---
title: "Functional vs. Instrumental Technologies"
description: "Two different contrasts to \"existential technology\" inside the corpus."
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/functional-vs-instrumental-technologies"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/functional-vs-instrumental-technologies"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Functional vs. Instrumental Technologies

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/functional-vs-instrumental-technologies), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

Two different contrasts to "existential technology" inside the corpus. Konior's *functional* technologies are used on other people to help or harm, transparently expanding the capacity for good and evil (weapons, medicine, media, energy); the existential ones alter evolutionary trajectories and "as what" we survive. Bratton's *instrumental* technologies act only by what they do; his existential ones (telescopes, microscopes, computation, simulation) change how we understand the world. Bratton's "existential" is roughly Konior's *gnostic* subcategory; her anthropoforming category has no Bratton counterpart. Both attribute the distinction to Lem, but Konior says it is her elaboration of a passing remark.

## Appears in

- [Existential Technologies](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/existentialtech) (2025-05-10)
- [For a General Theory of Simulations](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/theoryofsim) (2025-05-10)
- [After Alignment](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/afteralignment) (2025-05-10)
- [Speculative Philosophy of Planetary Computation](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/spoc) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._