Martin Heidegger Quotes
The will to mastery becomes all the more urgent the more technology threatens to slip from human control
Heidegger, Martin. The Question Concerning Technology and Other Essays. Translated by William Lovitt, Garland Publishing, 1977, p. 5.
See Eigen {633625} for a more explicit personal statement of the choice for the individual.
Later scientist Stephen J. Gould developed the idea that even evolution was not a process of slow gradualism, but generally moved in spurts. Land’s distinction between human beings and other animals, may be the ONLY unique distinction, now that language, creativity, use of tools, and abstract thinking have been demonstrated in other species.
He made this quotation in a discussion about nuclear weapons, but the principle is valid for many areas from the Internet to pharmaceuticals. In the nuclear weapons case there have been a number of accidents – including fatal ones – over the years and on several occasions a nuclear weapon came close to detonating near populated areas. In one case, radiation damage from a crash of a nuclear weapons equipped bomber have made an area in Spain unusable for years into the future.
Musk is one of the very few and earliest technological leaders who spoke out about the potential danger of artificial intelligence and thought it should be regulated.
Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher who is widely regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century. He is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism.