The Human dimension of technology: Individual Vs. Machine.

The Human dimension of technology: Individual Vs. Machine.

Survival, that is the very origin of all technology we know as human race. Since the begging of human history, the evolution of the specie has been deeply interconnected with a variety of methods, processes and tools that gave us the ability to survive to: weather, using the knowledge on stars and seasons; shortage of resources, using agriculture; self protection, using weapons and; achieving race endure throughout time, using society.

It is determinant to understand that human technology does not circumscribe to material artifacts. In an anthropological sense, an artifact is anything man made, in this particular case there exist a complex variety of non material artifacts that govern our lives since we base our reality in technology: frontiers, race, social hierarchies, moral, languages, economic models and so on, all of them human technologies thought to simplify or overcome significant complications present through human history.

Technology is understood in a material sense but based on human needs, it turns to be much more that devices, gadgets and machines, human artifacts are based on the most important technology ever created by man: society.

Derived from society, every other sort of technology, material or intellectual, has been constructed upon that fundamental apparatus. Thus, when tracking back any rationale behind any given technology, society manifest to give meaning and use to that technology. That is the primary human dimension of all technology, which is valued and enhanced following commandment, stipulations, requirements and practices embedded in society.

When technology is in need of governance it takes its principles out of social ideas and constructions, in this way policies on technology are a reflection of what the society sets as advantageous and functional.

Technology, been theorized as a social construction, makes me wonder how society, constituted by individuals, transforms in to technology? In other words, how a social machine creates the technology to keep going? Is that even observable?

Example. In a society where capital is the fuel that keeps machinery dynamic, the priority would be to maintain that fuel flowing in order to survive, which as stated before is the higher motive for technology to exist, then what would the system (the society) would do to endure through time? It will create technology to keep fuel circulating. Bearing this in mind, let us track back the origin of that fuel; capital must be present in every single process within society; if somebody is sick, in other words not capable of contributing to the system, the society will generate the proper mechanism to make that individual healthy again, so he can reinsert in the societal mechanism. It is obvious that there are guidelines to be part of the system, the most important is ultimately making the organism resilient enough to subsist, consequently the medical artifacts will manifest ; again the question, technology will manifest because of the need of the individual to be healthy or because of the potential inability to be part of the system?

Is society making us parts of a machine, that is per se struggling to survive?

Are we as individuals still in control?

If the thesis of society as the main force that drives the functioning is logic, we are artifacts of society, we live as social technology capable to perform determined activities, and only that. As in any other systems if we are not able to perform properly in the system we became obsolete and we are not useful anymore. A clear example of this phenomena would be the lack of faculty to generate fuel for the system, without this ability we are not an artifact worthy of the system, we became in the best scenario a malfunctioning part, but eventually useless technology.

The highest question to answer is, are we part of a functioning system, is the system in where we function coherent with our individuality?