The course will start with an analysis of the current crisis caused by the recent advances of artificial intelligence, before putting it into a philosophical and historical context. Consequently, the course will explore the dramatic scale and significance of the technical phenomenon in modernity, beginning with the question of why and how it has become ‘problematic’ and ‘challenging’ in the first place.
Particular emphasis will be laid on technical media which demonstrate the changing anthropological conditions as a result of new technologies (M. McLuhan, W. Benjamin, F. Kittler), the difference between premodern and modern technology (M. Heidegger), and the change of religious sensibility in the era of modern technology.