Technology and the Human

Undergraduate / Graduate

Technology is ubiquitous in contemporary life. Yet technological developments continue to infatuate and inspire in us feelings of excitement, hope and fear. How are we to understand the uncanny relationship between the human and technology? What does this relationship disclose about human agency and creativity? If human life is unimaginable without tools, artifacts, memory supports, and machines, how might we gain the critical distance necessary to properly assess the human-technical relation? In this course we will open up an inquiry into the question of technology by considering the ways in which technical objects, processes, and systems interrupt, challenge, and constitute human subjectivity. Readings will include texts by Martin Heidegger, Friedrich Kittler, Bernard Stiegler, Gilbert Simondon, Katherine Hayles and others.