Philosophy of Technology: Chapter 18 (Hans Jonas)

"Toward a Philosophy of Technology" (1979)

Background notes:

• his The Imperative of Responsibility (German 1979, English 1984) centers on social and ethical problems created by technology
• his work The Phenomenon of Life (1966) forms the philosophical undergirding of one major school of bioethics in America
• Jonas's career is generally divided into three areas: studies of gnosticism, studies of philosophical biology, and ethical studies
• mother was sent to the gas chambers in the Auschwitz concentration camp
  

Reading response:
Jonas begins with a conviction that philosophy and technology obviously go hand in hand.  He uses the metaphor of "form" vs. "matter"  to distinguish between "formal dynamics" of technology (laws, abstract movement),  the "substantive content" of technology (techniques/tools/actions/pragmatic uses), and a third, overarching theme, that of the moral or ethical side of technology (human responsibility).

The majority of the discussion centers around a comparison of pre-modern and modern technology.

According to Jonas, traits of pre-modern technology include:

• possession and state
• inventory of tools and procedures
• constant, mutually-adjusting, stable, equilibrium
• linear
• tool-based
• revolutions occured by accident, not design
• developments just happened, not consciously created
• technical breakthroughs were jealously guarded monopolies of inventor communities
  
• tools, techniques, and objectives remained essentially the same
• improvements were sporadic and unplanned
• no proclaimed idea of a future of constant progress
• no deliberate method-like approach
• no "natural science: as a growing body of theory

Traits of modern technology include:

• an enterprise and a process
• tends not to approach an equilibrium or saturation point, but gives rise to further steps in all directions
• fluid and circular
• constant future repetition of inventive activity (no knowledge hoarding) 
• spreads quickly though the world (via universal intercommunication and pressures of competition)
• progress-driven (a later stage is always superior to an preceeding stage)
• always evolving
• has a dynamic thrust (not tool-based)
• restlessness

In the modern technology description, one area  seemed particularly important: that of ever-evolving technology (technology as evolution). Jonas suggests that this constant need for evolution leads us to a restless nature with technology. He provides several causes for this restlessness: pressure of competiton, war, population growth, impending exhaustion of natural resources, and technology itself. It is the "pull of the quasi-utopian vision of ever better life" that technology has provided us a glimpse of, but Jonas questions whether we really need progress beyond necessity, stating "perhaps the odds for stabilization look somewhat better in a socialist system, provided it is worldwide."

He suggests there are two convictions: 1) technology can be an indefinite progress because there is always something new and better to find, and 2) technology tailored to knowledge of this potential ensures its indefinite, exhausting potential. He believes an answer lies in the interaction of science and technology (rather than a distinction between the two, as some philosophers contend). He suggests that knowledge--the cognitive process--moves by interaction with technology, and therefore science must generate increasingly sophisticated technologies as its tools to keep knowledge flowing. Technology and science need and propel the other (truth alone will not suffice).

Jonas implies that the divide between theory and practice has vanished--news that should shock and please technical communicators, as the debates between academy and industry rage on. According to Jonas, aristocratic "knowing for its own sake" is gone, replaced by a socializing of the theoretical realm. Technology has mediated this thirst--look at this blog, Facebook, Twitter, text messaging--people are sharing knowledge more than ever before! Collectively, we have power, which Jonas states, "can now be seen as the chief vocation of mankind."

Jonas discusses the new kinds of commodities technology has brought about--machines--unnatural things like plastics, airplanes, architectural structures, automobiles, household appliances, and most importantly electronics. Electricity, and the products produced as a result of it, are, to Jonas, revolutionary and the first truly abstract object (dismebodied, immaterial, unseen) of modern technology. Its invention provides us with a shift from material, tool-based devices, to powerful, cognitive, knowledge-based devices: "electronics signifies a new phase of scientific-technological revolution.... Electronics indeed creates a range of objects imitating nothing and progressively added to by pure invention."(From this point on, Jonas continually uses the phrase "communication engineering," for which I want to substitue "technical communication" throughout.)

The article here turns to Jonas's concerns for technological advancement and ethics. He is troubled by the intersection of technology with biology, particularly genetic programming, and a metaphysical neutralizing of man. He worries that if we use technological power to "tinker with the elemental keys on which life will have to play its melody for generations to come," then consideration should be given to what humans want (consent?). Philosophy, according to Jonas, is not prepared to tackle this task.

While genetics research has certainly moved forward since Jonas wrote this (...Octomom!), his concerns for the quality of human life and its preservation still ring true. He calls for us, whether we are creators or users of technology, to bear the responsibility of freeing ourselves from the determinism we have created. He identifies the problem not so much as complacency or apathy, but our daily consumer existence. Can we be unselfish against our short-term goals of need to embrace long-term insight into survival and averting disaster? Who among us has this power?

Jonas believes we can avert disaster, with the help of philosophers and the removal of power players. Averting disaster takes precedence over all else, otherwise human life will fail to exist. Ethical conduct may have to take a backseat when we are sitting in a lifeboat. Jonas appeals to us to never let the lifeboat situation arise for humanity. He believes ethics of technology can guard a world in which ethics are able to continue to operate.