CTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> Questioning Efficiency: Human Factors and Existential Phenomenology | UC Berkeley Fall 2006
UCBerkeley>   QUESTIONING EFFICIENCY:
HUMAN FACTORS AND EXISTENTIAL PHENOMENOLOGY
     
Stages of Technology

 COURSE SYLLABUS

 COURSE BLOG

 SUPPLEMENTAL READING

 IMAGES & MOVIES

 TEAM PROJECTS

  
    0. Pre-Modern
     Nurturing: poesis and Heidegger's other modes of revealing
    ---------------------
    1. Early Modern (mode of revealing=Metaphysics)
     Using:
      - subjects and objects
      - world as a filling station
      - resources
      (coal)
    ---------------------
    2. Meso-Modern (mode of revealing=Technicity)
     a.Discipline:
      - no longer subjects and objects
      - challenging-forth
      - regulating and securing
      (Rhine river as a source of energy, tourism, electricity etc..)

     b.Expediting:
      - efficiency
      - optimizing
      - maximum yield at minimum expense
      (assembly lines, Taylor's utopian claims, negative effects of Taylorism)

     c.Hyper-Expediting:
      - setting upon
      - pushing things beyond their nature and toward a goal
      - exploiting, dominating, subjugating.
      (agribusiness)
    ---------------------
    3. Post-Modern(mode of revealing=Technicity)
     Constant Overcoming:
      - ordered to standby for further ordering
      - switching about ever anew
      - continuous maximizing of flexibility
      - keeping all options open
      - getting the most out of ones own "possibilities"
      - versatility, adaptability, innovation,
      - entrepreneurship (steve jobs)
      - always looking beyond any specific goals
      (Nietzsche: constant overcoming, "making a sun of my own")