A- The Case of Technology

1) Martin Heidegger, “The Question Concerning Technology”,  The Question Concerning Technology and other Essays, Pantheon, 1972.

William

Is Heidegger over-stating the danger? What would it be like to exist in the standing reserve?

2) Siegfried Giedion, “Springs of Mechanization”, Mechanization Takes Command: a contribution to anonymous history, Oxford University Press, 1948.

William

“Springs of Mechanization” acknowledges the world as a place of constant change, as opposed to the static renewal of a primary condition. Where does Heidegger fit? Is global enframing the reestablishment of a primary condition as the ancients understood it?

If Heidegger is right, is Giedion describing a world succumbed to the danger of enframing? Giedion seems to focus on (usually) milieu dependent discovery/advancement. Without awareness of the implications of our work do we genuinely relegate ourselves to a fatalist position in the standing reserve?