The Transgenic Sublime

kin to the way the Schopenhauer felt the sublime experience to be triggered by those forces of nature so large and so powerful that have the potential to subsume and destroy the observer, the technological sublime is evoked in the presence of those machines and devices that we design to accomplish tasks that no amount of man-power could achieve. These technologies have gone beyond the multiplication of our efforts and entered a new realm of potentiality that trivializes the capabilities of the observer. And just as Kant felt the key to the sublime experience was the observer’s mental ability to rise to a higher level of abstraction and conceptualize immense natural events, the experience of the technological sublime is tied to the recognition of the observed technology not just as object alone but more abstractly as an object birthed from the labor pool of society.

Historically, the technological sublime was often used to promote moral values and bridge the gaps of class and race. It didn't matter what your background was, that you were capable of seeing and appreciating these things without trying to explain them as some monstrous natural force or as a religious experience, grouped you together with other "superior" people. Those who were unable to appreciate man’s involvement in the spectacle were considered ignorant and oafish. It was not enough to be awed by these incredible devices; it was necessary to understand their origin as firmly grounded with in the sphere of mans influence.

Given the immense potential of these devices, quite often the technological sublime is evoked by things that could kill us. This threat of danger connects back to the experience of the sublime triggered by natural events, and yet has another layer of depth that the natural sublime lacks—the knowledge that somewhere some human has the ability to predict the behavior of and exert control over the observed device. This confers on the observer a sense of human accomplishment that often carries with it an aspect of societal pride.

While gaining mental mastery over these powerful forces is a key element to both the natural and technological sublime, the experience of the latter often involves seeing the direct physical mastery of natural forces. At one time, spectacles such as steam-powered railways triggered the experience of the technological sublime. Although its ability to set in motion large masses of metal was alien, the conversion of liquid to steam was a familiar concept. As technology progressed the experience of the technological sublime became based on the control of forces much more abstract and unintuitive. Electricity provoked this experience for many who would never understand its causality and only a small portion of those who watch its launch grasps the inner workings of the chemical forces that propel a rocket into space. It is this sense of increasing control over forces whose origins become more and more obscure that lead us towards a sublime state triggered by the manipulation of the infinitesimal.