Genesis of the technical:
from craft to system

Philosophical understanding of technology began not with the advent of the steam engine, but from the moment when humans first questioned the limits of their intervention in the natural order. Ancient thought drew a clear demarcation line between physis (that which arises spontaneously) and techné (that which is created by art or craft). Aristotle pointed out that technical objects have no inherent principle of movement or change; their cause lies in the external will of the craftsman.

The ancient Greek understanding of techné was broader than the modern term "technology." It encompassed art, craft, and cunning. Prometheus, in stealing fire, committed an act of technological rebellion, breaking the gods’ monopoly. This act established the archetype of technology as a tool of emancipation, accompanied by inevitable punishment.

In the Middle Ages, attitudes toward mechanisms changed. Monastic clocks became the first example of regulating life through the rhythm of a machine. Time ceased to be cyclical and natural; it became a measurable resource. Lewis Mumford called the mechanical clock the primary instrument of the Industrial Revolution, even more significant than the steam engine. Clocks synchronized people’s actions, creating a prototype of the future assembly line.

The Renaissance brought the idea of mastery over nature. Francis Bacon proclaimed knowledge to be power, and the goal of science to be the expansion of human control over the universe. Technology ceased to be simply a set of tools for survival. It became a method of interrogating nature, a way to force it to reveal its secrets.

Organoprojection: a tool as an extension of the body

In the 19th century, the German philosopher Ernst Kapp proposed the concept of organoprojection. In his work "Fundamental Features of the Philosophy of Technology," he argued that all technical means are extensions of human organs. A hammer is a reinforced fist. Clothing is artificial leather. A railroad is an external circulatory system through which goods and people circulate. The telegraph is an externalized nervous system.

According to Kapp, humans unconsciously transfer the principles of their own body’s functioning to the mechanisms they create. A steam engine breathes, consumes fuel, and releases energy, just like a living being. Technology becomes a mirror in which humans recognize their own physiology, but in a scaled-up and amplified form.

This theory explained the anthropomorphic nature of early machines. However, with the development of electricity and cybernetics, the direct analogy with organs became less obvious. Computer networks are difficult to relate to a specific organ, although the "brain" metaphor is often used. Modern systems mimic cognitive processes rather than physical anatomy.

The Machine and the Alienation of Labor

The Industrial Revolution radically changed the status of the worker. Karl Marx analyzed this shift in detail. In artisanal production, the craftsman controlled the instrument. The violin obeyed the movements of the bow in the musician’s hands. In machine production, the situation was reversed. The worker became an appendage of the machine, serving its rhythm and needs.

The machine dictates the pace. It knows no fatigue. Labor has become abstract, devoid of individual creativity. Humans have become alienated from the product of their labor. A worker on an assembly line doesn’t create a complete object; they perform a monotonous operation, the meaning of which is only apparent on the scale of the entire factory.

Marx saw technology as a potential liberator. If society were properly organized, machines would take over the heavy labor, leaving humans time for creativity. However, within the framework of capitalist logic, technology often became a tool for increasing exploitation and control.

Heidegger and the Essence of Technology

In the 20th century, Martin Heidegger offered one of the most profound analyses of technical reality. In "The Question Concerning Technology," he distinguished between technology as a means and the essence of technology. The essence of technology, according to Heidegger, is not something technical at all. It is a special way of revealing being, which he called Gestell (Gestell).

The postulate is a mindset of perceiving the world as a Bestand (a resource-in-hand). For modern technology, a forest is not a temple or an ecosystem, but cubic meters of timber. The Rhine River is not part of a landscape lauded by poets, but a supplier of hydroelectric power. Even humans, in this perspective, are transformed into a "human resource" to be accounted for and optimized.

Heidegger warned of the danger of such a view. When everything becomes a resource, the mystery of existence disappears. The world becomes flat, completely calculable. Technical thinking displaces other ways of relating to reality — poetic, religious, contemplative. The danger lies not in the machines, but in the fact that technical thinking becomes the only possible one.

