‘Power’ and Technological Machines: Dreams Are Replaced by Goal-Setting

Abstract

Modern technologies are rapidly changing the customary forms of being and reshaping the activities of social institutions. This transformation is accompanied by a belief in a long period of sustainable progress brought about through the media, the Internet, mobile telecommunication, robotics and artificial intelligence. Previously, science fiction as a literary genre served as an impetus for science and technology, today, the exact opposite is happening, i.e., scientific and technological breakthroughs inspire a variety of fantastic plots. The problem of gaining a scientific understanding of the mechanization of civilization has become a reality. Machines and technologies influence politics by some means or another. Previously differentiated forms of “the political” also show tendencies towards convergence and interpenetration. In this process, neutral technology tends to exhibit globalism, spreading its influence and its results to the whole world. Rationalization, without which techniques and technologies are unthinkable, revolutionizes the environment by offering its own logic and language to public and individual consciousness. As a result of the pacification of the irrational, structures of power and law frequently find themselves in a situation of isolation that is characterized as “lacking spirituality” and outside the interests of society. The technical elements are increasingly replacing the human elements. Formerly held humanitarian and organic ties are being replaced by technical, ethically neutral methods. Every “power machine” wants to appear impartial and objective in its actions and decisions; yet, even though the machine has no fate, it cannot avoid accidents. The tendency to evaluate everything in terms of numbers – both infinitesimally small and infinitely large can be traced back to antiquity. Machinery needs an accurate calculation of probabilities: it focuses on foresight; therefore, it embodies a “process” and cares not about tradition, but only about the stability of the system. The machine begins to live for itself and for its future.