Technology as Forgetfulness of Being

Laozi warns against the multiplication of tools, desires, and systems that obscure our nature. Heidegger identified technology as enframing (Gestell)—reducing being to resource and utility. Together, they illuminate how modern life's technological momentum actually intensifies being-toward-death anxiety by denying it. We accelerate, optimize, and distract ourselves through devices and systems, using technology as a fortress against mortality awareness. The smartphone becomes a shield against boredom and finitude; productivity systems promise control over time itself. Yet this forgetfulness extracts a cost: authentic existence requires confronting, not escaping, our temporal nature. The Taoist sage unplugs from excessive artifice to remember what is real: breath, presence, the body's limits. By reducing technological mediation, we return to direct encounter with being and time. This is not primitivism but clarity—recognizing which tools serve life and which serve denial. Authentic being-toward-death requires distinguishing between genuine need and technologically-driven evasion of mortality.