- There are countless perspectives from which
to view technology.However, the perspective I chose in the first
part of this article was toexamine "technology as a cultural
phenomenon." Even though technologyseems on the surface
to be diverse, take for example, the steam engine,telephone,
computer, and gene manipulation, there are also culturalaspects
inherent in the appearance of such things. What I mean by"cultural"
is a social system of meanings; or more roughly put, a pair ofglasses
through which meaning is given to the world. A phrase used indaily
conversation like "the way we see things" might be
understood inphilosophical terms to mean "this is the frame
of reference through whichwe recognize the world."
- There are two specific reasons I emphasize
the phrase "the way we seethings." One is to suggest
that contemporary technology is by no meansuniversal nor does
it stand outside of history, and therefore, we have theopportunity
to put some distance between it and ourselves and establisha
relative relationship to it. Now, we might not be able to take
ourglasses off, but we can at least be aware of the fact that
we are wearingthem. The second reason is that like science, technology
itself is actuallystructured around a kind of mystical faith
which is neither technical norlogical.?@This faith, despite the
fact that technology today appears to bethoroughly "logical",
affects the color of the entire enterprise at thedeepest level.
By rights, this should then be a decisive, central issue todeal
with when we consider the relationship between technology and
art.
- So what exactly is that faith? That is what
I would like to examine in thisarticle using the metaphor of
the "sign" and the "machine." "technologicalrationality"
is in truth nothing more than rationality that has been builtupon
a faith in the sign and the machine.
|
The way we see things always include two extremes: "The
subject doingthe seeing," and "the world that is seen."
Technique is an externalization(objectification) of the person
and as with communication, is the essenceof self-awareness. In
the same way, the hammer is to fist as scissors areto tooth and
nails as the wheel is to walking--all forms of externalization.The
most important features in this are that the body and the act
aredisconnected from the chain of reactions in which they are
primarilypositioned and can be understood visually and manipulated.Understanding
the externalized object is nothing less than understandingthe
self. At the heart of the violence in a fit of passion is the
fist isburied within the act. When the fist is externalized as
a club or spear,people immediately understand the violent meaning
or dynamics of thefist. In this way, by reinternalizing the externalized
self, people form abasis from which to attach meaning the world.
Yet, in this dynamicprocess, both the self and the world emerge
simultaneously. At thisinstant, technique changes into a form
that mediates between the selfand the world. When the mediation
is between club and spear, the warriorthat is the self and the
aggressor that is the other emerges along withthe just and unjust,
allied territory and enemy territory. It never occursin the reverse
order.
- The method that people use to externalize the self, technique,
needsneither tool nor machine. "Writing" is certainly
an externalizing techniqueof linguistic action. In particular,
the phonetic alphabet promotes ananalytical, homogeneous material
in the process. To externalize language,the thought processes
and world that is represented by language must bedisconnected
from the chain of actions that language is buried in, andpositioned
within a visual space. Writing, as well as the polishing andediting
of a text, is nothing less than visual manipulation of thought
andthe world. A text gives rise to completed thoughts. Generally,systematic
thought is not formulated without writing. Yet, in most of thecultural
traditions that have writing systems, the letter is a symbol
thatpossesses an illogical, sacred power. Only geographical areas
that havebeen in some limited historically have successfully
escaped thesymbolism of written language.
- The complete Greek alphabet, including both consonants and
vowels,reduced all languages to the combinations possible with
merely 24distinguishing signs analytically representing homogeneous
spoken unitsof language. In other words, an alphabet divorces
an accumulation ofmeaning that is of essential significance to
the language from the letter.This clears the field for the roots
of "faith," which is able to reduce allthings to attributes
such as numbers or information and map out a worldon a completely
homogeneous plane.
- This concept is not true, incidentally, for kanji (Chinese
characters) inwhich one by one, letters leave their stamp of
memory on the body,immersing us in the symbolic dimensions of
transcendency, pleasure, anddeath.
- In the middle of the 15th century, with GUTENBERG's invention
of movabletype, the nature of the alphabet was given an even
clearer, moreconcrete form. The visual manipulation of thought
and the world becamethe physical manipulation of a concrete object--type.
In one sense, thiscreated an awareness of a homogeneous space
where these manipulationswere performed. Over this entire process,
the form of the machine wasthus clearly projected.
- While on the one hand a simple tool is the externalization
of the internalorgans, the machine is the externalization of
a process, a series ofmovements. The machine as the symbol of
practicality and efficiency issomething new. The machine has
a long history as a mysterious objectused to astound people.
This in itself is of no use, but on the other hand, itis a rare
machine in which this characteristic doesn't surface. Whenconsidering
externalization of the self and the understanding of the selfthrough
technique, the essence of being human, the attempt toexternalize
the entirety of the living self is in a sense the most naturalcourse
of events. In fact, such attempts are nearly as old as the history
ofthe machine. Engineering discussions on robots and artificial
intelligencethat have really begun to unfold in this century
are by no means the firstattempts to deal with this topic.
