ABSTRACT
It is difficult to imagine a society today which does not depend on more or less complex forms of technological organization for its own reproduction. And in fact techné in its various forms has always distinguished homo faber and helped him to govern and exploit nature, other species and his fellow men – but also to organize and use them to his, and sometimes to their, advantage. Usually the technological basis of human culture goes unnoticed if there are no sudden innovations or intercultural contacts transforming the given horizon of expectation.1 In Europe, the invention and perfection of the longbow, of firearms or of the steam engine have in their turn created an awareness of the import and effectiveness of technological mastery, of its possibilities and dangers, and have in the last two centuries stimulated complex theoretical and aesthetic interpretations of technologically inspired new phases of cultural development. Visions of perfect future states and fears of general tendencies toward dehumanization, as voiced, for example, by the Frankfurt School, have proliferated since the nineteenth century.
