During the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th and in the course of the 19 Century helped to replace human muscle power, more and more by machines, the digital revolution allowed in the 20 Century by the invention of computers and the Internet, services delegate of the human brain to computers.
technological developments of the 20th Century, such as genetic engineering, Nuclear power and atomic bomb, enable the people in new ways to shape the world in which he lives. Technological achievements shape human life at all levels, technology is used at work, to obtain information , in administration, in education, in nursing, in wars. Given this ubiquity could of technology is to ask how these influence on human forms of consciousness, how they shape our thinking, and what the consequences.
The sociologist Georg Simmel assumes that the technical character of the company's mental processing power of man more than: "The deepest problems of modern life from the claim of individual to preserve the independence and individuality of his existence against the superior forces of society, historically inherited, the external culture and technique of life." ( Simmel 1995: 116) The philosopher Günther called Anders these excessive demands, the " Promethean shame" of people in the face of the machine: he speaks of a "gap" between the imperfection of man and the increasing perfection of machinery and bureaucratic modes of operation, the man physically and mentally can not be processed. Man can produce more than he imagined and responsibility than he can (see Anders 1956: VII). In reference to the "Promethean gap" and this lack of imagination, speaks of the other " antiquity of the people" - the human form of existence seems to have become superfluous, given the large number of different machines. Added to the lack of imagination is, the "Apocalypse blindness" of the people. Anders believes that "[...] with increasing effect size our imagination - and responsibility assets decreases [...] and that today none of us falls outside the scope of this law. "(Anders 1964: 32)
The technique is different not neutral but influenced by economic conditions. "It is not a mere tool is more, but of social co-actor and a presence at all levels." ( Degele / Dries 2005: 128) It influences the perception of the people by the engineering-based media, to solitary "mass hermits "(Anders 1956: 102) has become the world by people take it only as" Phantom and die "(Anders 1956: 129) wahr. Sie reagieren so nur noch auf technologische Erfindungen, sie erleiden einen Verlust ihres Subjektstatus gegenüber den Maschinen. Anders spricht hier von der „ Antiquiertheit “ menschlicher Freiheit „durch Abbau der Möglichkeiten, gegen die technischen Fertigangebote von Handlungsalternativen Stellung zu nehmen.“ (Anders 1980: 259) Den Höhepunkt dieser Entwicklung stellt für ihn die Erfindung der Atombombe dar, die „erpresserisch“ die Handlungsspielräume der Menschen festlege (vgl. Anders 1956: 252ff.)
Jedoch betrachtet Anders die Begrenztheit der menschlichen Vorstellungskraft angesichts der Auswirkungen von Technologien wie der Atombombe keinesfalls als Rechtfertigungsmöglichkeit : „[...] [D] ass dadurch unsere moralische Niederlage automatisch besiegelt sei, […] das ist nicht wahr.“ ( ebd .) Vielmehr spricht er vom Versagen der Vorstellungskraft als Möglichkeit, einen heilsamen Schock zu erleiden, der als Warnung verstanden werden kann. Welche Folgen die totale Rationalisierung der Welt durch Technik haben kann, darauf weist Anders in seinem offenen Brief an den Sohn Adolf Eichmanns („Wir Eichmannsöhne “, 1964) unter Verweis auf die industrialisierte Vernichtung von Menschen während des Holocausts hin.
But why should this reference for art criticism are still relevant today? Anders stated that we "[o] hne [the] evocation of the monstrous a , which is actually yesterday, [...] [are] not a step further. [...] [It] is good but then something if we understand it, exploit it and in [...] insight [to convert] that what happened yesterday was really well today, have not provided that the conditions that fundamentally changed is possible, [...] that that is the time of the monstrous perhaps no mere interregnum has been . "(Anders 1964: 18), but the conditions have changed fundamentally? Anders cites two reasons for the "monstrous": ". The machine or apparatus nature
our world today"First, the Promethean by gap resulting lack of imagination, second (Anders 1964: 46) He describes the "principle of the Machines" (ibid . 47), the principle of maximum power that shapes the world through and through. The construction plan of machinery of any kind implies the goal of maximizing their performance. For this to happen, it must, said Anders indicate an environment that preliminary work the machines and their maintenance financed by consumption of their products. The machines strive to conquer as much of that environment for themselves. is your ultimate goal, the "total conquest" of their environment (cf. ibid . 49), with the destruction of everything human, natural, all that is associated "non-machine". Consequence would be so different, a world that is still only from machines that are dependent on each other to continue to exist - the world would in this case a single large machine, composed of many machine parts. This "techno-totalitarian empire" (. ibid: 53) looks different in the mid 1960s near - even if it has not yet occurred, but some of his former predictions correct: "[...] the accumulated machine empire, [...] the size of tomorrow's world [is] global and thus be continuously [...]" (ibid . 54). As proof of the correctness of his theory of the machine totalitarianism Anders leads the growing nuclear arms: For the employees in the nuclear industry is true that their functions so as conscientiously by leading because "they saw in himself nothing more than pieces a machine, [...] because they , Prisoners' of their special tasks, so many walls by the end of separate, remained, because they were incapacitated by its enormous size, to imagine him [...]" (ibid . 55). The capitalist division of labor contributes to the fact that "we [...] are doomed to focus on tiny pieces of the overall process" ( ibid . 46), so that we lose sight of the overall process and especially for its effects. It looks different with the risk of tech world: "The industrial production of corpses in the concentration camps similar to civilian office and factory work was organized Are Because of that division of labor: labor differentiated , engineered as well as an extensive network of mutual dependencies and command chains secured, with the intention of neutralizing the monstrous task of moral largely "(144 Degele / Dries 2005). people just cogs in the machine to the other is that the world has become through the machines. Everyone adds can then become Eichmann said Anders' thesis.
