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Vol. 10 No. 35 (2024)
Cuestiones de Filosofía

ARTICLES

Megamachine and human condition: ethical urgent issues in the technics’ world

https://doi.org/10.19053/uptc.01235095.v10.n35.2024.17170

Published 2024-11-24

  • Alexandre Filordi de Carvalho

Alexandre Filordi de Carvalho
Universidade Federal de Lavras / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico

Abstract

The article examines the concept of the mega-machine proposed by Lewis Mumford, arguing that the human condition is intrinsically linked to the constitution of this structure. The central hypothesis is that the human condition is defined in terms of what the mega-machine synchronizes: technical objects, techniques and machines, which raises important ethical dilemmas. The text is divided into two sections. The first, entitled ‘Machines, technical Objects and Technology: Human Endeavor condensed into the Productive Affirmation of Life's Expansion’, rejects a catastrophist view of technology, arguing that the ethical dimension of life is also intertwined with the history of technology. The second section, ‘The Universe of the Mega-Machine and the Human Condition: Ethical Prefigurations’, focuses on how the human condition is machinic and requires an open ethics, similar to Simondon's concept of the open technical object. Finally, the article presents several contemporary ethical problematics that are profoundly affected by the mega-machine, underlining the constant tension between the technical and the human.

Keywords

megamachine, human condition, ethics, technical objects, technology

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