Psychiatrist and philosopher Karl Jaspers (1883–1969), who was born in Oldenburg, Germany on February 23, became one of the most important representatives of existential philosophy. He died in Basel, Switzerland on February 26.

Jaspers developed an existential analysis of technology in two distinct phases. His early conception of technology, which he put forth in Man in the Modern Age (1931), revolved around the transformation of human society into a mass, mechanized culture. His initial assessment of this transformation was negative. He wrote of the demonism of technology, describing technology as an independent power that had been summoned into existence by human beings but that now has turned against them. According to Jaspers, technology transforms human society into a mass culture, alienating human beings from themselves and from the world around them.

Jaspers considered mass-rule a byproduct of the close interaction between technological development and population growth, which results in a...