Hacking Technological Practices and the Vulnerability of the Modern Hero

Abstract

This reply to Gunkel and Zwart further reflects on, and responds to, the following main points: the Heideggerian character of my view and the potential link to Kafka (Gunkel), the suggestion that we should become hackers (Gunkel), the interpretation of my approach in terms of the Hegelian Master–Slave dialectic (Zwart), the lack of an empirical dimension (Zwart), and the claim that I think that modern heroism entails overcoming vulnerability (Zwart). I acknowledge Heideggerian influence, reflect on what it could mean to think about living with ICTs (information and communication technologies) as a kind of hacking, comment on the Hegelian interpretation of my approach and its application to human–technology relations, bring novels and films into the discussion (Houellebecq, DeLillo/Cronenberg), and clarify that contemporary works of fiction are not necessarily entirely modern and that it has been a central claim here and in my book that although modern thinking and practice attempts to overcome vulnerability with the help of technologies, this is not successful, or it is illusory.