Although most of us we use it our daily, many of us never think about technology outside of its current usefulness to a job at hand. It may be because of this that society is becoming increasingly more dependent on the use of technology and computers in everyday activities. In order to understand the way technology may be changing our views of ourselves and the world around us, we must examine it thoroughly. We will be exploring technology and the ideas of Martin Heidegger illustrated in his book The Question Concerning Technology. Our goal is to show an emerging pattern, which is evident throughout modern technology, that influences our perspectives and our understanding of reality in an attempt to recognize and identify a transcending theme.

The use of technology in society is so prevalent that it is hard to think of one without the other. Computer use in contemporary society is growing as people discover different ways to incorporate technologies into various aspects of their lives. Eventually, every business, company, and household will be connected to a computer for ‘easier’ information management. These computers will, in turn, be connected to a network or ‘intranet’ and then directly to the Internet. Whether people need to relay important information, watch the news, do shopping, buy a car, or even listen to music, this will all occur with the use of networks and the inter-connection of these networks, similar to the Internet.

The majority of business and personal computers in use today are called microcomputers. Microcomputers are made up of different internal parts which perform functions essential to the machine's operation. This process of having different elements performing individual functions, creating a complex whole, is significant because it is a theme that extends throughout technology. Internally, there are steps which take place each time data is entered into the computer. All information needed to do anything on a computer is encoded in a binary numeric language of ones and zeros. Every time the computer performs an operation, each task is broken down into a series of binary digits which is then processed by the internal components in order to achieve the desired result. Since both instructions and data are represented by numbers, the CPU can not tell the difference between the two simply by appearance. It is through the way a program is written that the programmer informs the processor how to interpret the contents of each instruction.

So what does this all mean? Does understanding the internal motions of the computer really help us interpret the way technology is changing our perspectives? Well, if we understand that a computer is not a single entity, but a collection of smaller machines that when put together correctly create a working machine, then we see how we can create other "entities" through the combination of multiple mechanisms. The idea of combining resources is essential to our western society. Without it we would not have machines e.g. lawn mowers, cars, drills, cranes, dump trucks and firearms; nor would we have human organizations e.g. construction companies, manufacturing companies, consumer rights organizations, lobbying firms, business corporations, police departments, fire departments, and educational facilities; or even the country which we call the United States of America.

If the founders of our nation had not worked together, as a whole, then we would not have the Constitution and we would not be in the same "state" right now. We can see that technology is more than just technological items. It is a way of thinking about our surroundings. This paradigm of the world has been, and will continue to be, very influential to the direction of our society. So, how can we attempt to grasp technology in its conceptual sense?

Heidegger sees humans in their relation to Being as the most fundamental point of departure. We must begin from this point and remember it at all times if we want to truly understand anything else. Our Being is an event that is a setting in which we always and already find ourselves. It is the setting within which everything appears to us. Being is the event of being called into the revealing of things as truth. It is the manner in which things manifest or ‘presence’ themselves to us within this setting. Heidegger wants the human to Be, that is: to be at one with itself. This is achieved through revealing or ‘letting what is concealed come forth into appearance’. We must see things as they are, not as how they may appear to us at first. An appearance is what a thing seems to be, but a thing is itself with or without appearing to be anything else. A safe is a safe, even if it appears to be a painting on the wall. What a thing truly is does not depend on what it appears to be, but how are we to k now what is truth and what is merely appearance?

In order to see the truth we must be ‘granted’ the revealing of these things. Through this Granting, as Heidegger calls it, we are aware of our essence as humans, this essence is actually a ‘saving-power’ because we save time because we are Granted the ability to understand the truth as it is, and not a misinterpretation or misjudgment of it. Whatever the thing may be, understanding it as it is in itself is profitable to us. This is because we do not need to think about what it is, we know and understand what it is. We have been granted this because we are human beings with the ability to be at one with our Being.

Beginning with our Being, we can then proceed to the questioning of technology. "Questioning builds a way… a way of thinking." Heidegger believes that we must have a free relationship with technology in order to explore it effectively. This relationship can be free only if it opens our Being to the essence of technology. Essence, for Heidegger, means more than just ‘what a thing is’, it means the way in which something pursues its course, "the way in which it remains through time as what it is." (QCT 3)

We must remember, however, that the essence of technology is not equivalent to technology. This seems apparent when we remember that ‘what it is’ to be human is not itself a human being. Heidegger believes that their are two answers when we ask ourselves what is the essence of technology. One answer is that technology is a means to an end. The other understands technology as a human activity. These definitions belong together and both hold true whether we are talking about anything from construction to farming, even with regards to modern developments in these fields. "Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it. But we are delivered over to it in the worst possible way when we regard it as something neutral; for this conception of it, to which today we particularly like to do homage, makes us utterly blind to the essence of technology." (QCT 4)

What is modern technology for Heidegger? "It too is revealing… The revealing that holds sway throughout modern technology does not unfold into a bringing-forth in the sense of poiesis [truth]. The revealing that rules in modern technology is a challenging [Herausfordern], which puts to nature the reasonable demand that it supply energy that can be extracted and stored as such."(QCT 14) Heidegger suggests that a piece of land is challenged into the removal of coal and ore. The earth now reveals itself as a coal-mining district. Our past understanding of the earth remains hidden under the technological paradigm.

