Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 148

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Popular Culture Review

adrenaline junkies— sooner or later asks themselves the question about
transcendence. They need the tornado F-6 from Sterling’s H eavy Weather, and
they need Downtown L. A. as a formidable setting of all possible and impossible
apocalyptical kinds of violence. Their attitude towards erotics and sex is both
ecstatic and apocalyptical at the same moment. Think of J. G. Ballard’s proto
cyberpunk novel Crash (1966), in which the bodies of the characters also need a
quite special c le a r space that is formed by ‘injured technology’ in interaction with
the wounded body, that is, an environment styled by traffic accidents.
No doubt, this anthropological situation, described in a part of contemporary
science fiction through atmospheres of (techno)metaphisics, (techno)elegies and
ecstasy, directs one to consider the role of technology and science today, when
technology no longer acts as a field detached from (general) culture, oriented merely
towards the instrumental exploitation of nature; rather, it is part of the technocultural
paradigm which is becoming the main stream in the world’s advanced societies,
and involves the arts (both cyberarts and traditional arts), (techno)science,
(techno)religions (and cults) and technology all tightly interwover. None of the
links of this complex can be given competent consideration without being associated
with — and without being defined against— the remaining counterparts.
It is characteristic of the chief units of modern technology, namely, of the
smart machines, that they are not only physical but also (techno)metaphysical.
They are machines for ultimate questions. These machines are not “good for
something” in a traditional fashion, but have become enigmatic and questionable
themselves. Their function is to approach life-like processes and by their very
existence not only are clea r spaces established, but so too are the obscure spaces
o f m odern technology, which are connected with techno-cults (like Heaven’s Gate),
techno-Darwinism,and virtual capitalism.
Slovenian Ministry of Science and Technology

Works Cited

Janez Strehovec

Heidegger, Martin. Die Technik und die Kelire, Pfullingen: Velag Guenther Neske, 1991;
English version: “The Question Concerning Technology,” in D. F. Krell (ed.) Basic
Writings. London and Henley: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978, pp. 287-317.
Hoffmann, E. T. .A. “The Sandman,” in Leonard J. Kent & Elisabeth C. Knight (eds. and
transl.) Selected Writings o f E.T.A. Hoffmann: The Tales. Vol. 1, Chicago - London:
University of Chicago Press, 1969.
Reynolds, Simon. “Rave Culture: Living Dream or Living Death?” in S. Redhead: The
CliibcidtLires Reader. Oxford UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1997.
Sterling, Bruce. Heavy Weather. London: Phoenix - a division of Orion Books Ltd., 1995.
Strugatsky, Arkady & Boris. Roadside picnic: Tale o f the Troika. 1977.