The Melting World

In my current class, Cultural and New Media Studies, we have begun to explore the theoretical frameworks people tend to use when they discuss the relationships or the collision-intertwining of humans and technologies. It is all quite overwhelming and academic and so, from my class notes, and my own interpretations, I wanted to sound out what the various schools of thought are:

The technological-determinists tend to see the technology itself as controlling the masses and determining how we behave, and the masses are without any means to stop this control and shaping of our society.

The cultural materialists tend to see the technological impact as intertwined with political, social and (namely) economic contexts, and they also tend to see humans as possible active agents of how the technologies may be used.

The essentialists believe there is a logical, rational, systematic explanation for how humans behave and how machines behave. If it can’t be explained scientifically yet, it simply means we haven’t developed the science, but that problem can be solved eventually, via progress.

The techno-utopians believe technology is the new promise for solutions to modern day ills. The technologizing of education, health, media and more is seen as beneficial and freeing to humans; although the emphasis tends to focus on the economic benefits for those involved in the technology industries.

The critical theorists saw the long-held notion of scientific rationalism as a means to control, manipulate and distract the masses from any political consciousness. This school of thought developed in a resistance to the rise of fascism. They felt the organization of labor and technologies were dehumanizing and opposed to self-actualization. They believed humans had the power to (re) shape their systems.

The constructivists ask that we examine who has the power of the technologies, what is their aim, and who tries to control whom. They also seek to expose and dismantle the fabricated nature of power structures. I think these people might also called radical humanists, seeking to actively overthrow power structures that create oppression.

Post-colonialists are those involved in expressing resistant ideologies to the dominant (colonial) power(s) ideologies. This counter-thought can be a focus on those marginalized globally or locally by many factors: ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, “race,” education and status.

Post-modernists see all studies as limited by context and locality, no center or universals can exist. I like to think of this as the ‘chaos’ theory of humanity. They attempt to explore a multitude (a cacophony) of perspectives and voices without hierarchy, but still rejecting the dominant western bias of one set ‘tradition’ or set of ideals as representative for all.

Contextualists do not see the political, social, economic factors as separable from technological factors: all is interdependent. Thus, technologies create contexts and contexts create technologies.

Interactionists, similar to contextualists, concentrate on how technologies form and change according to their constant intertwining with the other factors.

Finally, the most recent theories, such as hybridity and cyborg studies, erase the traditional delineation of social, political, economic and technological factors as well as dismiss notions of ethnicities, genders, alive and dead, completely. These theorists feel humans have become machines and machines have become human. Human-machine relations are neither harmonious nor antagonistic, rather the boundaries are so blurred and constantly repositioning, that the two cannot be distinguished from the other.

Well, those were ideas from my notes and often taken directly from my teachers Stephen Petrina and Francis Feng.

I conclude that each theory has its focus and emphasis, and most of us think with an amalgamation of theories (without much consciousness). I just hope to recognize the theories elements in what I read, knowing each one has its weaknesses and motives.

If you read this entire blog, you must enjoy the theorectical trampoline! Jump! Jump!