Techne
Albert Einstein once remarked, “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” One can imagine the reasoning that went into this statement from a man whose scientific innovations provided the catalyst for some of humanity’s most destructive powers. In another way, this is perhaps to be expected, since any act of human construction may destroy as much, perhaps more, than it creates. In every introduction of human invention into the world, something else is altered or lost. This dynamic of creation and destruction lies at the root of our term ‘technology,’ the Greek techne.
The tekton (worker) and architekton (master builder) form the existential background for the creative human activity we refer to as technological advance, which for the denizen of the 21st century is typically associated too closely with the rise of the digital species of technology. It refers for most people only to the widgets, gadgets, and devices that mark our exodus from the age of atoms to the age of bits.
A brief look back at the classical roots of invention, though, can give us a fuller grasp of nature of technology and its impact on human life. At the same time, it may shed some interesting light on an age in which the fruits of our creative impulse are controlling more and more of what we do and how we do it.
Meaning
Fundamentally, “Techné is making something into something it is not.” Philosophically speaking, it is to invest a thing or collection of things with a secondary telos (goal or purpose). An instance of techne, then is “the conscious, willful working or reworking of matter until it becomes not only what it was not but also what it was our intention that it should become. Thus it is an instance of techne when we cut down a tree to make lumber for a house, or logs for a fire, or paper for a book.”
This is one aspect of the human administration of the earthly realm: human beings are capable of affecting the created order in such a way that it may be aligned with their own purposes. “This, then, is the core of human genius: to look at a forest and see not the trees but a village of houses or a fleet of ships, or to look at a deer and see not a deer but a shirt, a pair of shoes, and a week’s meals; and then, of course, materially to realize one’s vision. Seeing beyond immediately given realities is, after all, not enough.”
Epistemology
Francis Bacon described the type of knowledge driving technological creativity as “effectual wisdom,” the fusion of idea and power. Understanding alone–what we call ‘pure science’ today–is worthless because it is weak. To truly know the world is to have power over it, to be able to shape and bend it to one’s purposes, to alter and improve it for human gain.
This kind of “wisdom” is traced by philosophers back to the Greek myth of Prometheus, who represents the bestowal of imagination upon humankind, the ability to see beyond the horizon of the way things are into the what might be. And he does this in defiance of the will of the gods.
Prometheus, true to the meaning of his name, brings foresight, the capacity and the inclination to look ahead, beyond what is to what might be; but also he brings fire, the transforming power par excellence. Under the influence of fire, flesh becomes food, wood and coal become fuel, ore becomes steel, water becomes steam; and, in this process, the world becomes more inhabitable, more sustaining, and more controllable.
Theologically, of course, these things may be understood as an aspect of the self-deifying knowledge of good and evil into which we are born.
Technology Today
Technology, then, is at it’s root a repurposing force within creation shaping the world for both good and ill. It is the activity of Noah building the ark, and the nations constructing the tower at Babel. Noah used technology to fulfill the purpose of God. At Babel it was intended to serve the purposes of man.
This background calls to mind several questions: What are the effects of technology today upon human relationships with the natural world and one another? What are the human purposes according to which the world is being bent and turned? How are we in turn being changed by our own inventions?
In our time we are experiencing on a uniquely grand scale the reorientation of human being by means of technological innovation. The world wide web, together with the applications and devices through which it captures human attention, shapes and informs human thought and action, is arguably the most profound and universal technological creation in human history. And it’s impact is both creative and destructive in a variety of ways.
This channel of Gnesio will be devoted to analyzing developments in technology and trends in its use. The focus will be less on how inventions are used to serve human purposes, and more on how they may meet human needs. In this there will be some special attention paid to useful technology for learning and ministry.
Technology has distinct limitations, of course, which we will try not to lose sight of. There is obviously nothing salvific about advancements in technology and its empowerment of human creativity. But to the extent that such things may aid our understanding and presentation of knowledge relevant to our calling to bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the extent they can enhance our study of Holy Scripture and make us more effective in our daily work, to the extent they can connect us with one another in the body of Christ, to this end we hope to present the best ideas, tools, and services available “for you.”
Citations via Robert Meagher, “Technê” [Perspecta, Vol. 24 (1988), pp. 159-164].
