The postphenomenological framework of concepts—and especially the version utilized by the founder of this school of thought, Don Ihde—has proven useful for puncturing others’ totalizing or otherwise overgeneralizing claims about technology. However, does this specialization in deflating hype leave this perspective unable to identify the kinds of technological patterns necessary for contributing to activist interventions and political critique? Put differently, the postphenomenological perspective is committed to the study of concrete human-technology relations, and it eschews essentialist and fundamentalizing accounts of technology. Do these commitments render it incapable of providing general assessments of our contemporary technological situation? It is my contention that this perspective can indeed be useful for these kinds of critical projects. To do so, we must go beyond Ihde’s personal tendency to utilize postphenomenology mostly for deflating others’ hype, and explore this perspective’s distinctive potential for identifying ways that technologies can become set within problematic patterns of usage and design. My suggestion is that the postphenomenological notion of “multistability” (i.e., the idea that technologies are always open to multiple uses and meanings) can play a helpful role in these efforts, especially when combined with a conception of local, rather than totalizing, stabilizations of human-technology relationships.

实践证明，现象的后现象学框架，尤其是该思想流派的创始人唐·艾德（Don Ihde）使用的版本，对打断他人对技术的总体主张或过分概括的观点很有用。但是，这种放荡炒作的专长是否使这种观点无法确定有助于激进主义干预和政治批评的必要技术类型？换句话说，后现象学的视角致力于研究具体的人与技术的关系，而避开了本质主义和技术论的根本化。这些承诺是否使其无法提供对我们当代技术状况的一般评估？我认为这种观点确实对这类关键项目很有用。为此，我们必须超越艾德（Ihde）的个人趋势，即主要利用后现象学来平息他人的炒作，并探索这种观点的独特潜力，以确定技术可以在有问题的使用和设计模式下使用的方式。我的建议是，现象后的“多重稳定性”概念（即，技术始终对多种用途和含义开放的观念）在这些努力中可以发挥有益作用，尤其是当与局部而非整体的稳定性概念结合使用时人与技术之间的关系。并探索这种观点的独特潜力，以识别可以在有问题的使用和设计模式中设置技术的方式。我的建议是，现象后的“多重稳定性”概念（即，技术始终对多种用途和含义开放的观念）在这些努力中可以发挥有益作用，尤其是当与局部而非整体的稳定性概念结合使用时人与技术之间的关系。并探索这种观点的独特潜力，以识别可以在有问题的使用和设计模式中设置技术的方式。我的建议是，现象后的“多重稳定性”概念（即，技术始终对多种用途和含义开放的观念）在这些努力中可以发挥有益作用，尤其是当与局部而非整体的稳定性概念结合使用时人与技术之间的关系。