The ancient mill didn’t force the river, but rather adapted to its flow. A hydroelectric power plant, on the other hand, dams the river, forcing it to work as it’s commanded. This is the fundamental difference between traditional and modern technology. Modern technology challenges nature, demanding energy and materials from it.

Autonomy of the technical environment

The French sociologist and philosopher Jacques Ellul developed the idea of the autonomy of technology. In his work "Technological Society," he argued that technology has escaped human control. It develops according to its own internal logic, aimed at maximizing efficiency.

Ellul used the term "technology" broadly. It encompassed not only machines but also any methods of rational organization: bureaucracy, pedagogy, propaganda, sports. Any field where spontaneity is replaced by a proven method becomes technical.

The principle of efficiency becomes an absolute imperative. If something can be done more efficiently, it will be done, regardless of the ethical or social consequences. Technological progress is irreversible. It is impossible to abandon an invention if it offers an advantage in strength or speed.

In Ellul’s system, a person finds themselves in the position of a magician who has summoned spirits they cannot control. The system requires constant expansion and complexity. Problems created by technology are solved only by even more complex technology.

One-dimensional man and technological rationality

Herbert Marcuse, a representative of the Frankfurt School, criticized technocratic society for creating the illusion of freedom. In his book "One-Dimensional Man," he showed how technology integrates opposition and suppresses critical thinking.

Consumption becomes a form of control. The technological apparatus provides comfort and abundance, in exchange for demanding complete submission to its rules. Humanity becomes "one-dimensional," unable to imagine an alternative to the existing order. Technological rationality replaces political debate.

Questions about the goals of social development are being replaced by questions about the effectiveness of means. Instead of "why are we doing this?", the discussion shifts to "how can we do it faster?" Technology creates false needs, the satisfaction of which binds individuals to the system of production and consumption.

Megamachine and power

Lewis Mumford coined the term "Megamachine." It’s a social structure in which people function as parts of a single mechanism. The first Megamachines were the armies and labor forces of ancient despotisms that built the pyramids. The modern state, with its bureaucracy and army, is the heir to those structures.

Mumford distinguished between polytechnics and monotechnics. Polytechnics is based on human needs, diversity of skills, and harmony with life. Monotechnics strives for power, gigantism, and unification. The atomic bomb and the space rocket are the pinnacle of monotechnics. They require a colossal concentration of resources and a rigid management hierarchy.

Democratic technology is a bicycle or a solar panel on a roof. Authoritarian technology is a nuclear power plant, requiring militarized security and centralized control. The choice of technology is always a choice of political system.

Technical objects as individuals

Gilbert Simondon offered a different perspective on machines. He critiqued the opposition between culture and technology. For Simondon, a technical object is not simply a tool, but an entity undergoing a process of "concretization."

Early machines are abstract. Their parts often conflict with each other. In an internal combustion engine, the cooling system combats the heat generated by the combustion system. As the machine evolves (becomes more concrete), it becomes more integrated. The engine casing begins to serve as a cooling radiator. Functions are combined.

The machine is approaching organic integrity. Simondon called for "technical humanism." Humans must become neither master nor slave of machines, but conductors of a technical ensemble. Understanding the internal logic of machines is necessary for their integration into culture. Alienation arises from technological illiteracy and the perception of machines as alien "black boxes."

Postphenomenology: Technique and Perception

Don Idee, the founder of postphenomenology, explored how tools mediate our experience of the world. He identified several types of human-technology-world relationships.

• Embodied relationships. Technology becomes part of our bodies. Glasses on our nose, a blind man’s cane, a toothbrush. We don’t look at the glasses, we look through them. The instrument becomes transparent.
• Hermeneutic relationships. We read information from a device. A thermometer displays temperature. We don’t feel the heat through it; we interpret the readings. Technology becomes a text that demands to be read.
• Relationships of otherness. Technology acts as the "other." The ATM we interact with, or the robot dog. We treat the device as a quasi-subject.
• Background relationships. Technology creates the environment. The air conditioner, the lighting, the noise of the city. We don’t notice them until they break, but they shape the context of our existence.

