that all tools gained their meaning from Dasein’s own being. In modern technology, however, the chain never comes to an end. There is no purpose; everything feeds on itself, moving in an endless vicious circle. Technology exists for the sake of technology, feeding endlessly on itself. The earth is now plundered for its coal, ore, crude oil, and fish.

is problematic in that it pushes towards the greatest possible perfection; a perfection based on the thoroughgoing calculability of objects.

Modern technology pushes towards the greatest possible perfection. Perfection is based on the thoroughgoing calculability of objects. The calculability of objects presupposes the unqualified validity of the principium rationis [the principle of reason]. It is in this way that the authority of the principle of reason, so understood, determines the essence of the modern, technological age.

is not a problem per se. The problem is the mode of world which modern technology projects; namely, one of violence.

Despite appearances, this is not an attack on technology per se. The ancient and the medieval world knew technology. As Julian Young puts it: ‘Rivers, for instance, those majestic, living, semi-divinities that helped measure out the different places of human dwelling, might be bridged. Yet the ancient wooden bridge unlike the hydro-electric dam typical of modernity did not change the essential course or nature of the river’ (Young 1997: 175). The issue is the mode of world which modern technology projects. In modern cities, surrounded on every side by mechanism and regimented space, Heidegger often felt physically sick, responding to the environment as a kind of violence.

modern technology, n.All

modern technology