Nature is seen differently through technology. It has, "come under the grip of another kind of setting-in-order, which sets upon nature." Heidegger sees this setting-upon as an expediting because it challenges forth the energies of nature in two ways: it unlocks and exposes. (QCT 15) We no longer understand nature to be an obstacle or barrier: it is now ‘standing-reserve’. (QCT 17) It sits idle, waiting for us to come and use it. Through technology we see nature as profit that we can develop or extract for ourselves. When we begin to observe and investigate, we ensnare nature as an area of our own conceiving. The revealing of our Being challenges us to approach nature as an object of research, until the object loses its ‘objectness’ and becomes standing-reserve. (QCT 19)

Thus, modern technology is a revealing of the world to us. This revealing is an ordering of our surroundings as they show themselves. Through the revelation that our surroundings can be manipulated: we are challenged to apprehend these surroundings, which leads to a categorization as well as a structuring. "This challenging gathers man into an ordering. This gathering concentrates man upon ordering the real as standing-reserve." We begin to think of everything that is real in categories of usefulness. A forest becomes a potential lumberyard, with a specific cost and amount of time.

No one can deny that our society is immersed in technology, therefore we must try to understand technology and our relation to it or else we become ignorant captives of it, blind to the bondage that defines our daily activities. With the increasing incorporation of computers and technology into every aspect of our lives, we need to comprehend that a surrounding is taking place. Technology is more than just our use of gadgets and tools to make common tasks easier, it is an understanding of the world as being apprehendable. As we are surrounded by technology, we become wrapped in its apprehension of both ourselves and our surroundings. This apprehension conceals what was our past understanding of the world and a new world emerges. This new world is one where our surroundings are seen in terms of categories, distinguished by their relation to us as either usable or unusable.

If we remember our Being and come from the ontological perspective, we are granted the understanding of things as they really are. Understanding technology from the ontological perspective, we see it for what it is. Technology is a sort of revealing, who's essence is Enframing. "We now name that challenging claim which gathers man thither to order the self-revealing as standing-reserve: ‘Ge-stell’[Enframing]." (QCT 19) When translated from German, Gestell [frame], can mean skeleton as well as some kind of apparatus, like a bookshelf. Heidegger uses the term enframing as a challenging claim on man. Once things have been revealed to us we place them inside of a "frame" of understanding, much like a picture frame does to an image. Not only does the image now have a place inside the frame, but we can call it a picture because of the frame which it has around it. Yet it would still be an image without the frame. We do not think of the wall that the picture is mounted on as part of the pic ture, nor do we think of the room that the picture is in as part of the picture. None the less, the picture is not itself if it is not in its proper place. If we had seen the picture in a different setting, would it have not looked different? Would there be anyway it could look the same? Instead of looking at everything that surrounds it, we just put a frame around the image and it becomes the "picture".

What Heidegger wants us to realize is that we can not neglect the surroundings, no matter how insignificant they may appear to us at the time. What is Duquesne without Pittsburgh? What is Pittsburgh without Pennsylvania? ...without the United States? ...without the Earth? ...without the Solar System? And what is the any of this without the universe? Therefore, can we think of Duquesne without thinking of its relation to, and place in, the universe? What is technology without the earth as a source of raw materials?

Everything that surrounds us is in the universe. To not think of everything as being part of the universe would be idle and disadvantageous. Heidegger wants to Grant this understanding to us. He wants us to bring forth this comprehension into revealing. To Enframe ourselves as human beings without realizing that we can never be ourselves without ‘Being in the universe’ is threatening. We must think of ourselves in the universe, and as a part of the universe. We are not just humans beings, but human beings in an immense, intricate, complex and diverse system of which we have very little comprehension. None the less, we are still a part of this system.

Heidegger believes that modern technology, as Enframing, is dangerous. If we Enframe, we are losing sight of our revealing and our essence. Our essence is concealed from us because we become users of the world as standing-reserve. There is a tendency for us to reduce ourselves to ‘standing-reserve’ or a source of energy for human use. This ‘use’ of the world is not exclusive to materials, it includes other humans as well. "But Enframing does not simply endanger man in his relationship to himself and to everything that is. As a destining, it banishes man into that kind of revealing which is an ordering. This ordering holds sway, it drives out every other possibility of revealing. Above all, Enframing conceals that revealing which, in the sense of poiesis [truth], lets what presences come forth into appearance." (QCT 27)

Technologies also shape the way we perceive things in terms of calculable and discrete units (minutes, grams, meters, etc.). This creates a frame of mind [Enframing] which is used in modern science in our attempt to apprehend our surroundings. "Because the essence of modern technology lies in Enframing, modern technology must employ exact physical science. Through its doing so, the deceptive illusion arises that modern technology is applied physical science." (QCT 23)

Enframing conceals Granting, hence both our essence and revealing as truth are concealed as well. In losing sight of our essence we also lose sight of enframing itself, in addition to other objects or aspects of reality which lend themselves to different ways of revealing. Since we experience space and time through our relation to Being: our relation to Being is affected by the enframing that is the essence of technology. Therefore, technology shapes the way we experience space and time.

Now that we can see how technology affects us as individuals as well as our society, we can begin to recognize it as an apprehension of reality as enframing. Through the combination of multiple mechanisms we create technological entities that are based on the affirmation of enframing as a method of perceiving the world as standing-reserve. By combining smaller mechanisms, which are already based on the world as enframing, we ignorantly incorporate this theme into our manner of production: unknowingly embracing technology’s essence and concealing our own. Depending on our relation to Being, we may be letting technology take hold of our perspectives, limiting us. Our surroundings are understood differently through technology and we need to recognize why this is so. The most disturbing idea is realizing that we not only enframe nature, but each other. We accept the concept of using one another for our own profit without even realizing what we are doing. We must remember that we are human beings and what that means to us individually. True Being is remembering where we are and who we are, while still understanding what we are doing and why we are doing it.

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