Readings on Philosophy, Technology and Human Condition course final response paper.
Istanbul Bilgi University 2024, Institute of Graduate Programs.

History, and Theory of Architecture Master Program
Instructors: Prof. Dr. Ömer Turan – Prof. Dr. Şebnem Yalınay Çinici

• technology as a way of thinking
• the risky/dangerous instrumentalization of technology
• the post-human condition

This article will be formed by referring to specific readings on the three themes mentioned above. First “Technology as a way of thinking” will be related to two key texts in “Questioning Concerning Technology and Other Essays” by Martin Heidegger. The theme “The risky/dangerous instrumentalization of technology” will refer to Zygmunt Bauman's book “Modernity and the Holocaust.” In the end, “The Posthuman Condition” will be connected to Rosi Braidotti’s text “A Theoretical Framework for the Critical Posthumanities” and “Posthuman Knowledge.”
Technology is the application of scientific knowledge to the practical aims of human life or, as it is sometimes phrased, to the change and manipulation of the human environment.1 This definition is the basic description of technology provided by the dictionary. It is unsatisfactory to say that technology, as this definition refers to it, is only an instrumental term. Heidegger highlights two features of technology: the first is that it is a means to an end. The second is that it is a human activity (Heidegger, 1977). I would like to draw attention to the “human activity” part. According to Heidegger, this concept represents the anthropological definition of technology. With modern technology, humans try to cope with nature, to advance it, and to dominate it. The relationship with technology to understand nature is a matter of thinking and meaning for human beings. Heidegger considers the relationship with thought for understanding as unique as the uniqueness of the individual. Understanding refers to a systematic, problem-solving approach. Technology also defines how we perceive and engage with the world. But we are on a dangerous path where we are following technology as a way of thinking, and in this way, we are assuming a way of creating and structuring nature. In the domination that human beings construct with technology, their relationship with nature becomes only quantitative. The state of understanding nature evolves into reducing nature to a research object. When we think of technology as a way of thinking, this situation points to a dangerous power where even the mind is instrumentalized. Today’s situation is shifting from the dominant power of human beings over nature to a position where technology dominates nature and humanity. Humans, who exploit the world’s resources by thinking that they are the lords of the world, can no longer live two minutes away from their technological devices. For every question, they rely on a search engine to quickly find and use the first answer without further research. The point of view that technology is a way of thinking, which Heidegger presents to us, turns into a human being who uses technology as a way of not thinking.
The nature of technology is paradoxical. Even though it has given us benefits unimaginable to pre-modern man, such as the ability to imagine beyond, to cure disease, and to explore space, it is the same technology that created the nuclear bomb. It is important to remember that the invention of the nuclear bomb was not primarily an effort to advance technology. For a physicist like J. Robert Oppenheimer, the focus was on “What happens to a dying star?” while for the United States, it was all about the question, “Who was ahead in the technological race with Russia?” Developing technology brings power with it. The situation in today's world has not changed much. This race is becoming more important for states, and technology is the most crucial tool on the road to the goal of this race. Advancing technology affects the distribution of power in the global world, is being used as a means of control, and is ideologically instrumentalized. This situation reveals the dangers of technology for people.
Governments and corporations can transform technology into a mass monitoring tool as a form of control. This system can seriously damage privacy and private life and extend beyond direct observation through cameras. The most noticeable indication of being monitored is when the topic we discuss on our phones later appears as a pop-up advertisement.
The data we agree to share at the bottom of our phone by clicking “Accept” can lead to various risks, including data breaches and exposure to sensitive information. This applies not only to the pages we visit to join a channel or move to the next page. Perhaps the most critical of these situations is the use of technology as a tool of manipulation by governments. Most of us have seen the cartoon below (Figure 1), which shows television directing us on what to think or what we should think. With today’s technology, we have reached a more advanced stage. With the introduction of AI-generated content into our lives,
realistic content can be created, misinformation can spread much faster, and the public can be easily manipulated.





