This is a follow-on post from my last one on the reading this week Ten Dreams of Technology where one aspiration is that of symbiosis with technology that it might enhance our normal capacities as humans. I mentioned a game in that last post too, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, a game I’m revisiting recently with newfound perspectives in technology and it’s place within society and culture. 

The game has overarching themes of Technological Determinism and explores the relationship of technology and the human body in the form of bodily ‘augmentations’ ie. fully working, sometimes even lethally equipped, prosthetic limbs, cognitive enhancements, stuff like that. Something I glanced over the last time I played is the main character’s appearance. After an attack that nearly kills him and gives him mortal wounds across his body he undergoes a procedure to have his limbs replaced with prosthetic ones, as well as an array of cognitive and otherwise small enhancements to his normal abilities. Most noticeably is his face; he is equipped with retracting lenses that cover his eyes akin to sunglasses, and a indentation on his forehead that reads the name of the corporation who performed the procedure, a branding.

This character, Adam Jensen, is the vision of the dream held by JCR Licklider in this week’s reading; a human perfectly fused with technology that enhances nearly every ability he had as a pure human. But the branding and the shades suggest something more sinister at play, namely what we might sacrifice to become closer with this technology.

Technology these days as we know it is heavily branded. Take Apple or Samsung, the two big boys in the smartphone market. They insist on distinct and expansive ad campaigns to flog their product in a unique way hoping to beat the competition. Should you buy one of their products you’ll find their branding on it. Nobody ever questions this, but say you bought the device outright, why should you be subject to becoming an extension of their already exhaustive ad campaigns?

I think it’s fair to say that nobody really minds. In fact I’d say for the most part we’re all quite proud of the brand we’ve invested ourself in, and that’s due to the way the devices are designed; you’re all very familiar with the default Apple ringtone right? And for some you may be becoming more familiar with the bird sound on Android devices as they become a more popular choice in smartphone, neither sound people really seem to be bothered with changing. It’s a little devious, but rather ingenious at the same time.

Lets go back to Adam who had his entire body repaired with various technologies, right down to the branding like our smartphones. His life was ‘improved’ as it were – he can directly analyse body language and influence people for his own ends with computational precision, for example – at the ‘cost’ of becoming closer to not only the circuit boards but to the brand that designed it.

It’s fair to note that the climax of the game’s story – yes this is a spoiler – is that anybody with these ‘augmentations’ can be controlled by a sort of Master Switch. It makes this suggestion much more explicit with an ending that is not as well received as the rest of the game. But that’s another discussion for another day.

As I’m no expert on marketing trends, I have no idea how this idea might translate into our future but I would say with confidence that we will end up going the direction of bodily enhancements. Technology is an integral part of our modern life, and with every new technology – Virtual Reality, strongmen exoskeletons, nanobots in medicine – we do approach symbiosis; lifestyles that rely on technology to perform common tasks to a higher standard and with less time spent considering using the devices themselves.