Aidi demonstrated that technology is not neutral. It transforms perception. The telescope doesn’t simply bring the Moon closer; it changes our understanding of celestial bodies, transforming them from divine entities into geographic objects.

Dromology: The Logic of Speed

Paul Virilio focused on speed as the primary factor in modern history. His discipline is dromology (the study of running). Virilio argued that the essence of modern warfare and politics is acceleration.

The fastest wins. But speed has a limit — the speed of light. Instantaneous information transfer destroys space. Geography loses its meaning. Events happen everywhere simultaneously. This creates a state of global panic and the need for an immediate response.

Every technology invents its own specific catastrophe. The invention of the ship is the invention of the shipwreck. The invention of the train is the invention of the derailment. The invention of electricity is the invention of the blackout. Global networks create the possibility of a global systemic failure. Virilio called this an "integral accident." The more powerful the technology, the greater the potential catastrophe.

Epiphylogenesis and memory

Bernard Stiegler developed the idea that technology is memory externalized. He used the term "epiphylogenesis" — evolution through external tools, not through genetic modifications. Humans are creatures devoid of essence, forced to constantly reinvent themselves through prostheses (tools, language, writing).

Technology is "tertiary retention" (memory). It preserves the experience of generations. A library, a phonograph record, a digital archive — all these are forms of preserved time. But transferring memory to machines is dangerous. We lose skills by trusting their devices. A calculator weans us from mental arithmetic. A GPS navigator atrophies our sense of direction. Stiegler called this the "proletarianization" of knowledge.

The political nature of artifacts

In his famous article, Langdon Winner posed the question, "Do Artifacts Have Politics?" He cited the example of the low bridges built by Robert Moses in New York City. These bridges were designed to prevent buses from passing underneath them, cutting off the poor and racial minorities who relied on public transportation from the beaches of Long Island.

Concrete and steel became instruments of segregation. This technical solution entrenched social discrimination for decades. This example demonstrates how engineers and designers incorporate the values and prejudices of their time into their creations. Technical objects are a frozen ideology.

Search engine algorithms and neural networks are also not neutral. They are trained on datasets containing historical biases. An automated credit rating system can discriminate against people based on their postal code, reproducing social inequality under the guise of objective mathematics.

Hybrid networks and actor-network theory

Bruno Latour and the followers of actor-network theory (ANT) proposed abandoning the distinction between "subjects" (people) and "objects" (things). In their ontology, actors (or actants) operate. A door closer is an actor that functions as a doorman. A speed bump is an actor that forces drivers to slow down more effectively than a road sign.

Society isn’t just made up of people. It’s held together by things. Without walls, computers, telephones, and documents, social bonds would disintegrate. Parliament isn’t just a gathering of people; it’s a collection of microphones, protocols, and the architecture of the chamber. Things are delegated powers, and they actively participate in maintaining social order.

Latour calls for an exploration of the "parliament of things." We must consider the interests and actions of non-human agents when analyzing political and environmental processes. The ozone layer, viruses, and microchips are full-fledged participants in history.

Virtuality and Simulacrum

Jean Baudrillard described the postmodern state as a realm of simulacra. A simulacrum is a copy without an original. A map precedes the territory. In the age of digital media, reality is replaced by signs of reality.

According to Baudrillard, the Gulf War "did not happen" because for most viewers, it was merely a collection of television images and computer graphics. Media create a hyperreality that is more convincing and richer than everyday life.

Disneyland exists to conceal the fact that all of America has become Disneyland. The artificial environment is becoming total. Digital technologies amplify this effect, creating worlds in which the laws of physics are suspended and identity becomes fluid.

