Ole Thijs (Wageningen University & Research)
3-5pm, Wednesday 1 October
Dalhousie Building, Room 2F14
University of Dundee, City Campus
And online via Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Mzc1N2NkMTctYTdhNi00YTBmLWFhYTQtODNlNTE3ZWFiYWI3%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22ae323139-093a-4d2a-81a6-5d334bcd9019%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22dcf53963-b25a-46a1-ba80-04a103704cc5%22%7d
Abstract:
With the advent of geo-engineering and ‘sustainable’ technologies (GESTs), technology is taking a uniquely reflexive turn. In order to address the impacts that earlier, goal-oriented technologies have had on the global climate, this new generation of technologies adds the goal of planetary preservation to technology’s traditional repertoire of practical goals in the human-economic sphere. If Heidegger and other ‘classical’ philosophers of technology (Marcuse, Ellul, …) made a strong case that technology is essentially extractive and/or exploitative, amounting to the end-less efficacy of Gestell, it would appear that the planetary orientation of GESTs opens a window into a future beyond technology-as-exploitation, thus breaking out of Gestell. They open the possibility of things appearing as more than resources for operations once again, and something like a telos – in the form of the Earth, climate, biosphere – seems to guide their development.
Against this positive reading of GESTs as planetary technologies, however, it is possible to interpret them as nothing less than the totalisation of Gestell to a planetary scale: in this picture, the telos is illusionary, and technology only apprehends the planet in its totality to ensure suitable conditions for end-less exploitation to continue efficiently and ensure its own survival.
Between these two interpretations, everything seems to hinge on how the planet is apprehended and represented in the technological and scientific imaginary on which GESTs are based. In this presentation, I will first explore the general question of the planetary nature of new technologies before focusing on ‘digital twin’ representations of the whole Earth as a particular case study, asking what we can learn from the intricate structures through which these mediate the planet.
Bio:
Ole Thijs is a Lecturer and PhD candidate at Wageningen University & Research, the Netherlands. Previously, he has obtained Master’s degrees in Philosophy and Art history at Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen and an undergraduate degree in Philosophy at Leiden University. His work is informed by deep interest in and engagement with the arts, technology, and the natural sciences, and long-standing involvement with DIY electronic music & radio scenes.