Anders' critique of technocracy is associated with the philosophy of history view of critical theory, which is also a "mismatch between scientific and technological Fortschritt auf der einen und Entfremdung, politischer Unterdrückung, Verlust der Werte […] auf der anderen Seite“ ( Hubig 2000: 162) betrachtet, und so die technologische Entwicklung nicht zwangsläufig mit der Entwicklung hin zu einer besseren Gesellschaft gleichsetzt. Welche gesellschaftlichen Konsequenzen technokratisches Denken haben kann, wird in Theodor W. Adornos Aufsatz „Kultur und Verwaltung“ deutlich, in dem er Kultur als das bezeichnet, was „der nackten Notdurft des Lebens“ enthoben ist (Adorno 1972 : 124), das „über das System der Selbsterhaltung der Gattung Hinausweisende“, das „allem Bestehenden, allen Institutionen gegenüber essential critical moment "(contains ibid. 131). This will take but, if life is organized by machine: only the idea of \u200b\u200ba direct purpose for the functioning of the whole can be assigned to the task that is recyclable can, under the rule of instrumental reason and its management practices endure. Administrative means smooth summary of all elements in a monolithic block, because "the more firmly joined them [is], the greater the chance other to assert themselves" (ibid . 125). Friction means criticism, and criticism dies [...] from, because the critical spirit [...] in the end that bothers like sand in the machine. He seems antiquated [...] "(ibid . 138), as well as the man himself appears at the other machines and the effects made possible by them against antiquated. . In confusing the whole world are managed "[...] the Manager no less than the bureaucrats scapegoats [...] "(ibid . 133) Adorno warns against the" growing organic composition of the people '- from having in themselves, the share of the apparatus similar to the spontaneous spreading as in material production [...]. "( . ibid : 137) The technocratic management practices which result based on the technological development, technology is a tool of oppression, it contributes to the alienation of man from himself to himself: The "high-tech, advanced industrial society 'is the highest . stage of the alienation of man from himself - namely, an alienation that no longer felt as such, but in identification with the circumstances as they are, is neutralized "(Wood 2000: 255)
Anders asked the man must regain his status subject to the machine, and wishes a reflection of the potential impact of technology and its destructive power in the form of nuclear or environmental disasters. This reflection is possible only if it is possible the man a "moral imagination" to win back that helps to develop a sense of not imagine consequences of such disasters. The consequences caused by the division of labor to prevent isolation , Anders suggests the following oath:
" [I swear] to accept any work or carry out, without the prior examination as to whether they direct or indirect destruction work (are); [And] the work in which we participate just to give up if this should prove to be such a direct or indirect destruction work . "(Anders 1986: 137)
Furthermore, it is deemed necessary to recognize that the abstract, detached work der_die individuals within the division of labor system performs, "as even the most adventurous cybernetic machine on living subjects [reject]" (Adorno 1972: 145). If then the "moral imagination" preserves, not to forget these vital subjects, and who is the dialectic of the technical Hilfsmittel bewusst ist und sich ihrer „[…] unbeirrbar, kritisch bewusst bedient, vermag stets noch etwas vom dem zu realisieren, was anders wäre als bloß verwaltete Kultur.“ (Adorno 1972: 146)
Literatur
Adorno, Theodor W. (1972 ): Kultur und Verwaltung. In: Ders .: Gesammelte Schriften Bd . 8, Soziologische Schriften, Bd . I. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp. S. 122-146.
Anders, Günther (1956): On the Soul in the Age of the second industrial revolution. The antiquity of of people Bd. 1. Munich: Beck .
Anders, Günther (1964): We Eichmann sons. Open letter to Klaus Eichmann . Munich: Beck .
Anders, Günther (1980): The destruction of life in the era of the third industrial revolution. The antiquity of of people Bd. 2. Munich: Beck .
Anders, Günther (1986): Die atomare Drohung. Radikale Überlegungen zum atomaren Zeitalter. München: Beck .
Degele , Nina / Dries , Christian (2005): Modernisierungstheorie . München: Wilhelm Fink.
Christian Fuchs (2002): Zu einigen Parallelen und Differenzen im Denken von Günther Anders und Marcuse , In: Röpcke , Dirk/ Bahr , Raimund ( Hg .): Geheimagent der Masseneremiten – Günther Anders. E dition Art & Science , p. 113-127.
wood, Hans Heinz (2000): Herbert Marcuse - One one dimensional. In: Hubig , Christoph et al . ( Hg.) Thinking about technology. The classics of philosophy of technology. Berlin: Ed . Sigma, p. 252-257.
Hubig , Christoph (2000): Jürgen Habermas . Technology and science as ideology. In: Derse . Others ( Hg.) thinking about technology. The classics of philosophy of technology. Berlin: Ed . Sigma, p. 162-165.
Marcuse, Herbert (1967): One-Dimensional Man. Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society. Berlin: Luchterhand .
Simmel, Georg (1995) [1903]: The Metropolis and Mental Life. In: Derse . Essays and papers 1901-1908, Bd. I. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.
Sonnemann, Ulrich: The land of reasonableness. German reflections. New York: Pocket Books Syndicate / EVA, p. 182
1 „Das Monströse“ nennt Anders die Tatsache, dass „es institutionelle und fabrikmäßige Vertilgung von Menschen gegeben hat; und zwar von Millionen. Dass es Leiter und Handlanger dieser Tätigkeiten gegeben hat […]; dass Millionen in einen Zustand gebracht und in diesem gehalten wurden, in dem sie nichts davon wussten, […] weil sie nicht davon wissen wollen durften.“ (Anders 1964: 17)
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