2b1) The progress of technology, says Borgmann, is driving us further into what he calls “the device paradigm”. The point of a device lies solely in its output — what he calls its commodity. The commodity of central heating is warmth. The commodity of a car is transportation. And unlike a thing, a device gives its users that commodity disconnected from the process of its creation. Frozen food lets you have a meal without cooking it for yourself. Central heating lets you have warmth without fussing around with a wood stove. A device is a kind of shortcut to its commodity. And if we think that all we really want is that commodity — then we want the device to hide from us all the mechanisms by which it creates those commodities. We want the process shoved out of sight, excised from our lives. So we make better devices, that give us faster access to what we think we want. They are better, from our perspective, because they further disentangle the commodity from all these other burdensome elements.
Of course, the key is that we only think these other elements are burdensome. But these burdensome elements also drive us into the complex world, says Borgmann. They drive us into social relationships, into activity, into a rich and sensuous experience of the detailed world. Devices divest us of that. They give us only the thing that we thought we had wanted. But that’s good only if we know exactly what’s good for us.
Of course, the key is that we only think these other elements are burdensome. But these burdensome elements also drive us into the complex world, says Borgmann. They drive us into social relationships, into activity, into a rich and sensuous experience of the detailed world. Devices divest us of that. They give us only the thing that we thought we had wanted. But that’s good only if we know exactly what’s good for us.
2b2) Even though on some level Nguyen takes a more pessimistic view of the technological apparatus that is a hallmark of human life than Deutsch does below, they largely agree on the ability of humans to think beyond their tools.
The great joke of 2001: A Space Odyssey is that the zero-gravity toilet has a complicated list of instructions. Humanity has escaped their terrestrial cradle, only to be trapped by the most basic biological function.
But this is also Deutsch's point.
Utopia is monotony. Life without change is monotony. Creativity is flattened and the horizon of change stretches beyond the human lifetime. But life itself, the memetic and biological concept carries and integrates change. Creating layers of complexity forming and reforming its environment to its purpose. Change quickens and is controlled. Unintended consequences abound, but are eventually bound. Creating more unintended consequences and contributing to the cycle of change. Making each new (r)evolutionary act yet another opportunity to stave off monotony.
Zoom is a but a blip in technological history. Certainly not in Nguyen's life. But Nguyen is also offered a chance to use that most human skill, reflection. And pass it on to us. In the end, he has changed the consideration of the device allowing him to continue to use the device without allowing the device to use him.
Deutsch says that "Humans are not playthings of cosmic forces. We are users of cosmic forces." As Deutsch appears "in person" by remote at TED, as Nguyen teaches "in person" on Zoom, our reality changes. Explanatory information is passed on, offering us all an opportunity to control cosmic forces.
Things spread their tendrils through our lives, they reshape our interactions and procedures in a thousand countless ways.
And isn't that the wonder of being human.
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