- In ancient Alexandria, automata (mechanical people) were
skillfullyconstructed out of screws, linchpins, levers, and wheels.
These appearedin religious plays, arousing mystical awe in people
with their ability tosprinkle holy water. A maturer version of
the automata, which appearedby way of Islamic society, came into
its own on the corners of Europe inthe 17th and 18th centuries.
The minutely crafted Vaucanson automatawas a flute player that
played a melody with its fingers while adjustingair flow with
its lips and tongue. This was one perfect example of therealization
of a machine that externalized the self.
- Automata techniques were further cultivated through the development
ofthe mechanical clock. In the 17th century, clocks, which were
smallchronometers that were already equipped with springs and
balancingwheels, gradually started to permeate middle-class society.
In the clockof the day, there were also complex functions such
as longitudemeasuring for sea voyages, but there was still no
reason for commonpeople to know the precise time or measure their
day. Clocks, likeautomata, existed as symbolic, not utilitarian,
machines. The origin ofthis symbolism was rooted in the simple
fact that they "moved freely."
- At the dawn of the modern age, time began to be measured
by mechanicalclocks. The clock became a symbolic metaphor for
the movement of theuniverse, natural systems, and human beings.
With the clocks theythought up, DESCARTES, GALILEO, and NEWTON
opened the door to themodern era. The machine, with its "mechanistic"
tradition, that sheds themost intense light on the history of
Western thought is none other thanthe clock. Scientific analysis
and synthetic methods were derived fromassembling and disassembling
clocks. The uniform division of abstract,homogeneous time and
space, which became the foundation formathematics and physics,
was already being measured out by thetick-tack (the sound of
infinitesimal calculus!) of the clock. The clock wasthe first
engineering product in human history, and increased need forclocks
called for the development of an energy resource to activateautomated
machine tools. Clockmakers of the time broke with theindustrial
revolution and became spinners. They were in essencedischarged
by the flow of history that was moving toward the machine forthe
purpose of production. It would be no exaggeration to say thatmodern
and contemporary Western knowledge and technology allradiates
from a single point of light, the mechanical clock.
- What exact part of people was it that was externalized by
the clock? Theclock externalized the mysticism at the very recesses
of humans and theworld. Externalization in this case concerned
free movement in constantrepetition, and the universality of
"being alive" as seen in humans and theworld. In this
era of dynamics, if automata were a concrete projection ofthe
human body, the clock projected a highly purified, abstracted
versionof human life.
- To explain the relationship between the machine and the capitalisteconomy,
it would require a discussion so detailed as to be uncontainablein
a single volume. In the end, the machine assimilated the principleconcepts
of capitalism to become what is today a given: "The productionmachine."
In the same way, humans and the world both became entangledin
the production process. In this process, the nature of the machinebecame
utilitarian and efficient, making it seem as if these were itsoriginal
features. In the age of the clock, the slight movements of thespring
and pendulum were enough. But with the shift to machines forproduction,
more energy became necessary, and the 19th century becamethe
age of power production. Massive amounts of energy were used
formassive machine tools. Each part of the machine was divided
intofunctions for each independent machine with a production
line ofefficiency installed to link them all together. It was
a continuous seriesof goal-oriented methods in which machines
were used for the productionof movement in order to move machines
for the production of machinesfor the production of something.
- The massive amount of energy that the human race tricked
out of naturehad to be tamed for the purpose of production. Continuing
on into the20th century, the situation became like a bucking
bronco that had beenbroken in with the start of control and communication.
To make machinesfunction with the reliability of a living thing,
it became necessary for themachine to know itself and the surrounding
environment. The concepts ofinformation, entropy, and feedback
extended the view of system, whichuntil that point had been thought
of as closed, to the exterior.
- Cybernetics came into the world as a form of interdisciplinary
researchthat dealt with control and communication. Cybernetics
was essentiallynothing more than a shift to a more abstract,
more comprehensive focusconcerning the machine. The concept of
the machine became one oftransforming systems. In this equation,
substance was not the foundation;the sign (information) was the
foundation. The historical process ofreducing the world to homogeneous
units of signs passed from phoneticalphabets to printing, and
on to scientific quantification until it was atleast reduced
to the simplest, clearest ultimate signs: 0 and 1. The twolines
that led to mechanization and reduction of the sign, passed throughthe
history of science and capitalist production, asserting a stronginfluence
on each other as they extended, and for the first time,intersected.Strangely,
today cybernetic machines have resurrected the originalmachineness
of the automata and the clock. Finally, we have gotten to thepoint
where we can begin to talk about the computer.
|