Ihde starts out using the last chapter and expanding it a bit further. He starts us out with Technics Embodied and begins to show us that "...while the fact that optics transform vision may be clear, the variants and invariants of such a transformation are not yet precise." (72) He first takes us through and shows us that the I-see-the world that we simply see through the optics that he talked about earlier. The technology is completely embodied within us. The I-glasses world takes us further and we find out it's not just the glasses, but also the hearing aid and the blind man's cane that is used because it's simply extending our own senses. These technologies withdraw from our senses and become perfect because they become a part of our life. They actually become a part of us and reach total embodiement. The third area here is the I-telephone-you in which we are further distanced from true embodiement. The telephone extends and sends our voice to the far croners of this earth and enables us to reach people like never before, but it also conceals our emotions. While the glasses amplified our vision, the telephone truly restricts our embodied hearing.
The second area that Ihde brings up is Hermeneutic Technics. He begins by telling us that hermeneutics refers to textual interpretation and for that reason must include reading. I have read this chapter over and over and what really stands out to me is when Ihde talks about Three Mile Island. It's not that we can't read and understand. It's not that we don't have the ability to have textual transparency. Technology can be altered or formed in such a way that we don't have the ability to accurately read it. We are doomed to failure by the very way we design something because we take away the embodiement of that technology when we distance ourselves from it.
These next areas I had problems understanding where Ihde was going and he seemed to be lacking a point other than saying that other philosophers were wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment