Jason James
Since I discuss technology a fair bit here I deem it necessary to explain the definition of technology from my perspective so we can all get on the same page.
In the current zeitgeist, the term technology has become synonymous with digital technology, especially with a bias to software that is built with interactions to the communications protocol of the worldwide database called the internet.
However, it is critical to take a step back and see that technology is simply a collection of tools that extend the human species’ ability to augment how we communicate, move, and energize ourselves. This can include digital technology and non-digital tools.
My above theory would mean that our human brain was a technological evolution. So was fire, the spear, tractors for farming, meditation, concrete, steam engines, art, music, words, and books.
In fact, the best books (a.k.a. technology) may just be another person. However, a person can also become the most dangerous tool our civilization has seen. Just look at history…
In The Question Concerning Technology (translated by William Lovitt), Martin Heidegger however writes that:
“Technology is a way of revealing. If we give heed to this, then another whole realm for the essence of technology will open itself up to us. It is the realm of revealing, i.e., of truth”
“The revealing that rules throughout modern technology has the character of a setting-upon, in the sense of a challenging forth. That challenging happens in that the energy concealed in nature is unlocked, what is unlocked is transformed, what is transformed is stored up, what is stored up is, in turn, distributed, and what is distributed is switched about ever anew. Unlocking, transforming, storing, distributing, and switching about are ways of revealing. But the revealing never simply comes to an end. Neither does it run off into the indeterminate. The revealing reveals to itself its own manifoldly interlocking paths, through regulating their course. This regulating itself is, for its part, everywhere secured. Regulating and securing even become the chief characteristics of the challenging revealing.”Heidegger gives a very high-level definition that is more conceptual and abstract. My definition and his are not opposing as this collection of tools extend our ability to (e.g.) communicate more effectively thereby (ideally) revealing more truth to each individual over the long term. Note, I will return to this in another piece I post on JJC.
Finally, to me, the terms technology and tool are very closely related. Technology refers to the underlying innovation &/ scientific know-how/breakthrough. Whereas, a tool refers to a specific application of the technology.
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