A shiny, transparent exoskeleton waits quietly, resting on a table, perhaps a remote activation. Fragile fingers of quick touch remain immovable in a retracted and uncertain position. A voice resounds from an intercom loudspeaker: – Imagine that you have never seen a human being before.
Imagine humanity through the eyes of aliens. Wouldn’t we look magical from space? From afar, humans seems to generate light. On closer inspection you would see that they actually have frail bodies, and they dominate their habitat through the use of tools. Over time perhaps you could see the shift. The dawn of an industrialised civilisation. For a time humankind flourished in their mass-produced utopia. Great tools were built, of a scale easily visible from…
“The writing ball is a thing like me: made of iron Yet easily twisted on journeys. Patience and tact are required in abundance, As wel as fine fingers, to use us.”
People often fear the fast changing technological landscape. That distrust is not something new. Peter Paul Verbeek, Professor of Philosophy of Human and Technology at the University of Twente, describes how in the past people got afraid every time technology took a jump. Verbeek sees technology as a part of us, in every historical timeline. “Technology shapes how we are human, and how we see the world. It has always done that, from the fist…