Technology and Social Change
Notes by Jurian Traas
FW-WB3931
2022 – 2023
,Lecture I – Philosophy of technology........................................................................................................................3
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................3
Ellul – Technology and human freedom...............................................................................................................3
Jonas – Formal and material approaches............................................................................................................5
Lecture II – The Social Shaping of Technology..........................................................................................................6
Tiles & Oberdiek – Conflicting Visions of technology...........................................................................................6
MacKenzie & Wajcman – The Social Shaping of Technology...............................................................................8
Lecture 3: The System of Social Acceleration...........................................................................................................8
Rosa – Technical acceleration..............................................................................................................................8
Lecture 4: Heidegger and the Enframing................................................................................................................10
Heidegger - The Question Concerning Technology............................................................................................12
Lecture 5: Media, Play & Identity............................................................................................................................13
Huizinga & Frissen – Play and identity...............................................................................................................13
Ricoeur – Narrative identity...............................................................................................................................14
Lecture 6: Getting into the (algo)rithm...................................................................................................................15
Gillespie – Public relevance algorithms..............................................................................................................16
Lecture 7: Artificial Intelligence...............................................................................................................................17
Husserl & Dennett – Philosophy of mind............................................................................................................17
Lecture 8: Human Enhancement.............................................................................................................................18
Cuboniks – Xenofeminism..................................................................................................................................18
More – Transhumanism & extropy....................................................................................................................19
2
, Lecture I – Philosophy of technology
Introduction
In the age of artificial intelligence we get used to the idea that technology could evolve into
something that operates entirely on its own. Moreover, we are often warned that this
technology in the end would no longer need humans at all. Think also of Nietzsche’s idea in
Also Sprach Zarathustra of ‘the generation of the last men’, which in part implies that a new
kind of man might somehow appear on the horizon and that we in a sort of transgression or
trans-humanity may evolve into that new species. The last man would then be the tightrope-
walker balancing his animal past and godlike potentiality. To Zarathustra, the key challenge is
to overcome man (thus übermensch or overman), man being the apelike beast which is really
a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. Note that this is written just around the time
when the Darwinian paradigm started emerging from evolution from apes. The idea that we
descended from apes as opposed to gods had made people think of themselves as low beings,
which attitude itself makes man approach ape than any ape (an ape does not even know that
they are an ape, and will thus not lower himself like this).
This coming into being of man, as that being which touches upon godlike potentiality, we can
refer to as anthropogenesis. In a way, this birth of man comes in the moment where
technology, or knowledge, comes into being, thereby making anthropogenesis also
technogenesis. We can also regard the interaction between these ideas as the ongoing process
of the development of man. Paleoanthropologists identify homo habilis (“handy man”) as one
of the first species of man. Together with the usage of tools, there immediately becomes a
division of power and thereby resources in the animal world between those with the tools and
those without. Thus technology already becomes a source of conflict; a source of social
change.
Because technogenesis is anthropogenesis, reflection on technology is reflection on yourself,
as we evolve with our technology. Knowing yourself then comes to mean “what does this
technology make me?”. Think here also of the film Metropolis, where the workers have to
constantly speed up to cope with the speed of the machine. While this technology has become
so important to enslave human beings, human beings remain important enough to be a
necessary support for the machine.
Mumford says that we are not mere tool users or makers, but have long since developed the
megamachine. The megamachine can be seen as a system of collectivity, a social
(hierarchical) organization. This hierarchical organization is the sum of an absolute monarch
(making the message), priesthood (sending out the message), the armed nobility (enforcing
the message), the bureaucracy and finally the laborers themselves. In such a machine we
could generate great amounts of horsepower (think of Egyptian pyramids). This then
questions the instrumental conception of technology as something in the hands of man, when
we realize that this overarching machinery really enslaves man (technology is symbols, rather
than tools). This is connected to a more fundamental question in philosophy concerning our
existential situationality, meaning the way we are always somehow related to all beings
surrounding us. To what extent is this existential situationality entangled in technology,
when we realize our role within the megamachine?
