Newmedia on Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:45:08 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> a call to the army of love etc. etc. |
Keith: Indeed. Like you my concern is with the HUMANS and not the "machines." The relationship between the *humans* and their inventions has not always been the same, since, while we have remained the same, these inventions have themselves changed. In particular, if we will admit that our technology is an EXTENSION of ourselves, then a definite watershed was reached in this process in the mid-19th century. ELECTRICITY! What does *electricity* extend? Our arms and hands and feet? Our eyes and ears and noses? No. Electricity extends our NERVOUS SYSTEMS. Now that's a very different situation than the wheel or the steam engine or the railroad or the printing press. If *electricity* extends our nervous systems and if we will admit (at least for the purpose of this discussion) that once-extended our technologies tend to "self-amputate" and take on a "life of their own," then what is the situation that results when our now "autonomous" *nervous systems* . . . COME ALIVE? Robots? Cyborgs? Wage-slaves? Lady GAGA? WIRED magazine? My concerns are about the HUMAN ECONOMY (as are yours, since that's the title of an important book that you edited) and about how *humanity* regains control over its own inventions. For 150 years we have been under attack by our own ELECTRIC inventions. If we understand what is going on, then we have a chance to *retrieve* human agency and dignity. Yes, I use machines everyday as do we all. Imagining that we should discard them is silly and misses the "human" element, while acceding to the "machine" imperative. Mark Stahlman Brooklyn NY # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org