A long overdue and timely study that brings out Anders’ significance for philosophy of technology and media in a way that connects him not only with Heidegger but also with Arendt, Benjamin, Adorno, and Agamben. Babette Babich’s erudite (re)mix of histories of ideas and thinkers contributes to a rehabilitation of Anders that shows his significance for phenomenology, critical theory, aesthetics, and indeed thinking about technology and media. The author shows that Anders already criticized the idea that technology is neutral and offers an interpretation of Anders’s Promethean shame thesis that stresses our responsibility for what our technologies do to the planet. An authoritative work that opens up the interesting perspective of an Anders-inspired critical theory of technology and shows the continuing relevance of the ghosts and musings of 20th century thinking for today’s world of social media and big data.

Mark Coeckelbergh, Professor of Philosophy of Media and Technology, University of Vienna, Austria

Günther Anders’s philosophy of technology, developed across seven decades, provides uniquely pragmatic resources with which to think the technological present. Babette Babich vividly captures and expansively surveys the potential of Anders’s vast body of work, which viscerally exposes the ongoing and accelerating transformation, production, augmentation, and devaluation of “the human”.

Christopher John Müller, Lecturer in Cultural Studies and Media, Macquaire University, Australia

[A] wide ranging and provocative new book ... Babich’s analytic skills are excellent and she has a deep understanding of the academic rigour needed to reflect on the nature of research on Anders in the discipline of the philosophy of science in contemporary literature.

Avello Publishing Journal