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My In Theory Podcast was entitled Our Quantified / Cyborg Selves. The podcasts focuses on the connection of humanity, its dependence on technology, and how technology has changed us throughout the years. They say that thinking about ourselves in connection to all this technology puts into perspective the question of what it means to be human. It states that technology has integrated itself with humans as a whole as early as the industrial revolution. They reference Female Theorist Donna Haraway who wrote a book called The Cyborg Manifesto in 1985. She argued that we are already cyborgs because of the technology we were already wearing and carrying around. She thought that we are starting to think of ourselves as machines, not only by the technology we wear but by the metaphors we use. We talk about processing information or needing to reboot something. Around 17 minutes the hosts brought up this idea, “we are starting to think of ourselves as machines, not only by the technology we wear but by the metaphors we use. We talk about processing information or needing to reboot something.”
They mentioned that the language started to shift during the industrial revolution. The trend of talking about ourselves has continued and integrated itself into our everyday language especially when connected to physical activity. They say that thinking about ourselves in connection to all this technology puts into perspective the question of what it means to be human.
While this is a valid point, I’m not sure that’s the case for every person; or at least the people I’m around. (Maybe its different for me because I’m surrounded by musicians who are surrounded by their high school students.) While the environment you surround yourself in does have an effect on your linguistic style, I don’t think that technology has integrated that far. The trend of talking about ourselves in connection to technology has grown but I don’t think that technological talk has as big of an influence as they theorize.
Now the second theorist makes more sense to me personally. Theorist Marshall McLuhan’s idea of media as an extension of the self. When new technology comes out, we shift our lives around this new technology. We get a new extension of ourselves changes the way we engage with the world. For instance, I use a Fitbit because it tells me the time and monitors my heart rate, or I freak out about my phone going dead because it is important for my work and family to get a hold of me. They stress that we are trading learning for the purpose of learning, generosity, and the beauty of art for the ease of living and the gathering of statistics and the need of productivity and achievement. As long as we find a way to balance the productivity of technology and the leisure of humanity we will continue to be successful humans and not cold robots.
