The document summarizes key ideas from Carl Jung, Martin Heidegger, and Jane Bennett regarding technology and its impact on society and the self. Carl Jung saw technology leading to self-destruction if not balanced by consciousness. Martin Heidegger viewed modern technology as destructive but believed humans could influence their relationship to it through questioning and creativity. Jane Bennett analyzed things as empowered "actants" within complex systems, rejecting the notion that humans are the sole agents of change. The short story "Byzantine Empathy" explores these themes through an activist using virtual reality to promote empathy and humanitarian funding.

1. The Blockchain Future:
Society & the Self
Nicole Tay
2nd Annual Blockchain in Health Research
Georgetown University
April 27th, 2019

2. Carl Jung Martin Heidegger Jane Bennett

3. Carl Jung
● Neutrality of technology, but the folly of man
● Through tech, we lead ourselves to
self destruction
● A divided conscious and unconscious
● Erroneous beliefs:
○ Superiority to nature
○ Man can do everything he wills
● “All haste is of the devil.”

4. Martin Heidegger
● We perceive technology as a tool to achieve an
end
● Technology vs. Modern Technology
● Dasein “being” of objects vs. objects for
exploitation
● Standing Reserve
● Enframing
● We cannot escape the fate of technology, but we can
(1) Question the enframement of our world
(2) “Bring forth” like artists!

5. Jane Bennett
● New Materialism, author of “Vibrant Matter”
● Challenges the notion of human-centered action
● Thing-Power, the vitality of objects
● Places, spaces, things, and humans as “actants” in a
“complex assemblage” with “distributive,
confederate agency”
● What does this mean for us as actants in this
complex assemblage?
● Experimentation as part of political change

6. Carl Jung
Conscious, unconscious, shadow
Technology is neutral, but with
how we use it, results in
imbalance
Illusion of superiority and power
→ self destruction
Martin Heidegger
Dasein “Being”, enframing,
standing reserve
Modern technology is destructive
...but we can change our
relationship to tech by questioning
and thinking like artists
Jane Bennett
Thing-power, actants, complex
assemblages
No single source of change
Individuals have agency to choose
& influence our assemblages
→ affect distributive agency

7. Byzantine Empathy
A short story by Ken Liu

8. Byzantine Empathy: Characters
Tang Jianwen
Creator of Empathium
● Activist programmer
● emotional
● distrustful of institutions
● idealistic
● trustworthy
Sophia Ellis
Executive Director, Refugees Without Borders
● “hard-nosed” pragmatist
● rational
● objective
● calculating
● confident

9. Byzantine Empathy: Empathium
Yes
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
No

10. Byzantine Empathy: Plot Overview (1/2)
Jianwen experiences
the Muertien Refugee VR
.
.
.
Sophia enters RWB
board meeting
-decline in donations
from donors under 30
Sophia convinces RWB
to join Empathium
Other major charities
join, spiking donations.
.
.
.
Jianwen send out
Muertien VR file on
Empathium network
Emp-holders traumatized;
Muertien Project
successfully funded.
(RWB voted “No”)

11. Byzantine Empathy: Plot Overview (2/2)
Sophia visits Muertien refugee
camp with VR recorder on; gets
caught up in Rebel gunfire
.
.
.
Jianwen helps
Sophia recover
Other VR-propelled
projects win funding
Sophia reveals her plan to
discredit the Muertien Project
with her VR

12. “...Empathy for you is but another weapon to be wielded, instead of a fundamental value of being human. You
reward some with your empathy and punish others by withholding it. Reasons can always be found.”
“How are you different? Why do the suffering of some affect you more than others? Why do you care about the
people of Muertien more than any other? Isn’t it because they look like you?”
She still thinks this is a killer argument. I understand her, I really do. It’s so comforting to know that you’re right,
that you’ve triumphed over emotion with reason, that you’re an agent of the just empire, immune to the
betrayal of empathy.
I just can’t live like that.
I try one last time.
“I had hoped that by stripping away context and background, by exposing the senses to the rawness of pain and
suffering, virtual reality would be able to prevent all of us from rationalizing away our empathy. In agony, there
is no race, no creed, none of the walls that divide us and subdivide us. When you’re immersed in the experience
of the victims, all of us are in Muertien, in Yemen, in the heart of darkness that the Great Powers feed on.”
She doesn’t respond. I see in her eyes she has given up on me. I am beyond reason.
Through Empathium, I had hoped to create a consensus of empathy, an incorruptible ledger of the heart that
has overcome traitorous rationalization.
But perhaps I am still too naive. Perhaps I give empathy too much credit.

13. https://cultivatingalternatives.com/2013/11/28/summary-vibrant-matter-by-
jane-bennett/
http://film.ncu.edu.tw/word/Vibrant-Matter.pdf
http://www.jungatlanta.com/articles/fall15-technology.pdf
http://jungiancenter.org/wp/jung-modern-technology/
http://www.cgjungpage.org/learn/articles/technology-and-environment/681-
the-star-in-man-jung-and-technology
http://www.unm.edu/~ithomson/PhgTech.pdf
“Phenomenology and Technological Conconsciousness”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ73WI7cLjM&t=107s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_BxMwRywEk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbuTSzXKgIA&t=274s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q607Ni23QjA
https://breakermag.com/kchain-science-fiction-premiere-byzantine-empathy/
Resources and References