ABSTRACT
Taking further the questions raised in the opening essay, this essay begins with the dilemma of trying to address profound cultural issues through the lens of technics and aesthetics. Vesely identifies the element of ‘will to power’ in technology, but he also recognises that this insight lies outside technology itself. He then turns to the usual confrontation with art (instrumental or poetic interpretation). By recovering the relation of techne in its original sense in relation to mimesis, the problem of making that can ‘come to terms with the universal nature of reality’ is posed. The beginnings of modern technology in the magical element of Hellenistic science are described as ‘technicisation of the original mimetic re-enactment and participation’. The subsequent history is traced, stressing that it was not purely technical or practical interests but a metaphysical quest that promoted the new understanding, conducted as a species of ‘intellectual craftsmanship’. With the advent of purely hypothetical ‘realities’, the question presents itself of the nature of ‘creative technology’.
