On the occasion of the Hanover Fair, the Swiss “Philosopher of technology” Daniel Strassberg spoke to DLF about our ambivalent relationship to technology, which is characterized concurrently by fascination and fear.
Daniel Strassberg, Psychoanalyst and “Philosopher of technology” from Zurich.
Technology was already used in ancient theatres to amaze the audience. The “Deus ex machina”, who appears on stage “from nowhere” to decisively turn the plot around, is well-known.
Something that moves by itself must have a soul, it was believed, it must be “animate”. Whoever built an automatic machine was therefore encroaching on divine powers – and could be punished by the gods for doing so.
According to the ancient Greek word origin, "automat" (αυτος μεν) does not mean "to move oneself", but "to think, to want". Today, we immediately associate self-thinking machines with Artificial intelligence, another technology that fascinates some of us and frightens others. Could thinking machines one day take over and consider humans to be obsolete?
Jeff Hawkins finds this fear of technology absurd. Hawkins was a very successful IT entrepreneur in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, but then studied neuroscience and finally founded his own “Numenta” institute for research on human and Artificial intelligence. Threats do not originate from Artificial intelligence, but from the human brain. We are all susceptible to false beliefs and their epidemic spread.
Machines are not the problem, but the solution. Daniel Strassberg also argues along these lines. When asked by DLF-Culture editor Stephan Karkowsky: “Can” [in face of nuclear threats and climate change] “technology save the world?”, Strassberg replied: “... if a solution is in sight at all, it doesn't come from changing people, but rather from the technical side, because I don't think people change."
The interview with Daniel Strassberg (about 7 minutes), is titled „Angst und Spektakel: Unser irrationales Verhältnis zu Technologie“ (Fear and Spectacle: Our Irrational Relationship to Technology). You may listen it here: https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/interview-102.html (German)
Daniel Strassberg's new book “Spektakuläre Maschinen – Eine Affektgeschichte der Technik“ (Spectacular Machines – An Affect History of Technology) was published in March by Matthes & Seitz Verlag, Berlin.