28.8.2017

The meme of the future that is already shaping the present is the giving over of Dasein to techne, in the global appropriation of being under the technological framework of Gestell, which in essence is Dasein‘s comportment to techne that in the fallenness of das Man (the anonymous everyday person) evades or deflects reflection on the meaning of being. In the absence of reflection, Gestell appropriates the meaning of being and vulgarises the ontological difference between being (Sein) and beings (Seiende) in the form of technological thinking alone.

Gestell, while framing the future, is manifest as an overarching power already framing the future possibilities of Dasein in the present. In fact the ontological space of Dasein is already becoming permeable to the entry of the otherness of the machine designed to emulate Dasein, if not to surpass it, by way of “thought”. The very arche (ἀρχή) of Dasein is thrown into question as a matter (Sache) of another beginning – a foreboding of vanishing as far as the essence of Dasein is concerned.

As the interface between Dasein and machine is predicted to become more and more seamless and even unified one day, what holds sway will be the battle of machination (Machenschaft) involving the two. This goes beyond the question of control, and is something that deeply affects the totality of being in essential thinking and experiencing.