Information ontology

With the advent of the digital era, information came to be viewed as a fundamental category of existence, alongside matter and energy. Norbert Wiener, the father of cybernetics, asserted: "Information is information, not matter or energy."

John Wheeler’s concept of "it from bit" has emerged in physics. The universe can be viewed as a giant quantum computer processing information. This changes human understanding. Humans become information patterns.

If personality is information, then transferring consciousness to another medium is theoretically possible. This idea underlies transhumanism. The body is perceived as obsolete hardware (wetware) requiring upgrades or replacement.

Transhumanism and the Ethics of Enhancement

The philosophy of technology today inevitably encounters questions of biotechnology. Technology is penetrating the body. Pacemakers, cochlear implants, and neural interfaces are blurring the line between the born and the created.

Transhumanists see this as an opportunity to overcome biological limitations: aging, disease, cognitive limitations. Critics (such as Francis Fukuyama) warn of a threat to "human nature." If we start editing our genomes and implanting chips, will we still be human?

The problem of inequality arises. If improved intelligence or physical strength becomes a paid commodity, humanity could split into biological castes. The "rich" would literally become a different, more advanced species.

Algorithmic government

In the modern world, power is exercised through algorithms for collecting and analyzing data. Michel Foucault spoke of biopolitics — the management of populations. Today, we are witnessing algorithmic governmentality.

Every online action leaves a digital trace. Big data makes it possible to predict human behavior with high accuracy. Targeted advertising, recommendation services, and social rating systems gently guide individual choices.

Power becomes invisible. It doesn’t prohibit, but rather proposes. It manipulates the context of choice. Shoshana Zuboff calls this "surveillance capitalism." Human experience becomes raw material for the extraction of behavioral surplus.

Ecology of technology

Technological expansion has led to an ecological crisis. The concept of the Anthropocene posits that human activity has become a geological force changing the face of the planet. The technosphere has come into conflict with the biosphere.

Philosophers seek ways to reconcile. Eco-modernism proposes using ever more advanced technologies to solve environmental problems (nuclear energy, geoengineering). Deep ecology calls for limiting technological intervention and returning to more modest forms of life.

The idea of biomimicry arises — the creation of technologies that imitate natural processes. Closed production cycles, zero-waste technologies, self-healing materials. Technology should not conquer nature, but integrate into its metabolism.

Technology as an art of existence

The late Michel Foucault turned to the idea of "techniques of the self." These are practices through which an individual transforms their inner world. In antiquity, philosophy was a way of life, a set of spiritual exercises.

Modern technology can be both a hindrance and a help in this work. A smartphone can be a distraction, or it can serve as a tool for self-control and learning. The issue isn’t about giving up gadgets, but rather developing a mindset around their use.

Peter Sloterdijk views humans as beings who constantly create "spheres" for themselves — immune systems that protect them from the chaos of the outside world. A home, a city, an information bubble — all are technical shells. The task of philosophy is to understand how these shells function and how to make them habitable.

The moral status of artificial intelligence

The development of autonomous agents raises new ethical questions. Who is responsible for the actions of a self-driving car? The programmer, the owner, or the algorithm itself?

If AI achieves self-awareness, will it have rights? Can a machine suffer? These questions are no longer science fiction. The philosophy of consciousness is intertwined with engineering ethics.

Nick Bostrom examines the problem of "control." How can we ensure that superintelligent AI will act in humanity’s best interests? A goal-setting error could have catastrophic consequences. A machine programmed to "cure cancer" might decide to eliminate all cancer carriers — humans.

Techno-animism and new ontologies

In light of ubiquitous "smart" things, ideas of animism are being revived. The world is once again filled with active entities. The refrigerator orders food, the car chooses a route, the house regulates the climate. We live surrounded by sociable objects.

The Japanese tradition, rooted in Shintoism, more readily accepts the idea of the sentience of things. Aibo robot dogs receive a Buddhist funeral. The Western tradition, accustomed to the subject-object dichotomy, has difficulty integrating the agency of things.

