Every substantial problem of philosophy remains necessarily out of date. This is not because philosophy is far ahead of its contemporary present, or because it connects the present with what it was before, with what it was from the very beginning. Philosophy always remains a knowledge that not only does not allow itself to become timely but, on the contrary, imposes its measure upon its time (M. Heidegger).

Although fundamentally 'out of date', contemporary philosophy offers us an original and penetrating insight into the technological biosphere that surrounds us and to which we belong. In particular, one of the most significant contributions of modern phenomenology to the development of critical reflection on modernity has undoubtedly been the thematization of the relationship between science and the biosphere.

In the interpretative phenomenology of Martin Heidegger, the position of technique in the modern world and its relationship with its metaphysical origins has been a constant questioning from the early phase of the interpretation of facticity and Being and Time (1927) to his later works.

The study at hand explores the successive phases of this ongoing and intense questioning of modern technique, while also attempting to illuminate the 'history of influences' of Heideggerian interpretation of the technical world both in the field of contemporary philosophy and in that of social sciences.

From the technique of machines to the new information technologies and the emergence of virtual reality, and from the experimental science of modern times to the techno-science of our days, Heidegger's phenomenology has provided and continues to provide fertile insights concerning our relationship with technological being.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]