For centuries the use of tools by humans has been used as a marker - one of several gauges of that particular quality that define humans as unique and self-aware beings. Over the millennia, the development and use of certain tools has effected the quality of life so profoundly, that one can scarcely imagine life without their use. Language, social structures, medicine, electricity, mass communication.
There exists in our culture the promise of technological solutions to every need, problem and issue associated with the human condition, from the basic needs of food and shelter, to more sophisticated requirements of the human animal - fast food, financial credit, internet dating, artificial hearts, and MTV. Attempts to meet these needs with technology comes in a variety of forms - from AT & T providing lengthy and complex exchanges of information without the customer ever speaking with a live operator, to computer controlled medical implants monitoring and performing an increasing number of metabolic and physiological functions in the human body.
The conceptual cornerstones of "that which makes humans unique" continue to be challenged and defeated. Internally, in the case of medical advancements, and externally - as demonstrated by the increasing number of "human" interactions which no longer have two humans participating. Identity and self-awareness are no longer the exclusive terrain of human beings. We live in the age of the "transhuman" being.
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Por :
h2oboy1
Duración:
02:01 Min
Vistos:
14988
Publicada:
4/17/2006