One of the dominant themes of Heidegger's later writing is his critique of modern technology. Heidegger never liked modern cosmopolitan life, with its consumerism, shallow values and disregard for nature, but from the 1950s onwards this feeling intensified greatly. He wrote: “Everywhere we remain unfree and chained to technology, whether we passionately affirm or deny it” (“The Question Concerning Technology”, in BW: 311).

He saw mankind as obsessed with production and profit, irrespective of the current or future consequences, and this calculating, mercenary behaviour governed all decisions. What most horrified Heidegger was his realization that these were only the earliest symptoms of a “diseased” way of thinking that set itself no limits, the prognosis being infinite technological expansion that would eventually eradicate all other ways of thinking. Human existence would finally become completely subordinate to technological dictatorship.

He observed the mesmerizing power of television as one of the most visible signs of the dominion of technology, and asserted that human beings are, strictly speaking, no longer “at home” where, seen from outside, they live. In other words, you may appear to be seated in your lounge but in fact, thanks to your television and home entertainment system, you have been “teleported” and are now a “spectator” in a football stadium or the voyeur of a sex scene. He saw this as an example of humanity's collective “migration” into a condition of homelessness; radio, television and other modern modes of communication are today much closer to man than the traditions of his native world.