Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Extension

Deep Tweet - Extension
From a Deep Tweet

One day at the dawn of humanity, a distant ancestor realized she could use a stick to dig up insects. That first tool, like all that followed, extended human biology. The bug-grubbing stick extended the hand and arm. Moving forward in time, the wheel extended the legs. Written language extended memory and speech. And today, avatars extend not just the body, but our identity.

The tools we use don't merely extend biological capabilities in the external world, but are experienced psychologically as integrated aspects of our body schema.  As Marshall McLuhan wrote, “We shape our tools. And then our tools shape us us.”