GM: In this time of financial crisis in which we currently live, can we apply Heidegger’s analysis of technology to the abyss of modern Finanztechnik, or financial technology? When one observes the extent of global Finanztechnik, it is impossible to resist the idea that “it is not we who have technology in our hands, rather it has us in its hands,” to use Heidegger’s own words.
Alfred Denker: It is important to pick up on Heidegger’s thinking in order to continue to evolve in directions in which Heidegger himself did not go. Finanztechnik could indeed be interpreted as a new manifestation of the “Gestell”, as Heidegger called the enmeshing framework of technology. Perhaps we could then say that money has become an end in itself, and so lost its true character. Heidegger would have said that the crisis of Finanztechnik cannot be solved by financial technique. Attempts to rescue Greece from bankruptcy using such techniques are only proof of this. What this means is that a change of system is necessary, and this could only be achieved by political means.
It would be nice if a Heideggerian would finally "pick up on Heidegger’s thinking in order to continue to evolve in directions in which Heidegger himself did not go." Then one could perhaps come to an adequate conception of capital -- whose essence is not technical, nor the essence of technology (Gestell), but, as I conceive it, the Gewinnst or the Gewinn-Spiel, i.e. the Gainful Game. Regurgitating Heidegger's blind spots achieves nothing at all.
