Open technology as a way of understanding the image of the world

There have been several authors who have tried to define the essential characteristics of our time, taking elements that are significant to them, either the cultural, the political, the social or, as we will see below, the technological.

In this text, I propose an image and understanding of the contemporary world through the social and cultural change that comes from science and information technologies. To this end, I will take up Heidegger’s concept of world image, which in the first instance defines the essential characteristics that existed in modernity. Later, to understand the impact of technology and science I will consider the thought of Ihde, and Yuk Hui for the understanding of technology in the image of the contemporary world. Finally, I propose how to define our time based on collaborative science and technology, which, as we can see, is one of the characteristics that will increase after the COVID-19 crisis.

World Picture

Although the image of the world is only characterized by Heidegger for modernity, it is Hui (2010) who takes up the concept to define what he calls altermodernity, which is nothing more than the contemporary era, with the digital technology that surrounds us.

Technology and Science in World Picture

Yuk Hui (2010), in his interpretation of Heidegger, defines the world picture with a proposal of the Computational Turn, which is the importance of digital systems, emphasizing uncertainty and networks, for the understanding of our time. That is to say, beyond the simple machine, as an object, the concept of the Computational Turn is to emphasize a series of discursive and social practices inscribed on computational logic. This can be seen in the rise of practices such as data visualization, social networks, or the use of the Internet in its different protocols.

However, Hui does not consider the scientific aspect developed by Heidegger in his text on the world picture. It is in the scientific aspect that the openness of the media for more democratic development is most clearly observed. Heidegger mentions, for example, that it is the academic institutions and the scientific method (as it is where experimentation is carried out) that make science what it is and therefore be an essential part of modernity. But added to that, it is also technology that makes possible a new science, as Idhe (2015) comments on the new technologies of the image and how with them, it is possible to have a better visualization of what are the viruses or the stars.

It is then that, this image world that Heidegger conceptualizes and takes up again Hui is based on a concept of technology. But in addition, for a more complete panorama, it is necessary to see the new forms of scientific development that technology makes possible, and that today more than ever, is observed with the democratization of the technological means.

In response to the SARS-CoV-19 pandemic, there have been several initiatives to help patients or to find a vaccine, most of which have been carried out through the openness of media such as the Internet. Such is the case of associations of makers or open-source equipment development that helps in the making of respirators. In the case of the vaccine, for example, we can see the collaborative effort that ESI Group develops, which is the distributed computing, which allows each one of us, with the processing of our computers, to collaborate in simulations to find a vaccine.

References

Heidegger, M., & de Reyna, A. W. (1958). La época de la imagen del mundo. Santiago: Anales de la Universidad de Chile.

Hui, Y. (2010). The Computational Turn or a New” Weltbild”. Junctures: The Journal for Thematic Dialogue, (13).

Idhe, D. (2015). Postfenomenología y Tecnociencia. Conferencias en la Universidad de Pekin, España. Ed. Sello ARSGAMES.