Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the idea that animate life is characterized by responsiveness and human responsiveness is technical from the outset. It specifically addresses the possible transformation of human responsiveness in present conditions indicated e.g. by ‘ubiquitous computing’ and ‘telecommunication’.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores the idea that animate life in general is characterized by responsiveness and human responsiveness specifically is technical from the very outset. The human body finds itself to be "essentially open and friendly to the technē" (Jean-Luc Nancy). Human responsiveness thus always finds itself responding by means of various technical supports or programs. The paper specifically addresses the possible transformation of human responsiveness occurring when the technical object is no longer tools of craftsmanship or machines of industrialization but rather networks of communication. What happens e.g. to human responsiveness given technological conditions indicated by terms such as 'ubiquitous computing' or 'telecommunication'? Does it entail the foreclosure of human responsiveness or rather that it is being enhanced? Are we suffocating responsiveness with bio- and psycho-technological programs inhabiting a technological unconsciousness? Or are we liberating responsiveness by co-responding with new technological objects as open as our responsiveness itself. And ultimately: do we enter another mode of being human or another mode of being than that of the human?