Ways of being
The nature of being and structures of objects. Ontology seeks the classification and explanation of things. A branch of metaphysics.
Technology
Technology as it relates to ontology. Artifacts shape and create ways of being. Thus, “design is ontological”
Civic design + urban planning are also importantly ontological as they are designing spaces of dwelling + being (see: Heidegger)
The train changed the way we exist — it expands the vista of existence. We are betting on new means of technology for new ways of being, ones attuned to interdependence, mutuality, etc. Emphasizing the ontology of interdependence over the ontology of separation.
My understanding of Heidegger on technology is that it is about a reorganization of the world, both spatially and temporally. It is this same reorganization or framing that “orders” all things we know (e.g. point 2) — see modern theories of God and consciousness referring to quantum microtubules to try to explain them. Technology then, is a way of ‘challenging’ existing means of knowledge in a way that reframes it.
Heidegger sees technology as potentially dangerous in that it instrumentalizes the human and the subjective and “displaces” things from their unmediated existence.
”how do we reconcile technology with conviviality + care for the web of life?”
See also: prefigurative politics