Megan Arrowsmith
the digital age has only complicated the matter , as it is unclear as to how much of who we are as humans comes from our relation from other things ; are we human because of our relationship with technology , with other animals lack ? Or does technology make us less than human , and has it stripped away the basis of what made us ‘ us ’.
Technology has enabled the human race to advance beyond what history would have believed possible . In the last twenty years alone there has been exponential growth of groundbreaking technology in all disciplines from medicine , to transport , to communication , to leisure , which allowed the next step in “ human evolution ”, which Mazlish , ( 2013 ) considers to be “ a matter of co-evolution of man and machine ”. These developments have been integral to human life in most parts of the world , and it is sometimes difficult to see how humans now would survive without them .
Despite these technological marvels which seem to have propelled humanity into a great and wonderful way of living , there are those who see this advancement as responsible for lessening humanity . Technology has changed how we live in
SOTA Anthology 19 / 20
most of the world on both large , society changing and individual levels . McLuhan ( 1994 , cited in Richardson and Locks , 2014 , p . 97 ) called the way in which technology lessens man an ‘ amputation ’; it takes away something from a person . These can be taking away physical needs , such as cars taking away the need to walk , so now we have cities built around roads and transport links , or the negative health effects which technology causes ; earphones have been known to cause hearing difficulties , or screens causing eyestrain . In this sense , technology has progressively changed what it is to be human , and the capabilities of a human being .
It is not only these ‘ amputations ’ which have changed humans , the ‘ extensions ’ ( McLuhan , 1994 , cited in Richardson and Locks , 2014 , p . 97 ) have also altered how people see humans , and possibly moved us into being something more ; a form of posthuman body . Developments in technology , especially within medicine , have led to humans becoming ‘ cyborgs ’, which were first introduced by Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline in their 1960 article ‘ Cyborgs in Space ’ ( Richardson and Locks , 2014 , p . 102 ) and later defined by Hartley , ( 2003 , p . 59 ) as “ a fusion