Customer Reviews

Hand's End: Technology and the Limits of Nature

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This is one of those books which contains a good deal of interesting information and reviews of earlier discussions; for instance, McLuhan and Mumford and even a dash of Heidegger's anti-technological views. But the basic premise of the book rests on spurrious grounds. Man is said to be techological in his essence. Language and clothes are all extensions of our human 'nature' and thus by definition, tools or technology. Thus, all forms of technology which extend man's own capabilities are also seen to be a continuation of that same 'platonic project' - wrong! This even fits neatly into that scenario of man as machine, and downloading ourselves into computers at some future date. The self is humbled and made irrelevant. And it seems that Rothenberg has a teleological viewpoint; and this is all inevitable; as he says, we're just getting closer to nature all the time.