pynchon-l-digest V2 #1012

[David Morris]

>From: "Terrance F. Flaherty"
>
>FrodeauxB at aol.com wrote:
> >
> > Mr. Ludlow:
> > Re: your post. Many believe that our machines, from the first tool to 
>the
> > latest technology, are us.
>
>Nonsense!
>
> > They are our agents, just like our finger or fist.
>
NOT nonsense!  He is quite right.
>
>Are machines us or our agents? Are our hands agents?
>
Yes.  What do you think they are?  Are they YOU?  When you lose your finger, 
is there now less of you?  In a sense, only very literal, yes, but many 
hope/believe to survive the loss of their bodies.
>
> > Using a pen to write makes it part of me.
>
>Nope. To write with a pen is to use a tool.
>

you are so curtly dismissive of Frodeaux's intended meaning.  We are all 
born with a set of "tools."  Some w/ more and better than others.  Over time 
these tools are more keenly honed, sometimes used-up, sometimes taken-away.  
There are some folks whose consciousness ends up trapped for years, fully 
aware, inside a body that cannot move.

>
> >Using this technology to send this
> > makes it a part of me. The machines may not be physically integrated 
>into my
> > body, but when I use them, they are me.
>
>Again, nonsense.
>
> >Some are integrated. A pacemaker is a
> > simple example of the integration.
>
>Integrated how?
>
> >The sooner we realize the symbiotic
> > relationship that has existed from our earliest days, the better. A pure
> > Luddite is highly improbable, if not impossible. We're talking degrees, 
>not
> > absolutes. We ARE Borg!
> >
> > frodeauxb
>
>I am not BORG! We are not Borg. What does symbiotic mean
>here? There is No symbiotic relationship between living
>humans and machines.
>
>BTW, the human mind is not a computer. It works more like
>the human digestive system than a super computer. Humans are
>more like earth worms than robots.
>
>Terrance

I fully agree w/ this Cajun.  We are not saying that we're not biological, 
but we've exceeded, and will continue to exceed our biological limits w/ 
technology.  With DNA manipulation the line between the Biology and 
Technology will only get further blurred.  The Coplear (sp?) implant, like 
the pacemaker, is only the beginning of this "integration" (meaning:  
replacing or augmenting our biology with technology).

We are not yet Borg, because our minds are still relatively our own, and 
alone, and this mind is what makes all the world outside it "the other," 
including all of the body except whatever keeps consciousness going.

David Morris

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