| dc.description.abstract | Introduction
Anxiety accompanies human/machine intersections. This condition is,
however, relatively new. Early work on machinic extensions of humans (men in
particular) for space travel occurred at roughly the same time as other forms of
technology, such as television, began to proliferate in everyday life. With the
increasing rate of this proliferation, some might say invasion, of technology, it is
now widely acknowledged the extent to which various forms of technology shape
our worlds. At times, this anxiety takes a phobic turn, questioning the extent to
which these technologies, as a whole, benefit human life on this planet:
In our more reflexive moments, we are suspicious that the
technological instruments intended to heal and bring us together -
the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, the computer, the fax
machine, medical apparatus - are in truth driving us further apart.
We fear that we are isolated bodies, plugged into technological
toys and tools but divorced from the comforts of human proximity
and touch. Even worse, the material products of technical-scientific
reason have proliferated until they promise to transform
the planet into a wasted metallic reflection of its misguided
demigod. (Rushing and Frentz, 1995:13-14)
Fear of isolation and environmental degradation and anxiousness about the
possibility that an increased relationship with and/or reliance upon technology
might mean that humans could not survive without machines; perhaps even that
human and machine are becoming integrated at the expense of pure'
humanness In short, the boundary between human and machine is becoming
blurred, if not eradicated. (see document) | |
