Wow, week 10 already. What a ride its been.

This weeks unlecture was pretty interesting, Adrian had some strong opinions he voiced out in the and it was a good session all in all, however he raised a point that I mulled on for a bit longer than I anticipated. The idea that I have no real control over how I choose to do things, for instance as I am communicating this message I have to submit to the laws that govern the English language which are predetermined for me and that going against the grain is futile. This made some good sense, sure it could be argued that language shapes our world and we understand it better that way. However language didn’t just fall from the sky, it was developed in variation over time and space and is constantly evolving. So I am submitting to something that had no real beginning, isn’t staying the way it is, and has no predictable contingency?

Sounds about right.

In reference to my previous post, we use a working understanding or knowledge as standard, until/unless it no longer is able to serve its purpose, at which point a new knowledge  needs to be learnt and adapted. We’re predisposed to using the English language as standard because of the conditions of which it exists today, and because it serves its purpose albeit not well enough that there won’t be misunderstandings. Its a knowledge that works for now, and certainly is being adapted on to appease various new situations that arise and need addressing. Going against the grain may be necessary when the grain is no longer flowing in a favorable way. Is there a better way of going about things? Maybe- maybe not- we’ll just have to try and see.

Also there was a slight chicken and egg debate on techniques and technologies.

Techniques are required to make technology,
but techniques are also a response to technology.

You might be good at chopping trees down, but you need an axe to do it. So which came first? Well in order to use the axe you need to know how to make an axe in the first place, so how does the axe come to be in your posession? There would have to be some working knowledge in mining and smithing and carving wood so a lot of technology there, but in order to utilize all that tech people need to have the skills to acquire all the required materials, so some learned experience and knowhow is going to be pretty invaluable here. But it doesn’t stop..or start.. there, they would’ve needed to know a fair bit of information before knowing what mining even is or how to go about it, that is knowledge that would’ve been passed down and learned, which means they would’ve had to learn a fair bit about the world around them before being able to acquire the skills needed to maneuver it. Before understanding these ideas, they would’ve first had to learn basic skills like how to use their bodies for specific functions like walking or climbing and extensively how to articulate thoughts and communicate. You’d think this would be the end of it and that having and learning the skills to use our bodies is where shit starts and technology is born from this, but I think it extends beyond this to our bodies themselves as technologies that we need to learn and adapt to accordingly from the moment we’re born into them(aA required response haha). I would say that the difference with our bodies and technologies as we know them is that we didn’t make the bodies -but in a way I suppose we do.

How do we make new bodies?

Go figure.