technological-unconsciousness

The chapter examines the transformation of Chinese cosmology under Western technological modernity and the unconscious role of technics in shaping modernity's exploitative worldview. It argues that the true end of modernity is marked not by its cessation but by the emergence of technological consciousness, which involves recognizing humanity's embeddedness within technology and confronting the limits of modernity. Drawing on thinkers like Latour, Heidegger, Lyotard, and Stiegler, the chapter highlights the need for a critical re-appropriation of technology, especially in non-Western contexts, framing technology as both a poison and remedy that demands nuanced resistance and re-temporalization.

The chapter examines Heidegger’s notion of authentic historicity through Dasein’s resoluteness and being-towards-death, contrasting it with the alienating objectified history critiqued by Heidegger. It incorporates Stiegler’s concept of tertiary retention to reveal how technological unconsciousness simultaneously destroys tradition and fosters a desire to preserve memory. The chapter culminates in recognizing the end of modernity as the realization that technics fundamentally conditions human existence and historicity, reframing Western philosophy through the myth of Prometheus and Epimetheus to highlight technology's foundational role.

The chapter 'INDEX OF SUBJECTS' from Yuk Hui's 'The Question Concerning Technology in China' provides a comprehensive index of philosophical, cultural, and technological concepts central to the book's discourse. It emphasizes the interplay between Chinese and Western thought through key themes such as cosmotechnics, Daoism, Confucianism, Heideggerian ontology, and the philosophy of technology, while critically engaging with modernity, historicity, and technological unconsciousness within both Chinese and global contexts.