“I have claimed that Hölderlin believed that technology has a positive role to play in cosmic evolution, and that whilst it presents a ‘danger’, it is fundamentally a ‘saving power’. Given that Hölderlin lived before the human species formulated the concept of the ‘environmental crisis’, before there was an awareness of non-human-induced global warming, before there was an awareness of human-induced global warming, one cannot reasonably expect him to have known why technology is simultaneously a ‘danger’ and a ‘saving power’.

Technology is a ‘danger’ because its unleashing results in immense planetary transformation and disruption – rainforests are replaced by cities, concrete, mining, roads and industrial agriculture, at the same time as tremendous amounts of fossil fuels are released from safe underground storage thereby creating an immense force for human-induced global warming. There are two elements to this immensely dangerous force. Firstly, this force for human-induced global warming leads to immediate actual global warming, which contributes to the ongoing planetary transformation through causing the warming of the oceans, the melting of icebergs and glaciers, and an increasing frequency of extreme weather events, such as floods, fires, storms and droughts. Secondly, this force has a pent-up element due to a ginormous amount of carbon dioxide getting sucked into the depths of the Earth’s oceans where it goes on a journey of several centuries. Whilst it is on this journey, the world above goes through an immense transformation. This transformation is a process of weakening planetary robustness in the realm of the ability of life on Earth to keep its atmospheric temperature down – both the land surfaces and the oceans become less favourable homes for carbon dioxide. When the pent-up force comes to fruition, with the long-travelling oceanic carbon dioxide making its dramatic return into a vastly transformed world, a potent force for immediate global warming will come into being as carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere spiral upwards.

The technologically-transformed planet is ill-equipped to deal with the immense force for human-induced global warming, because it was in an exceptionally weak state before it was weakened further by its technological transformation. It is the overwhelming of life on Earth’s force for global cooling by the force for non-human-induced global warming which is the bringer of doom; whilst, the technological transformation of the planet is the penultimate nail in the coffin for life on Earth. This means that the birthing of technology brings with it a perfect storm of danger – a danger to the human species, and a danger to life on Earth.

Technology is fundamentally a ‘saving power’ because it is the ‘armour’ which life on Earth needs in order to survive and thrive into the distant future. The central component of this ‘technological armour’ is the technology which will be deployed to regulate the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere, through creating a force for global cooling. This deployment, this technological force for global cooling, is required because our Solar System is an unfolding whole which heats up as it ages. This one-way force for non-human-induced global warming causes the inevitable weakening, and expiration, of the non-technological force for global cooling that life on Earth deploys in the pre-technological era. Technology is life on Earth’s ‘saving power’. In the absence of technology life on Earth would be doomed, and would be hurtling towards obliteration.

In short, the process of bringing forth life on Earth’s ‘saving power’, involves the creation of a period of immense disruption which entails the creation of an imminent ‘danger’ to the continued flourishing, and the continued survival, of life on Earth. The destiny, the cosmic purpose, of the human species is to bring into being life on Earth’s technological ‘saving power’. In order to fulfil its destiny, the human species needs to come face-to-face with the imminent ‘danger’ that is generated in the process of bringing forth life on Earth’s ‘saving power’. The human species can then save life on Earth through bringing forth a technological force for global cooling.

As a final reflection, it is worth recalling Hölderlin’s belief that:

The end of the “storm” of modernity enables the arrival of a “mysterious prince” who makes it possible that men can now for the first time hear the “work” that has been long in preparation “from morning until evening”.

Could the “storm” of modernity have ended?

Could this book enable humans to “hear” for the first time the purpose of their work?

Could I be Hölderlin’s “mysterious prince”?!”

Dr C Mystical Environmental Philosophy: How to Save Life on Earth Oct 2021 pp. 227-228