Technology as Semiosis

This essay for the inaugural issue of Technology and Language develops a systematic conception of technology, both as the human way of being in the world and in its historical development. As such it continues a line of thought that was initiated by Ernst Kapp and Piotr Engelmeyer – but does so from the point of view of contemporary philosophies of technology and language. Technology is presented as projective semiosis that works on the level of ideas, rules (including the laws of nature), and material or ontology, leading to the creation of artificial environments and finally to a second or third nature.