It may surprise those of you who know me in real life to learn how long it took me to finish TechGnosis: myth, magic, and mysticism in the Age of Information by Erik Davis. Over a month, with many books in between.
Not because I wasn’t enjoying it, not because it’s impenetrable or boring, but because it’s dense. I’d read a section and then have to let it sink in for a while, as though my brain was rewiring itself.
That metaphor I just used, comparing my brain to a machine with wiring? (Huh, doesn’t my brain have wifi yet? I need to upgrade…) It’s a small example of the sort of phenomena that Davis explores in TechGnosis; the human tendency to describe the mysterious in terms that derive from technology, whether the technology in question is a scroll or a scroll bar. I’ll let him explain in more detail:
Human beings have been cyborgs from year zero. It is our lot to live in societies that invent tools that shape society and the individuals in it. For millennia, people not so dissimilar to ourselves have constructed and manipulated powerful and impressive technologies, including information technologies, and these tools and techniques have woven themselves into the social fabric of the world. Though technology has only come to dominate and define society within the lifetimes of a handful of human generations, the basic equation remains true for the whole nomadic trek of homo faber: Culture is technoculture.
Technologies concretely embody our ability to discover and exploit natural laws through the exercise of reason. But why do we choose to exploit certain natural laws? In what manner and toward what ends? Though we may think of technology as a tool defined by pragmatic and utilitarian concerns alone, human motivations in the matter of technology are rarely so straightforward. Like the rationality we carry within our minds, whose logical convictions must make their way through the brawling, boozing cabaret of the psyche, technologies are shaped and constrained by the warp and woof of culture, with its own peculiar myths, dreams, cruelties, and hungers. The immense machineries of war or entertainment can hardly be said to proceed from rational necessity, however precise their implementation; instead, we find their blueprints inked upon the fiery human heart.
Clarke’s Third Law, says Davis much later in the text, is “a quip that deserves more scrutiny than it usually receives.” Our ideas about magic and technology are inextricably linked; you can’t remove the soul from the new machine.
TechGnosis resists a quick and easy summary. It’s not a fast read, but if you’re interested in magic, myth, technology, and their intersections, I think you’ll find it as rewarding as I did.
Recent Comments
Bridget Zinn
sara z.
Ali J, Marsha, James Ratcliffe, Susan Denning, vj, Jeff P [...]
sara z., Dawn
Sara Ryan, Delia