Came across this online and froze in my tracks...metaphorically, of course.
Marshall McLuhan once called on us to notice that all machines are merely extensions of the human nervous system, artifices which improve on natural apparatus, each a utopianization of some physical function. Once you understand the trick, utopian prophecy isn’t so impressive. Equally important, says McLuhan, the use of machinery causes its natural flesh and blood counterpart to atrophy, hence the lifeless quality of the utopias. Machines dehumanize, according to McLuhan, wherever they are used and however sensible their use appears.
I think there is definitely some truth in there - I am a piano player and whenever I stop and think about how complicated my hands really are, it blows my mind. And even computers, for all their processing power, can't outperform the human brain. Humans can integrate all information and evaluate it simultaneously, but computers can only trudge away, mechanically finishing one task at a time. Compared to my hand, the piano is a simpleton's toy.
Thinking about this also makes me think that the crises of modern life - obesity, diabetes, depression - are precisely those examples of "atrophy" that McLuhan is talking about. Of course, the good new in all this is that recovering our humanity is as simple as manual labour and real thinking.
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