ernst jünger in cyberspace

mailing list archive - Re: completed tecnology

Dear Martin

> According to Caterina Resta (who wrote a very accurate book on him) Juenger
> imagined an age where tecnology will have reached its completion. According
> to her he asserted that this stadium was necessary to allow earth finally to
> show its spiritualized face.

Yes, Juenger writes in "Der Arbeiter" chapter 49 that technology will
reach an end as it grows like a pyramid and the surface for new
inventions becomes smaller and smaller.

> The distruction which goes forth everywhere in this vision is only a first -
> painful - phase of the Arbeiter's passage; it creates a partial order. only
> when this order will be total, the total mobilisation will - when tecnology
> will be completed - show the motionless quietness of its intime essence.
> 
> I wonder how one can believe that tecnology can ever be complete. What the
> hell does he mean? Every efficient solution of a problem causes new
> problems. So, what does he mean? A situation in which it will not be
> necessary any more that tecnology will offer solutions for problems caused
> by tecnological solutions?

Juenger states in "Der Arbeiter" in chapter 48, the development of
technology is complete when it meets the demands of the "Gestalt" of
the worker.
"Die Entwicklung der Technik ist nicht grenzenlos; sie ist in dem
Augenblick abgeschlossen, in dem sie als Werkzeug den eigentuemlichen
Anforderungen entspricht, denen die Gestalt des Arbeiters sie
unterstellt."

My understanding of "Der Arbeiter" is that the humans will become a
total synthesis of man and machine in speech, behavior and work.
This is the time when no further technical development is
necessary anymore.
 
so long

Jan



Markup © John King, July 2001.