Summertime bratness

For my summer read this year I wanted to cover the two sides of the coin of modern life: I chose “Programming in LUA” for the front side of instrumental reason and “Dialectics of Enlightment” for its dark back side, the critique of instrumental reason.

I knew what would await me on both sides, but when I read the news today, it was clear for me that I had to flip over to the dark side first: Elon Musk, the poster child of instrumental reason in our modern times, revealed once more that he is is not a “midwife of enlightment”, but an Odysseus who does anything to stuff the newborn enlightment back into the womb of Mythology. Using high technologies like A.I. to create deep fake lies for election propaganda is like Nazis painting the Swastika – an ancient symbol for well-being – on the fin of a Stuka-Bomber.

“Seit je hat Aufklärung im umfassendsten Sinn fortschreitenden Denkens das Ziel verfolgt, von den Menschen die Furcht zu nehmen und sie als Herren einzusetzen. Aber die vollends aufgeklärte Erde strahlt im Zeichen triumphalen Unheils.”

Max Horkheimer & Theodor W.Adorno, “Dialektik der Aufklärung”, 1944