 

Figure 1: Media Manipulation
Reference: https://www.karabulut.co

Zygmund Bauman illustrates one of the most tragic impacts of technology, which is instrumentalized for an ideology on human beings, in the chapter “The Uniqueness and Normality of the Holocaust” of his book “ Modernity and the Holocaust.” Bauman explains how the developing technology of modernity and the bureaucratic tools made possible by this technology has been transformed into a weapon of mass extinction. Bauman relates the reason why this genocide can happen to modern civilization. There are two main reasons for this: The first is the supply by modern civilizations of the ideas that make this genocide possible and the technical resources that enable the realization of such ideas. Secondly, the sense of bconfidence that the control networks, preventions, and barriers built by people on the road to
civilization will protect them from violence. Bauman defines modern genocide as an element of social engineering that requires planning and conscious design (Bauman, 2001). Technology also served as a tool for Hitler’s idea of creating a pure German race. Primarily, this was simplified as a purely bureaucratic matter. This bureaucratic structure reduces people to files and input-outputs. Bureaucratic goals were dehumanized and articulated in morally neutral terms. In this respect, the state has not avoided equipment and highly paid specialists when using technology. It has been avoided to address the potential negative aspects of technology, and instead, it has moralized technology. The focus has been shifted toward perfecting the work to be done. However, 6 million Jews were systematically murdered as part of an ideology that did not fit the pattern of a perfect society. Civilization has not been
able to guarantee that the technological power it has created will be used morally.
While discussing the danger of the instrumentalization of technology above, doing so through corporations and states raises the question of where the human being is. In the context of all this ideological conflict and in a global world where state policies and the balance of power play a leading role, Rosi Braidotti takes a step back and asks the question of who or what is human in today’s world and comes up with a new definition: post-humanism. Braidotti argues for post-humanism as a critique of the human-centered approach of humanism within the capitalist economy and post-anthropocentrism as a critique of species hierarchy and anthropocentric exceptionalism. She describes her position as a convergence of post-humanism and post-anthropocentrism. Braidotti describes the post-human condition between the 4th Industrial Revolution and the 6th Mass Extinction. While the 4th Industrial
Revolution means the blurring of biological and physical boundaries as a result of technological developments such as artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, the 6th Mass Extinction refers to the extinction of all species due to human impact. She sees the state of balance between these conflicting forces as the ultimate test of post-human (Bradiotti, 2019).
However, Braidotti does not present this test, which can be answered in the context of our time, in an atmosphere of a dark future. Instead, she takes an optimistic approach to this issue. Leaving aside the arrogance of the Anthropocene, she argues that if we don’t get used to this human confusion, we will not feel at home in this world in the 21st century. According to Braidotti, the convergence of post-human condition and post-anthropocentrism produces new post-human knowledge that opens up new possibilities for the world, both human and non-human beings. The post-human condition allows us to reconsider and reinterpret what it means to be “human.”
Up until the present day, science has been the pioneer in the development of Western civilization, and the definition of the concept of the human being has been delegated exclusively to anthropologists and biologists. Since the Enlightenment, the foundation of European thought has been the separation of humans and non-humans. Braidotti proposes to use the productive potential of the critiques of humanist and anthropocentric approaches that create this distinction. She aims to break down the boundary between human and non-human, which is at the center of European thought, by abandoning universalist, hegemonic, imperialist views of human understanding with the post-human approach.
I consider Braidotti’s approach valuable because it removes the boundary between human-centered thinking and non-human thinking. I think that by removing this categorical distinction, we will evolve from the 6th mass extinction towards balance, which is a much more appropriate approach for the nature of the world and humans.

REFERENCES
​1 This translation is provided on the Britannica website.
● Bauman, Zygmunt. “The Uniqueness and Normality of the Holocaust” in Modernity and the
Holocaust, Cornell Uni. Press. 2001.
● Bradoitti, Rosi. “Introduction: Post Human, All–Too–Human & Chapter 1: The Post Human
Condition: A Convergence.” in Posthuman Knowledge, Polity Press, 2019.
● Bradoitti, Rosi. “A Theoretical Framework for the Critical Posthumanities”, Theory, Culture &
Society, 0(0) 1–31. 2018.
doi: 10.1177/0263276418771486
● Heidegger, Martin. “The Age of the World Picture” in The Question Concerning Technology and Other
Essays. 115-154, Harper & Row, 1977.
● Heidegger, Martin. “The Question Concerning Technology” in The Question Concerning Technology
and Other Essays. 115-154, Harper & Row, 1977.