Abstract

Hans Blumenberg’s estate contains an undated fragment entitled “On Machines and Simulators.” In this vision of the future, Blumenberg states that there is one type of machine that predominantly produces material things and another that is similar to consciousness and saves us time. This has the fatal consequence that by means of the second type, we have a lot of time to consume the material products from the first type, so that these products ‘clog up’ the world. Blumenberg’s proposal is to have machines produce immaterial products for consumption instead, namely ‘simulators’ that create ‘worlds on demand.’ In this entertaining short text, some aspects of Blumenberg’s work emerge that are ideally suited to a theoretical understanding of the phenomenon of digitalization and its consequences. The article compares Blumenberg’s vision with the current state of affairs and, on the basis of current phenomena, draws on the theoretical strands from Blumenberg’s work that are alluded to in the fragment. To this end, it asks what has become of the idea of ‘worlds on demand’ and explains the process of the digital transformation of the life-world as a further development of the emergence of virtual worlds. From here, considerations from “Phenomenological Aspects on Life-World and Technization” and Lebenszeit und Weltzeit take on a new meaning. Finally, an outlook is given on the extent to which this updating of Blumenberg’s phenomenological anthropology can be related to current challenges of technology.