Ellul – Technology and human freedom
Turning to Ellul, we can preface by saying a dominant theme in his work is that he warns of
technology as a threat endangering human freedom. Yet, he prefaces his work by introducing
the way we should approach a philosophy of technology methodologically. He warns us that
3
Notes by Jurian Traas
FW-WB3931
2022 – 2023
,Lecture I – Philosophy of technology........................................................................................................................3
Introduction..........................................................................................................................................................3
Ellul – Technology and human freedom...............................................................................................................3
Jonas – Formal and material approaches............................................................................................................5
Lecture II – The Social Shaping of Technology..........................................................................................................6
Tiles & Oberdiek – Conflicting Visions of technology...........................................................................................6
MacKenzie & Wajcman – The Social Shaping of Technology...............................................................................8
Lecture 3: The System of Social Acceleration...........................................................................................................8
Rosa – Technical acceleration..............................................................................................................................8
Lecture 4: Heidegger and the Enframing................................................................................................................10
Heidegger - The Question Concerning Technology............................................................................................12
Lecture 5: Media, Play & Identity............................................................................................................................13
Huizinga & Frissen – Play and identity...............................................................................................................13
Ricoeur – Narrative identity...............................................................................................................................14
Lecture 6: Getting into the (algo)rithm...................................................................................................................15
Gillespie – Public relevance algorithms..............................................................................................................16
Lecture 7: Artificial Intelligence...............................................................................................................................17
Husserl & Dennett – Philosophy of mind............................................................................................................17
Lecture 8: Human Enhancement.............................................................................................................................18
Cuboniks – Xenofeminism..................................................................................................................................18
More – Transhumanism & extropy....................................................................................................................19
2
, Lecture I – Philosophy of technology
Introduction
In the age of artificial intelligence we get used to the idea that technology could evolve into
something that operates entirely on its own. Moreover, we are often warned that this
technology in the end would no longer need humans at all. Think also of Nietzsche’s idea in
Also Sprach Zarathustra of ‘the generation of the last men’, which in part implies that a new
kind of man might somehow appear on the horizon and that we in a sort of transgression or
trans-humanity may evolve into that new species. The last man would then be the tightrope-
walker balancing his animal past and godlike potentiality. To Zarathustra, the key challenge is
to overcome man (thus übermensch or overman), man being the apelike beast which is really
a laughingstock or a painful embarrassment. Note that this is written just around the time
when the Darwinian paradigm started emerging from evolution from apes. The idea that we
descended from apes as opposed to gods had made people think of themselves as low beings,
which attitude itself makes man approach ape than any ape (an ape does not even know that
they are an ape, and will thus not lower himself like this).
This coming into being of man, as that being which touches upon godlike potentiality, we can
refer to as anthropogenesis. In a way, this birth of man comes in the moment where
technology, or knowledge, comes into being, thereby making anthropogenesis also
technogenesis. We can also regard the interaction between these ideas as the ongoing process
of the development of man. Paleoanthropologists identify homo habilis (“handy man”) as one
of the first species of man. Together with the usage of tools, there immediately becomes a
division of power and thereby resources in the animal world between those with the tools and
those without. Thus technology already becomes a source of conflict; a source of social
change.
Because technogenesis is anthropogenesis, reflection on technology is reflection on yourself,
as we evolve with our technology. Knowing yourself then comes to mean “what does this
technology make me?”. Think here also of the film Metropolis, where the workers have to
constantly speed up to cope with the speed of the machine. While this technology has become
so important to enslave human beings, human beings remain important enough to be a
necessary support for the machine.
Mumford says that we are not mere tool users or makers, but have long since developed the
megamachine. The megamachine can be seen as a system of collectivity, a social
(hierarchical) organization. This hierarchical organization is the sum of an absolute monarch
(making the message), priesthood (sending out the message), the armed nobility (enforcing
the message), the bureaucracy and finally the laborers themselves. In such a machine we
could generate great amounts of horsepower (think of Egyptian pyramids). This then
questions the instrumental conception of technology as something in the hands of man, when
we realize that this overarching machinery really enslaves man (technology is symbols, rather
than tools). This is connected to a more fundamental question in philosophy concerning our
existential situationality, meaning the way we are always somehow related to all beings
surrounding us. To what extent is this existential situationality entangled in technology,
when we realize our role within the megamachine?
Ellul – Technology and human freedom
Turning to Ellul, we can preface by saying a dominant theme in his work is that he warns of
technology as a threat endangering human freedom. Yet, he prefaces his work by introducing
the way we should approach a philosophy of technology methodologically. He warns us that
3
