Rage Against the Machine

We live in a machine. Not a physcial machine but a socio-political machine that operates through technology, through science. Ironically, it is another machine that is proving to be the way out of this media controled socio-political machine.

The PC, the network, the Internet - cyberspace - are not just tools, hardware and software. They are the embodiment of the human experience. And, through cyberspace there exists an instantaneous forum for free speech and the sharing of knowledge, a rage against the machine.

Have you considered what makes the computer so powerful? ‘A great tool for analyses’ is one of the more common answers. True, but the computer is much more than a tool. Tools are objects like wrenches, hammers, and screw drivers. The computer is something very different.

Don’t make the mistake in believing that the display, the case, and all the circuitry on the inside are the computer. A computer is not a physical object. Don’t believe me? There is a logical way to understand what, or more appropriate where, a computer is. Ask yourself this question: where does the ‘computing’ occur? The answer is inside the processor. How that happens, you might already know, is there are instructions etched on inside of a small slab of silicon pressed into a large, square circuit board. Still, those etched instructions are worthless unless the processor receives other instructions from somewhere else. That somewhere else is not only from those who wrote the operating system and its application software, but from the user – you and me. Ultimately, what we are thinking and typing into the keyboard are the instructions necessary for the computer to function. This creates a paradox since the true computer exists only when it is powered on, and being fed electrical impulses via the keyboard from a person. Thus, a good definition of the computer is an abstraction based on the properties of a physical object. In essence, this relationship between hardware (the case, display, keyboard, etc.) and software (applications such as Lotus 123) mirrors the human brain’s relationship with the mind. Still, there is a much deeper meaning for the computer as it relates to technology, science, and the human experience.

Western societies have developed in such a way that the predominant worldview of its people is the abstract world of quality is compartmentalized and separated from the concrete world of object and quantity. Furthermore, this concrete world is viewed as real and can be understood as fact whereas the abstract world, particularly that which pertains to belief, must be doubted. It’s the grand separation between religion (spirituality) and science.

Technology - the word itself - has become a very popular word in the last thirty years. Nearly everything is now being considered in terms of ‘technology.’ There is automobile technology, aerospace technology, manufacturing technology, construction technology, medical technology, and on and on. There is even cooking technology, and technology that was employed by ancient cultures. Have you ever considered what ‘technology’ is?

Clearly, technology is a broad concept. However, when understood by its relationship to science and the human experience the concept of technology is less ambiguous. Almost five hundred years ago modern science was born with man’s attempt to describe and explain natural phenomenon. Consequently, science led to the knowledge and understanding of natural principles. Almost as fast as this knowledge became available inventive men who understood natures principles figured out ways to create products to improve civilization’s standard of living. This relationship between basic science and the inventor did not go unnoticed by entrepreneurs. Commerce developed and then expanded leading to the industrial revolution. This, in turn, led to the increasingly specialized nature of job function which brought about commercial and civil efficiency which led to the increased funding of basic science. To this day the relationship between basic science, invention, and the business world has never changed and most likely will never change.

Thus, technology is the application and use of knowledge derived from nature’s principles to invent products which provide for society’s wellbeing. From a historical perceptive, the application of science into civil practicalities is also the building power of civilization.

In today’s complex and highly specialized economy the process of scientific research leading to invention and ultimately product manufacturing is hidden from the consumer. As consumers we simply drive to the store for the goods we need, unaware of efforts from a long list of scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and retailers that made our drive to the store possible. It is important to recognize that even though technology’s final product is most evident, it is the creativity of Man - the spirit - that turns ideas into concepts, and concepts into knowledge, which through engineering brilliance, turns science into technology and makes life more efficient and comfortable. Every product ever made began with someone’s inspiration and creativity. Likewise, the principles that inspired the inventor to envision the product began with a scientific researcher’s curiosity and quest for knowledge. So, creativity (spirit) and technology are really different aspects of the same human endeavor, the culmination of which is the computer.

With the desire to share experience, and talk about anything and everything us humans are innately social creatures. For millennia the scope of social interaction has been limited by methods of communication and modes of transportations. In effect, technology and particularly the computer have removed these limitations.