On the Constitution of a New Educational Idea: “Enabling People to Shape Technology”

In this chapter, the concept of “technical education” is justified, which is oriented toward the guiding idea of the ability to shape technology. The ability to shape technology is of fundamental importance in the practice of human exchange with nature. The ability to (co-)design technology includes not only the ability to describe and explain why and how a concrete technology functions, but above all the ability to explain why it takes this form and no other, and how it is to be evaluated in its manifold interrelationships with nature and social labor and its social utility (see also Chap. 1). It is explained that in the unfolding of the category of technology in a third dimension, differentiation is to be made according to techniques of different quality: techniques based on a substance occurring in nature as well as microelectronic and computer-based technology. This creates a scale on which each technique in the field of microelectronics can be classified between the poles of “basic fundamental innovation” and “concrete application.” In this way, the purpose-means relationship is continuously shifting. This means that forms of microelectronics also “seek their purposes.” One then speaks of an open purpose structure. The realization that all technology is an expression of objectified goals very often overlooks the fact that the scope of the side effects of technical products and processes clearly exceeds the scope of the purpose-determined effects. It is therefore important to clarify and assess all effects of technology as best as possible.