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bogmire t1_itqwbbm wrote

But there is a whole culture of fetishism around these objects, I'm guilty of it myself. Perhaps the people who celebrate the airplane as an object are on the outside so to speak, not the ones operating or purchasing them though.

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PositiveStrength5694 t1_itr4l7h wrote

That's an interesting point. I think it might be because it is also a certain conquering of nature, an impressive scientific accomplishment of physics make an iron bird fly. I think telescopes, missions to the moon and certain other technological projects in the name of discovery or merely accomplishments (e.g. the space race) can maybe not be as accurately described by this and provide a different category of technology all together. Heidegger, in his "the question concerning technology" talks about demanding resources from nature, but I do not see how a telescope is demanding anything.

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Icy-Performance-3739 t1_itrdhtp wrote

The telescope is demanding spectral and electromagnetic information from the cosmos

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salTUR t1_itt4zih wrote

It also demands the materials used to build the telescope, literally

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