The Increasing Expansion of a Technologically Dependent Culture

By Sufi Mohamed

Technology is an interesting utility. Not only does technology function as a way of life, it makes the stuff of life easy. Donna Haraway in A Cyborg Manifesto (film and communications theorist) noted that, "by the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic time, we are all chimeras, theorized and fabricated hybrids of machine and organism; in short, we are cyborgs." From Haraway's description, the combination of man and machine has brought us to the realization that we have grown too dependent upon technology. To adequately understand the formation of this technological necessity, I will first describe the progression of technology, technological autonomy, the beginnings of a new public sphere existing in the realm of cyberspace, and the future's imminent direction.

Technological progress can be traced directly to the invention of the telegraph. The telegraph futhered the concept that communication can be done through distance. However, developed primarily as a slot for significant military usages, the telegraph's ability for long range communication led to the invention of the telephone. Functioning under the same umbrella of communication, the telephone's primary duty was to defeat distance. Distance has always proved a threat to communication and in every instance, the mere act of trying to conquer this distance has become communication's primary motif. The telephone merely emphasized the importance of long distance communication. Following the telephone came its successor--the radio. Such long range communication was not possible through the mere transmission of electromagnetic waves in which a receiver picked signals from amongst the atmosphere and resonated its frequency through verbalized mode. Following the radio, another medium of equal (if not greater) importance came to light with the development of television. What differentiates television from all other mediums? Simple, television's vital importance lies in its graphic and visual representation of reality. Television has given technology a different outlook and now life can be seen through another medium of equal relevance to today's population.

From the result of all these mediums and their efforts to defeat distance, nothing has done it so greatly than the Internet. The Internet is a vital utility in our very lives. The internet gives us meaning toour lives. The Internet has furthered Haraway's futuristic man-machine concept of cyborg lives. Why does such a powerful entity like the Internet become so critical in its constructing of our lives? Regardless of denial, if an individual does not learn how to use the Internet, they will not be hired for any job opportunities.

Technological autonomy basically means:

[Technology] is seen as a largely external - 'outside' of society, 'supra-social' or 'exogenous' (as opposed to 'endogenous'). Rather than as a product of society and an integral part of it, technology is presented as an independent, self-controlling, self-determining, self-generating, self-propelling, self-perpetuating and self-expanding force. It is seen as out of human control, changing under its own momentum and 'blindly' shaping society.

Technology's rampant growth has given us a shady outlook on life. Technology is shaping and reshaping our lives. It is forming the umbrella of our culture and is moreover infused with the hegemonic structure which governs the populace. We do not realize the impact technology is having now, we will never know. We believe that technology is in our grasp, that it follows our needs and desires without question. Technology doesn't only follow us, it also marks a path of our history. Technology moves through time and space only to conquer the here and now. That is, technology's ever-changing form and structure is making lives easier, perhaps even too easy to the point of alienating the individual in their own world. iPods sadly contribute to this existential alienation without question. Those who refuse to believe it are merely idiots who do not understand the ramifications of technological autonomy.

By Cyberspace, I mean telematic communication, not some widely science fiction nonsensicality. Telematics basically means the physical attribution of cyberspace (i.e. networks, wires, etc..). Cyberspace is functioning today as a new medium of a newly emerging public sphere. Cyberspace is the convergence of all media forms into a single attribution--the Internet. It not only gives us authority, cyberspace gives us a mock identity to experiment upon. In the realm of cyberspace, we are not restricted any external forces. With increasing onlinization (resources being transferred to the internet), it gives a new meaning to surfing the internet. Cyberspace is our realm of discourse, our new public sphere. It is both traditional and modern at the same time; it is capable of moving through portals and domains; it is capable of combining knowledge of all forms; it is capable of making enterprises; it is capable of uniting the global community. Cyberspace is the new frontier of technological determinism--that is, our greatly dependent technologically infused culture, or as Haraway puts it, "We are cyborgs."