My longer summary: The author uses the story of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops in the cave as an example of techne (guile/cunning), and of the emergence of the

My longer summary: The author uses the story of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops in the cave as an example of techne (guile/cunning), and of the emergence of the self/ego out of the dark, primitive child state. Thrusting a sharpened beam into the Cyclops eye suggests the power of the focused, penetrating individual intellect overcoming an older, perhaps more innocent vision of the world. There is a parallel between physical mechanical devices and contrivances we make, and devices and contrivances of the mind. The contrivances of the mind are associated with deceit and guile, this also occurs in Homer's greek. The lame craftsman god Hephaestus is lame, representing the bias that is inevitable with technology, which implements only one aspect of our mental activity. Technology can "serve as midwife" to the birth of the individual This midwifery requires a well-calculated balance between the challenges we take on and our self-possession, our wide-awake, conscious resourcefullness. Technology assists the birth of the individual by separating him from the natural world. Today, 3K years after Odysseus, the technical world is much bigger and more powerful than wild nature. It is the ravening beast of technology that we must restrain. Techne helped Odysseus escape from anonymity, but today it cocoons us and promises endless entertainment, distraction, freedom from cares. We are engaged in a continual conversation between what might be called frozen techne and the conscious, living techne within ourselves. The powers of our minds crystallise almost immediately into gadgetry, we live within a crystal palace indistinguishable from a prison. The machinery we make, this inert cleverness, is the greatest threat to our future. This essay reminded me of "The Abolition of Man"; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gux4Ldy8cN8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gux4Ldy8cN8