Faust and Technological Fulfillment

Abstract

Among literary treatments of technology, Goethe’s Faust stands out. The story documents as few others do what we hope we will accomplish with technology. It does what magic was always supposed to do: provide real power over nature and human beings. The technological engineering of the landscape and human society finally affords Faust the satisfaction and fulfillment he had always sought. For him, the act of technologically taming nature institutes direction and meaning in the world. Faust is our contemporary. His experience anticipates and depicts the fulfillment we, too, expect from our technology. Thanks to technology, he established a Faustian world, a world defined by conquest, domination, and subjugation. Our own bargain with technology has its Faustian dimensions, where the devil is in the details.