When Objects Become Extensions of You
thereader.mitpress.mit.edu
When Objects Become Extensions of You
1–10 of 23 posts
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#2This might seem ridiculous, but I become very aware of this feeling when I buy a new phone or computer for the first week or so or if I use someone else's phone or computer.
New devices feel foreign and strange for a bit until they're configured and setup properly and you get used to the new features or speed or whatever.
Whenever I use someone else's phone or computer, I always feel like I need to be careful not to intrude, avoid the gallery, texting apps, email apps things like that. Stay out of the documents and random storage folders and stuff.
It gives me the same feeling as being alone in someone else's house. If I go through that kind of stuff it'd be like rummaging through their drawers or their bedroom or something.
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#3When my bicycle is subjected to hard bump, even if no part of my body experienced much acceleration, I'll make the same sort of sharp inhale I do if my elbow is subjected to a hard bump. You really do develop the sensation of feeling the road as though your nerves extended down to the tires.
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#4This might seem ridiculous, but I become very aware of this feeling when I buy a new phone or computer for the first week or so or if I use someone else's phone or computer. New devices feel foreign and strange for a bit until they're configured and setup properly and you get used to the new features or speed or whatever. Whenever I use someone else's phone or computer, I always feel like I need to be careful not to…
Looking at this from the other side, I gave remote desktop control to a printer tech a few weeks ago and I felt weirdly violated for a long time. Even something as simple as people moving my keyboard halves into weird angles is unsettling, and in a much more intimate way than say people adjusting a car seat, which is just a minor inconvenience (to me, I imagine this could be different for people who are attached to their car).
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#5Or yes, I am one of the People using a non-standard mouse speed. Using someone else’s mouse feels like your arm and hand are suddenly being forced to slow down.
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#6I've my mac so customized usually, always dark mode, terminals etc...
For another person to try and use my computer is usually a weird/hiccuped experience
I also love changing defaults for keyboard shortcuts too.
I also have always an english keyboard layout even if almost no one does this, it's great for coding though!
same for terminal alias...
from git commands: ga . && gc -am "commit" && gp or yarn: y && yb && yst
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#7You choose it, you love it...
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#8This might seem ridiculous, but I become very aware of this feeling when I buy a new phone or computer for the first week or so or if I use someone else's phone or computer. New devices feel foreign and strange for a bit until they're configured and setup properly and you get used to the new features or speed or whatever. Whenever I use someone else's phone or computer, I always feel like I need to be careful not to…
This was taken to the extreme in the novel Accelerando. The main character is mugged and loses his "cyberware". He thus loses the memories and thinking capabilities he had offloaded to the hardware.
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#9Oh, absolutely! We're all cyborgs already. Irrespective of the actual interfaces we use to fuse ourselves with technology.
Take yourself driving somewhere and using navigation that shows where the traffic jams are. At that point you've effectively delegated the decision making for achieving the particular goal to the hive-mind, and you yourself have become a node in the larger network. At that point, 'you' effectively consist of:
1. Your wetware
2. The hardware of your car
3. The hardware of the device you use for navigation
4. The software of the device you use for navigation
But it goes further than this. For ages it used to be the case that only the rich and the powerful could afford to elevate themselves to a status of a 'system'. That is, they would delegate significant parts of their functionality as a whole to other people. From physical defense of their wetware to enhanced decision making capabilities, and possibly even wiping one's bottom[0].
Lois XIV quote 'I am the state' is now known to be apocryphal. Yet, it wouldn't have actually been very far from the truth. You didn't necessarily have to be a king to extend yourself as a social system. But you would have to be rich and powerful.
Now we live in a time where for many systemic functions that would've required a bunch of humans just a short while ago, you can find technological solutions that go at least 80% of the way if not more. Well set-up productivity tool systems can substitute large parts of what until recently you needed a personal assistant for, intelligent use of search engines and social media substitutes a bunch of people you would've hired to call other people, and access to trading platforms for better or worse have substituted one's broker.
And it's only a few decades since this has been going on, I don't think we have the faintest idea of where this will lead to, but the change will be profound. It already is.
Re: When Objects Become Extensions of You
#10This might seem ridiculous, but I become very aware of this feeling when I buy a new phone or computer for the first week or so or if I use someone else's phone or computer. New devices feel foreign and strange for a bit until they're configured and setup properly and you get used to the new features or speed or whatever. Whenever I use someone else's phone or computer, I always feel like I need to be careful not to…
This was taken to the extreme in the novel Accelerando. The main character is mugged and loses his "cyberware". He thus loses the memories and thinking capabilities he had offloaded to the hardware.
Considering how stunted most people are without a phone and google on hand. Sounds like the main character had a rough time learning to spell and do math again :).