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In the Introduction to the book, Luca Possati describes his intention to develop a “new research method” that engages with the theoretical frameworks and methods of Freudian psychoanalysis. In his view, actor network theory (ANT), material engagement theory (MET) and “biosemiotics,” when considered together, lead to a new research method he calls “technoanalysis.” Technoanalysis shows how the bi-directional recursive movement of “unconscious dynamics influence and shape technology and how, in turn, technology influences and shapes the unconscious” (2023, p. 7).
Possati recognizes that the human capacity to absorb, understand and competently address the complex ethical implications and social impacts of rapid technological development falls well below the immense complexity of its accomplishments. This is no new insight, in that ancient and contemporary philosophers and theologians also warn of the disastrous potential consequences of unbridled technological developments. Mythic narratives such as those about Icarus or Prometheus illustrate the tragic consequences when technology is used to transgress the laws of nature. Possati tries to think through this gap between human capability and technological achievement in the direction of a new, post-Anthropocene world that he champions. However, the rapidly increasing gulf between
technological achievement and the capacity of human beings to adapt to it remains dangerously unresolved. As twentieth-century philosopher Hans Jonas (1974) warned, “Modern technology has introduced actions of such novel scale, objects, and consequences that the framework of former ethics can no longer contain them,” and argued that ethics now faces “a new dimension of responsibility never dreamt of before” (p. 8–9). In one important sense, Possati’s book is a response to this “new dimension” of ethical responsibility.
A recurring theme for Possati is that technology must be considered not only as functional, but also ontological because it is