Post #1992718
2026-03-29 20:55 UTC
@haverholm I'm not seeking a definite answer anyway, but I'm interested in these thoughts. Thanks for sharing yours!
I love this idea of books or hard drives as extensions of memory. By some definitions, technology is an extension of the human body. So by this, the book and the hard drive might both be extensions of the brain.
Or as you suggest, they might not be technologies at all but objects. In this case, maybe the difference between hard drive and book is the interface (body or machine).
Replies (1)
-
@haverholm@radikal.social 2026-03-29 21:20
@ephemeral IIRC McLuhan talked about media as extensions of the human senses. The brain would be the exception that processes sensory stimuli? I should read up on McLuhan. The important technology (let's just embrace that term for now) of books would be to convey meaning. Over distances, over time. That is also close to one definition of culture, passing on knowledge to others. So in more than one sense, books are a technology underpinning culture as well.