Open access
LECH W. ZACHER'S TECHNOANTHROPOLOGY
Magdalena SZPUNAR1
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Special issue Lech W. Zacher in memoriam
Transformations No. 3 (118) 2023, Publication date: 29 September 2023
Keywords: technology, technoanthropology, development, future
Abstract The author analyses the technoanthropology of Lech W. Zacher. She begins her discussion by presenting his scientific interests, calling him a technohumanist who combines a deep reflection on technology with a sensitive understanding of it. The author describes the main directions of his research, such as scientific and technological progress, the social and cultural effects of the use of technology, and visions for its development. She repeatedly emphasises that in Zacher's texts, technology becomes a multi-level system strongly linked to the social system. As technology is more dynamic and powerful than social systems, technical values are more aggressive than passive social values. Technology can in some dimensions play an inclusive role, it can also sometimes be a differentiating rather than a universalising force. Technology is ambivalent and it is difficult to ''balance'' and ''measure'' the two kinds of possibilities, often in practice contradictory, conflicting, canceling each other''. The possibilities for its use and implementation vary, as human capacities, individual resources, attitudes, customs, but also the history or economic and cultural situation of a country vary. Awareness of how technology affects our lives is extremely important, as is the creation of alternative future scenarios.
Wydział Nauk Społecznych, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach, Polska
ORCID: 0000-0003-1245-5531
E-mail: magdalena_sz@wp.pl