Technology and Human Nature

Whether or not technology alters human nature is an old question. On the one hand, technology adds to human existence and the human development seems impossible without technological progress. On the other hand, technology changes or replaces many natural dispositions. Is technology (or technologies, as someone prefers) perhaps the “authentic” nature of the human being? Is it his essence? And is it in contrast with his “natural nature”, with the organic and the biological identity of man? Some influential philosophers and intellectuals of the 19th century have paid special attention to this topic and written many interesting pages on it. Examined from an evolutionary perspective, technology can be seen as just an instrument – although a very important one - for the survival of the human species, only one of the apparatuses refined through the centuries by natural selection. In this case, our principal question has to change. It is not “Does technology represent the authentic nature of the human being?”, but “How important is technology for the human species?” “And why?”; “What conditions have favoured this development?” and above all: “Can man control and limit the current power of this instrument?”