"Consciousness of machines" (1957, 1963) by Gotthard Günter and the new technocratic paradigm in Germany

This article introduces the main philosophical work of the German-American philosopher and cyberneticist Gotthard Günther (1900–1984), The Consciousness of Machines, and considers its second edition as a transitional moment in the debate on technology in Germany. The article presents Günther’s philosophy of technology, which is based on the concept of transclassical cybernetics and reflects the relevance of the technocratic agenda in the USA and the USSR in the 1950s and, with a lag of one decade, in Western Europe and, in particular, in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s. Günther’s view of technology differs from the post-war techno-pessimistic views of German philosophers and sociologists in that it attempts to overcome the classical dichotomies of spirit and nature, subject and object, consciousness and matter. Günther also goes beyond A. Gehlen’s interpretation of technology as a consequence of the compensation for the defects of the human being. According to Günther, technology acquires a completely new function, becoming “another technology”. It is no longer a compensation for organic shortcomings, its purpose is no longer a mastery of nature or even an intermediary between man and nature, limited by the possibilities of engineering science, but a general theory of all systems, physical and spiritual, a “mirror” of the otherness and diversity of people, their autonomy and sovereignty.