Comments on: Blurring The Lines http://www.pfspear.net/posts/2009/08/blurring-the-lines/ Patrick F. Spear ยป Posts Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:52:36 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Chris http://www.pfspear.net/posts/2009/08/blurring-the-lines/comment-page-1/#comment-1355 Chris Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:08:26 +0000 http://www.pfspear.net/posts/?p=104#comment-1355 What you're saying about blurring the lines between self and space and being transformed by the spaces/technologies we create reminds me of Marshall McLuhan's definition of a tool. This synopsis puts it better than I can.: '"We shape our tools," he said, "and then our tools shape us." Technology, according to McLuhan, is an extension of our own natural faculties. Just as a knife is an extension of the hand, and the wheel an extension of the leg, writing is an extension of speech and of memory. In this general metaphor, automobiles become extensions of our personal bodies, and the city an extension of our collective skin. Electronic communication is an extension of our nervous system, just as computers are extensions of our brains. Once extended, however, these technologies are "amputated." They exist as external and independent objects, though we remain dependent upon them' What you’re saying about blurring the lines between self and space and being transformed by the spaces/technologies we create reminds me of Marshall McLuhan’s definition of a tool. This synopsis puts it better than I can.:

‘”We shape our tools,” he said, “and then our tools shape us.” Technology, according to McLuhan, is an extension of our own natural faculties. Just as a knife is an extension of the hand, and the wheel an extension of the leg, writing is an extension of speech and of memory. In this general metaphor, automobiles become extensions of our personal bodies, and the city an extension of our collective skin. Electronic communication is an extension of our nervous system, just as computers are extensions of our brains. Once extended, however, these technologies are “amputated.” They exist as external and independent objects, though we remain dependent upon them’

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