The philosophy of object-oriented ontology (Graham Harman) asserts that objects exist independently of human perception. The interaction between a cup and a table is as real as the interaction between a person and a cup. This theory decentralizes humans, placing them within a democracy of objects.

The fragility of complex systems

The more complex a technical system, the more vulnerable it is. The butterfly effect in global networks can lead to cascading outages. Dependence on electricity and communications makes civilization extremely vulnerable to solar flares or cyberattacks.

Joseph Tainter, studying the collapse of complex societies, noted that increasing complexity has diminishing returns. Maintaining infrastructure consumes ever more energy until the system becomes economically unviable. Technological simplification can become a necessary survival strategy.

The low-tech and DIY movements are a reaction to the closed nature and lack of repairability of industrial products. The right to repair is becoming a political demand. A return to understandable, repairable technologies is seen as a way to regain control over the material world.

Visualizing the Invisible

Technology allows us to see what is invisible to the naked eye. The microscope revealed the world of bacteria, the telescope — galaxies. Tomography makes the human body transparent.

However, these tools don’t simply display reality; they construct images of it. An MRI scan isn’t a photograph, but the result of complex mathematical signal processing. We trust machines to visualize the truth.

Scientific objectivity today is "mechanical objectivity." Data is considered reliable if the human factor in its acquisition is minimized. But the interpretation of this data still remains the prerogative of humans.

Machine aesthetics

Early 20th-century Futurists (Marinetti and others) extolled the beauty of the racing car, deeming it superior to the Nike of Samothrace . The aesthetics of the technical object evolved from ornamentation (cast iron with monograms) to strict functionalism (Bauhaus) and the modern minimalism of constructivism .

Interface design today is a distinct philosophical discipline. How do you make the complex simple? How do you organize human-machine interaction intuitively? The beauty of code and the elegance of engineering are becoming the new benchmarks of beauty.

Cyberpunk as an art genre explores the aesthetics of decay, the fusion of high technology and low life. It is a grim warning about a possible future where technology doesn’t solve social problems, but exacerbates them.

Time and Temporality in the Digital Age

Digital technologies are changing our perception of time. We live in a "real-time" environment that demands constant presence. The distinction between work and leisure time is disappearing. Smartphones make us accessible 24/7.

Douglas Rushkoff talks about "present shock" — a state where everything happens "now." History and future are flattened into a single, endless present. The news feed is endless and has no narrative, only a stream of discrete events.

This leads to fragmentation of attention. The ability to sustain the kind of concentration required for reading books (linear text) is reduced. Thinking becomes clip-based, hypertext-based. We jump from link to link, skimming the surface of information.

Technology and the sacred

German theologian and philosopher Paul Tillich noted that technology desacralizes the world, but at the same time acquires quasi-religious characteristics. Faith in Progress is a secular religion. The anticipation of the Singularity (the moment when AI surpasses humans) resembles eschatological expectations of the coming of the Messiah.

A unique techno-religion is emerging in Silicon Valley, promising immortality (through mind uploading) and heaven (virtual reality). Technological miracles are replacing biblical ones.

On the other hand, technology is reintroducing magical thinking. For the average person, the operation of a smartphone is as incomprehensible as magic. Arthur C. Clarke formulated the law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." We perform ritualistic actions (swipes, clicks), expecting a result whose mechanism is unknown to us.

Human-robot interaction (HRI)

The field of Human-Robot Interaction studies the social aspects of interaction with machines. The "Uncanny Valley" effect, discovered by Masahiro Mori, suggests that a robot that is too human-like, but not perfectly so, evokes disgust and fear. This is a psychological defense mechanism.

Robot caregivers and companion robots are designed to address loneliness in the elderly. But can a machine replace human warmth? Sherry Turkle, in her book "Lonely Together," argues that we demand more from technology and less from each other. Fake empathy is becoming a substitute for genuine relationships.

