Technological Societies

Group 3
 Virtual Society
• The creation of internet has dramatically changed the way human
beings interact with one another.
• It collapsed the distance created by space.
• Anyone with access to the internet can be a part of this society.
• Members or citizens of this society are also known as netizens or
cyber citizens
• The disembodied and faceless human interaction among
human persons is the first of its kind in the virtual worlds.
 Popular services
• Chat rooms and message boards
• Social networking
• Virtual worlds
 Chat Rooms and Message Boards
a.) Any member can participate and has equal footing
b.) Finding people with the same interests and inclinations become
easier
c.) Non-physical interaction makes the participants more relaxed
and confident
d.) Leaving a conversation/discussion is a matter of clicking
 Social Networking Sites
a.) be connected with family and friends all the time; be able to
contact them, and be updated with what is happening with them
b.) allow your virtual society to know what you are doing, or
planning to do, or what you are feeling or thinking
c.) limit your contact only to selected individuals
 Virtual Worlds
• Giving everyone the chance to recreate oneself in another
world
• Avatar-online representation of oneself
• One can do practically anything
• Most people spend a lot of waking hours leaving in this
world
 What could be the reason why people are so
hooked into virtual realities?
• One possible answer is the concept of the
human person as an embodied spirit. Having
a body limits our interaction with other
people.
• When we talk to someone face to face, we become conscious
of our bodies.
• We can physically represent ourselves the way we want to be
seen.
• We can choose to remain invisible and anonymous
• We are free from stress and pressure of being seen
 Disembodied Subject
 The dissatisfaction and frustrations of
the human person with bodily
limitations drive the person to prefer
the disembodied relation.
 Disembodied Subject
Means that people are slowly
putting aside their bodies in relating
with others because the
technological society offers an
alternative which apparently
resolves the limitations of
an embodied subject.
• Face to face interaction is too stressful and
difficult while virtual interactions are easier.
That the kind of human interaction which
was still present just two decades ago, is
obviously altered now.
 SELFIE
• The practice of SELFIE is another
move toward disembodied human
relations. People used to approach
other people to take their photos.
But the regained popularity of
selfie gave people the idea that
they do not need the other to take
their photo.
 GROUPIE
• The invention of monopod allows
us to take GROUP SELFIES
without missing a member of our
group. It has solidified the escape
from asking other subjects to do us
a favor. But maybe we are more
afraid of being rejected than the
idea of bothering the other.
 The virtual society and the technological
devices today are starting to reshape the
human person and human interactions and
relationships. More and more interactions
are done in the virtual word than the actual
world. People seem to start having multiple
personalities as they exhibit different
behaviors in different worlds.
• More and more communications are also
done without face to face embodied
interactions. People fall in love in virtual worlds.
Someone breaks up with a partner through a
text message. Human relations seem to start
losing an important element in living:
COMMITMENT.
• Virtual worlds and disembodied relations lacks
commitment. We can always step back and
retreat in a virtual world which we cannot do in
the actual world.
ESSENCE OF TECHNOLOGY
“All distances in time and space are shrinking.”
-Heidegger
• We put the longest distance in the shortest possible time
because the ultimate goal is nearness.
• However, even after we have abolished distance of time and
space, we are still not near to a lot of things.
• According to Heidegger, nearness does not consist in shortness
of distance.
 NEARNESS…
-one of the main problems that the technological society has given us
today.
 How do people understand technology?
• Means to an end
• Gives greater possibilities and efficiency in terms of
technological advancements: increase of speed in
transportation, communication and information
dissemination
This is an instrumental definition and not the essence of
technology.
 Modern Technology
• Technology is from the Greek word Technikon, which
means “that belongs to techne-” Techne is related to
knowledge as a mode of revelation.
• Modern technology has the character of securing and
regulating.
• It transforms nature into something which we can store;
something which is standing by and is immediately available
when ordered-
a standing-reserve
• The essence of technology then is not technological; rather, it is a
way of thinking that represents nature as something to be
harnessed for our purposes- to entrap nature as a calculable
coherence of forces.
 Enframing
• Reduces everything into measurable and calculable forces,
to be transformed into the character of a standing-reserve;
as something stored, ready for use once needed.
 Technology as a Threat
• Lies in treating even human persons as standing-reserve
• Human relationships, therefore, are redefined. We want to
be in control and that is why we want to think of persons
and relationships in numerical figures.
• Even God becomes subordinated to technological thinking
when people think that we can calculate, predict, and control
God’s actions towards us.
• We try to calculate what particular acts can lead us to
salvation.
 True Essence of Technology
The essence of technology is what we must strive toward and
question everything that we see and do not take it as true. The
fact that Heidegger suggests that the essence of technology is
nothing technological sets about a new way of thinking in order
for us as humans to be free from technology.