Jackie Trono - Jonas On Technology's Infinity

Jonas – On Technology’s Infinity

Hans Jonas, a student of Heidegger, also investigated technology and its relation to ecology. First marking out the belief in the indefinite progress of technology, Jonas writes,

“What makes it more than a sanguine belief…is an underlying and well-grounded, theoretical view of the nature of things and of human cognition, according to which they do not set a limit to novelty of discovery and invention, indeed, that they of themselves will at each point offer another opening for the as yet unknown and undone” (Scharff 194).

I understand this virtual infinity of technology to give humans a sense of the sublime in a very similar way to that of religion. Jonas even states that not only does it dominate our lives, but technology “nourishes also a belief in its being of predominant worth” (Scharff 196). Perhaps technology is the new religion, as, following Ellul, it dictates all aspects of life, including morality.

Elaborating on the effects of recognizing the sublime in the technological, Jonas continues,

“In a reciprocal interplay with the growing subtlety of exploration (instrumental and conceptual), nature itself stands forth as ever more subtle…And instead of narrowing the margin of the still-undiscovered, science now surprises itself with unlocking dimension after dimension of new depths. The very essence of matter has turned from a blunt, irreducible ultimate to an always reopened challenge for further penetration” (Scharff 195).

Although such a comment seems to ensure that men, understanding and respecting the sublimity arising from technology, would also a bear respect for the natural world which they uncover in its most intimate depths, the opposite appears to be the case. Jonas insists that the self-proliferating aspect of technology is actually at the heart of man’s destruction of his environment, writing that

“technology exponentially increases man’s drain on nature’s resources (of substances and energy), not only through the multiplication of the final goods for consumption, but also, and perhaps more so, through the production and operation of its own mechanical means” (Scharff 197).

If, as Jonas suggests, the chief vocation of man is “to become ever more masters of the world” (Scharff 196), how are we to continue our existence in the presence of such ecologically destructive technology? Jonas’ short answer is that all we know is that the disaster of destroying the planet must be averted, and he believes that human spontaneity, which defies prediction, is our best bet.

I find Jonas’ philosophy very frustrating because he so aptly portrays technology and its destructive relationship to the environment, and yet, he offers no clear-cut solution to the problem.