The ethical programming of robots faces dilemmas. Should a caregiver robot obey the orders of a patient with dementia if those orders are detrimental to their health? The autonomy of the machine conflicts with human autonomy.

Engineering thinking as a worldview

An engineering approach to the world assumes that any problem can be solved by breaking it down into subproblems and selecting the appropriate tools. This is called "techno-solutionism" (a term coined by Evgeny Morozov).

Poverty, crime, and lack of education are viewed as "bugs" in the system that can be fixed with apps or algorithms. However, social problems are often rooted in values and conflicts of interest that have no technical solution.

The danger of solutionism lies in its ignorance of the complexity and ambiguity of human life. The desire to "optimize" society can lead to the destruction of political freedoms and the diversity of life.

Philosophy of repair and maintenance

In contrast to the culture of innovation and "creative destruction," researchers (Stephen Jackson, Lee Vinsell) propose focusing on "maintenance" — maintenance, repair, and care. Much of the work in the technosphere involves not creating something new, but maintaining the old.

Infrastructure is invisible while it’s functioning. The work of repairmen, cleaners, and system administrators is the work of containing entropy. Care ethics shifts the emphasis from the heroic inventor to the humble custodian.

Caring for things prolongs their lifespan and reduces the impact on the planet. Repairing is an act of resistance to the culture of disposability. It requires knowledge and respect for the material.

Hybrid reality and urban space

Smart Cities are saturated with sensors. The city becomes an interface. Streetlights react to movement, trash bins indicate when they are full. Physical space merges with a digital data layer.

Adam Greenfield warns that corporate smart city scenarios often ignore the real needs of residents. Cities are becoming testing grounds for technologies. The right to anonymity in urban spaces is disappearing.

Locative media (Pokémon GO, maps, Foursquare) are rewriting the psychogeography of the city. We navigate not by physical landmarks, but by dots on a screen. Space is being "colonized" by digital markers.

Closing technologies

There are technologies that don’t expand, but rather narrow the range of possibilities. DRM (digital rights management) restricts the use of legally acquired content. Printers refuse to print with non-genuine cartridges.

These are examples of "hostile design." A device acts against its owner in the interests of the manufacturer. When we buy a smartphone, we don’t gain full control over it (root access). We are merely users, licensees, but not true owners.

The fight for open source and open hardware is a fight for technical sovereignty. Free software (Richard Stallman) is an ethical movement that asserts that the code that controls our lives should be transparent and accessible to change.

Technical unconscious

Nigel Thrift coined the term "technological unconscious." This is the background work of algorithms and infrastructures that structures our behavior before we even realize it. Automatic doors, turnstiles, traffic lights, and website data entry forms create corridors of possible actions.

We rarely think about why an interface looks the way it does. But the "Buy" button is brighter and larger than the "Cancel" button. Choice architecture (nudge theory) nudges us toward certain decisions. Technology operates at a pre-reflexive level, forming habits and automatisms.

Posthuman future

Future scenarios range from cybernetic immortality to the complete displacement of humans by machines. Posthumanism proposes rethinking humans not as the pinnacle of creation, but as one element in a network of living and nonliving agents.

Rosi Braidotti speaks of the "posthuman" as an opportunity to transcend anthropocentrism and Eurocentrism. It is a chance to build new relationships with technology and nature, based on symbiosis rather than domination.

Technologies are pharmakon (in the Greek sense: both medicine and poison). They carry risks and opportunities. Philosophical reflection is necessary to distinguish between the two while a choice is still possible. We are condemned to be technological beings, but the form of this existence depends on our understanding of the essence of the forces we have awakened.

The philosophy of technology has ceased to be a narrow discipline. It has become the ontology of modernity.
The question "what is a human being?" is today inextricably linked with the question "what is a machine?"
Technology is a mirror in which humanity tries to discern its own face, but sees only endless rows of reflections receding into the digital abyss.