From Die Glocke to Voyager: Technology Between Myth, Sensing, and Sovereignty

### **From Die Glocke to Voyager: Technology Between Myth, Sensing, and Sovereignty** Between the steel cap that accidentally vanished into the sky and *Voyager 1*, which departed Earth with intent and encoded message, extends a profound narrative of humanity’s relationship with its own technological condition. At one end, the raw, blind, and ironic gesture of military-industrial power; at the other, a symbolic and poetic act of a species asking whether it will be remembered. Both originate from Earth. Both enact the enduring tension between **control and meaning**, between what is lost and what is communicated. In this landscape of gestures — from war-driven experimentation to cosmic outreach — **Die Glocke** occupies a spectral position. Allegedly a secret Nazi device, this "Bell" has endured in cultural memory through a mixture of historical fragments, conspiracy theories, and speculative science. Although its technical existence remains unproven, the myth of Die Glocke functions as a **techno-symbolic echo**: a distorted mirror reflecting the anxieties and ambitions of modernity, where fact and imagination fuse in pursuit of power, secrecy, and transcendence. Modern thermographic technologies, such as FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared) sensors, mark a technical counterpoint to such myths. Unlike the ambiguous Bell, these systems are real, standardised, and clinically validated — capable of identifying variations in surface temperature with high precision. In clinical thermography, parameters such as a ≥1°C thermal differential define significant physiological variations, supporting protocols recognised by medical institutions (ABRATERM, 2021; Ring & Ammer, 2012). These tools, once developed for defence and surveillance, now permeate civilian life, expanding the sensorium and reconfiguring our relation to the invisible. Here, **lithium** — the white gold of the digital era — emerges as an underground connector of these dualities. It fuels both military machines and perceptual extensions. Its ghostly presence, imperceptible to the eye yet vital to the functioning of every sensor and server, reveals a **new paradigm of power**: no longer spectacular, but logistical; no longer visible, but infrastructural. In this paradigm, sovereignty becomes a question of invisible control over thermodynamic flows, over energy, over heat. It is in this context that **bioenergetics** enters not as pseudoscience, but as symbolic extrapolation. Reinterpreting Einstein’s equation $E=mc^2$, some propose that the human body is a site of energetic flow, resistance, and transformation — not just chemically, but thermally and symbolically. While such interpretations remain on the margins of biomedical orthodoxy, they offer a **conceptual bridge** between empirical measurement and metaphysical inquiry, framing the body as both data and meaning, both organism and field. In the 21st century, **thermal sensors** and their civilian diffusion mark an inflection point. They not only make the invisible visible — they reframe the very idea of **seeing**. No longer tied exclusively to surveillance, thermal imaging is reimagined as a form of **careful presence**, a sensory attentiveness to the world. Companies such as FLIR Systems contribute to this shift, crafting a humanistic narrative around their products — transitioning from a logic of control to a practice of **ethical revelation**. This symbolic transformation returns us to the mythic dimension of Die Glocke — not as an object of technological truth, but as an artefact of meaning, standing alongside *Voyager 1* in a planetary drama of visibility and silence, dominance and offering. Between these poles — the fallen steel and the singing probe — a **question arises**: what is our role, as a civilisation, in the symbolic and ethical use of technologies? The answer may not lie in grand inventions or destructive spectacles, but in the **small gradients of heat** we still know how to detect, tend to, and share (Only for human intelligence). ### Selected References (for expanded research and citation) #### Philosophy of Technology and Technics * Bernard Stiegler. *Technics and Time: The Fault of Epimetheus*. Stanford University Press, 1998.* Gilbert Simondon. *On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects*. University of Minnesota Press, 2017.* Vilém Flusser. *The Codified World: For a Philosophy of Design and Communication*. Cosac Naify, 2007. #### Thermography and Biomedical Applications * ABRATERM. *Clinical Protocol for Medical Thermography*. São Paulo, 2021.* Ring, F. J., & Ammer, K. *Infrared Thermal Imaging in Medicine*. *Physiological Measurement*, 33(3), R33–R46, 2012. #### STS and Sensory Politics * Bruno Latour. *Reassembling the Social*. Oxford University Press, 2005.* Donna Haraway. *When Species Meet*. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.* Karen Barad. *Meeting the Universe Halfway*. Duke University Press, 2007. #### Visuality, Power and Infrastructure * Paul Virilio. *The Vision Machine*. Verso, 1994.* Jonathan Crary. *Techniques of the Observer*. MIT Press, 1992.* Achille Mbembe. *Necropolitics*. N-1 Editions, 2018.* Jussi Parikka. *The Geology of Media*. University of Minnesota Press, 2015. #### Technical and Archival Sources * FLIR Systems Inc. – Technical whitepapers and product catalogues (flir.com)* NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Voyager Mission and Golden Record archives* U.S. Department of Defence – Plumbbob Project reports (declassified under FOIA)