How important is technology for the development of humanity? According to the definition, technology refers to the means by which humans try to master matter.
However, technical elements alone are not enough to measure progress. Today, we have a cult of technology, which means that we value the quality and level of progress of civilizations based on their higher or lower levels of technological advancement. And we see everything from the perspective of our own way of life. When we visit monuments of civilizations belonging to antiquity, we are more impressed by their similarities with our own technology than by their religious or metaphysical achievements.
From a philosophical point of view, technology is not the only expression of human culture. It is just one of many expressions. Moreover, there are many forms of technology.
For example, in the second millennium BC, ancient Chinese and Phoenician cultures used some form of compass. However, in the past century, although they were exhibited in museums, they were not recognized as compasses.
Dogs passed away simply because they did not resemble the compasses we use today.
How did technology originate from humanity? Man developed in various ways in the field of self-awareness and in different ways of mastering matter and nature. Not all civilizations attached the same importance to technology, so it is a mistake to evaluate different civilizations from the perspective of technical development.
Science dates the dawn of technology to the Paleolithic or Neolithic era, when man began working with stone. However, science has made different classifications based solely on what these human communities created, not with regard to the human beings themselves. Therefore, it is difficult to determine the causes that have prompted such actions. Generally, we only see the most superficial aspects of antiquity, we don’t look deeper.
For example, in his nine-book series titled History, Herodotus describes religious life and places of worship. Yet, he only mentions in passing that the first Ptolemaic king had a type of boat with eleven rows of oars. But he also mentions the great clock in Alexandria that displayed one of the twelve figures representing the Labours of Hercules at the beginning of each hour.
These civilizations undoubtedly had elements of advanced technology, but they did not attach as much importance to them as we do today. Instead, they directed their knowledge and imagination in other directions, applying them in different fields…
Let’s ask ourselves, could we build Gothic cathedrals with the technology we possess? Of course, but we don’t build them because we don’t see any sense in it.
Technology in one form or another has existed since the beginning of humanity. It is important to consider the psychological impact of technology on ourselves, as well as our own problems with technology.
We must ask ourselves: to what extent does our advanced technology reflect internal materialism? To what extent has the excessive development of technology affected us, making us more materialistic? How has the human being excessively identified itself with technology? With technology, Cira becomes dependent on these material elements and thus begins the enchanted cycle in which the human being creates technology and technology creates the human being.
The attraction of technology and the need to escape from it is best shown by the fact that many times discoveries have been made, and many times they have been forgotten, as if people are afraid of them. This points to the cyclical attitudes of human beings, that humans do not always think in the same way, that they seek different aspects of knowledge and apply different approaches.
In the past century, positivists solved the problem of history by proposing the theory of historical materialism, which presented human evolution as an upward trajectory, starting from the state of being a savage. According to this theory, in the beginning, human beings had a magical mentality and explained everything through magic; then came the religious human beings who were connected to obscure magic, and then the philosophical human beings who derived a series of symbols and abstract concepts to explain nature. Finally, they reached the I am a scientific person who has shown and known things.
However, this materialistic theory has now been refuted by the discovery of archaeological layers which show that it is not necessarily true that there is always another, developmentally inferior cultural layer beneath one. Today, in Central and South America, alongside enormous, precisely constructed monuments, we see a poor man trying to make some money by photographing tourists in front of ancient ruins. Thus, from a philosophical perspective, both individually and collectively, man rises and falls during his evolution.
Considering the development of technology, today we are on the verge of a leap into emptiness. We are entering a phase in which our world no longer feels satisfied with technology. It does not provide answers to all our questions.
At the beginning of the era of mass production, man was blinded by conveyor belts for mass production. However, today we once again feel inclined towards products made by human hands. It’s about giving things that human touch.
Once again, man The thirst for differentiation, the thirst for humanism, and the thirst for reuniting with oneself.
We are tired of the massive machine. We are progressing towards something that is already within us, but we do not yet want to accept it; the era of technology has passed, and a new humanism is knocking on the doors of the future.
Man is returning to old sources. Today, everything exclusively founded on matter is doomed to failure, whether in the realm of politics, economy, religion, or society. The individual is being reborn in every person who feels suffocated by the atmosphere of massification.
Today, humanity has a need for ideology, for mutual understanding and comprehension. By satisfying this thirst, we will fulfill our historical destiny.
We must learn to free ourselves from matter with our own hands, even if it’s only little by little. We must create a laboratory in which we can develop a new and necessary humanism, the elixir of life. And anything that wants to make us part of the mass, that wants to make us the same, is just a product of prejudice and ignorance. loss, not future.