How Sustainable Is the Technosphere?

This chapter examines technology from two distinct perspectives: partly as cause of the current planetary crisis and part as potential solution. I move from Vernadsky’s, De Chardin’s, Russell’s and Heidegger’s optimism with the potential of technology in the first half of the twentieth century, to the arrival in the Anthropocene, largely driven by misuse of the same technological apparatus. By reflecting on sustainable transitions and transformations, the chapter discusses the modern notion of innovation and how it is often centred on technology that aims for profit and power. Examples of inclusive and social technology, inclusive design, as well as cases of sustainable use of existing technologies, indicate both the expansion of the horizons of research on sociotechnical systems and the potential role of individuals and collectives in promoting transition and transformation. The psychosphere, – a term coined by Brazilian geographer Milton Santos – that operates locally, can have a major influence on the way the technosphere is used by those who own or govern it, and is therefore an avenue for resistance and transformation. Meanwhile, post-humanism and transhumanism are philosophies that explore the increasing dependence of human nature on technology, and eventual fusion. The implications of all that for sustainability and planetary well-being are discussed.