Re: machines/models

Dan

With regard to your stuff on human/technology interaction, you might be
interested in a book called (I think) _Exploring Technology and Social
Space_ by John Wise (Sage).

In a nutshell, the claim is that if you want to think about issues of
technology, you are better off doing it via D&G than Latour and actor
network theory. There's also quite a bit about cyborgs: The stuff on Donna
Haraway is quite fun, but it then moves into reading films (not that I
have any problem with that in general, I just wish people would read
something other than _Bladerunner_).

The book is fairly lightweight but, unlike most of the people who link D&G
to this stuff, he doesn't say anything particularly stupid.

With regard to humans having always been cyborgs:

There's a great line in Freud (_Civilization and Its Discontents_ I think)
to the effect that whenever he puts on his spectacles man (sic) becomes a
prosthetic God. 

Additionally, in the _Anthropology_ Kant is already making claims for
notebooks being external devices by which the brain stores memories. 

Makes this notion of sitting at a computer and turning into a
pothuman slightly less exciting doesn't it? I have never really understood
why people think that PCs are such a big step in human evolution. Whilst
they do make communication more efficient (sometimes). I would have
thought that the first big breakthrough in connectivity (and consequently
the more major 'epistemic' shift) was the development of an efficient
postal service. I suppose that becoming-envelope is not as sexy as
becoming-cyborg though.

Regards

John