[Exploring Life] The word technology can be an illusive term. Technology originates in the Greek technologia which combines craft (techne) and saying (logia). A common understanding of technology refers to the physical tools and hardware hardware of an object that is designed to make work easier. In this sense, technology is a label that describes a material object. There is another more expansive meaning of the word that refers to the knowledge and use of tools and crafts in order to control and adapt to an environment. Here technology refers to the application of human thought, perception, craft, creativity, invention and ingenuity in order to solve a problem or achieve a goal.[2]
Kevin Kelly[1] coined the term technium to describe the greater sphere of technology in reference to the interaction and interplay that exists across all realms (including culture, ethics, social systems, law, art, communication, language, ritual, soul, and consciousness) of humanity. Technium is essentially anything that comes from the human mind making the core concept of the technium vast and expansive. More specifically, the technium as the intersection between all possible technologies is the matrix in which humanity ultimately defines itself and determines the future.[3]
The Root of the Technium
There are two opposing views of technology. One, that it of us, and the other that it is not us. The following is my view that it is us.
The technium is necessary for us to be fully human. As we create art, invent social structures and map the universe we discover who we are. Without these inventions – even simple ones like poetry, clothes, fire, and hand tools – we don’t know anything about ourselves. Technology not only reveals our humanness, it is the way we are human. We create our humanness by creating the technium. (Kelly 2004)
It is difficult to imagine technology as being something that is not part of us, though there are applications of technology that we may wish to separate ourselves from. For example, the technologies of war and environmental destruction are virulent technologies that make an uncomfortable contribution to the definition of humanity. Kelly works from the assumption that the technium is necessary for us to be fully human.. It is a reasonable assumption to root the idea of the technium in since the history of humanity is immersed in the use and application of knowledge in order to solve a problem or achieve a specific goals.
The axial thought that the Technium revolves around is that the vast technological matrix of interactions and interplay is a means to investigate, define, and evolve the essence of humanity. On one level, the Technium can be used to describe the interplay of various technologies on lifestyle, psychology, progress, and other aspects of human development. On a deeper level, the technium is integral to human existence and evolution and is a means to explore broad patterns of association across all culture and time. This, indeed, includes the spiritual realm of humanity.
A Matrix of Science, Culture, Communication, Consciousness and Spirituality
Kelly’s concept of the Technium retrieves the ideas of previous media theorists and extends those ideas into the realm of the integral. Marshall McLuhan described media technologies as extensions of man and proposed that the medium is the message. (McLuhan, 1964) Central to his argument is the idea that all media are physical and perceptual extensions of the human body and mind. The extensions of a medium form a total surround that has effects on the sensibilities of people that is separate and distinct from the actual message being communicated. His idea of technological somnambulism referred to an unexamined use of media and the inherent problems associated with it. The idea of the global village is fundamentally a warning for humanity.
We need technology for more than a robe; it is part of our soul. The less technology we have, the less human we are; the more technology we have the more human we can be. (Kelly, 2004)
The intention of The Technium is to describe an integral view[4] of technology and humanity. If technology has a discernible influence on our habits and patterns of thought and perception, then it also influences the nature of our spirituality and consciousness. What affects the mind must affect both our spiritual being and the nature of our consciousness.
The Technium as an Axial Idea
There is a tendency in modern society to search for axial ideas or concepts that serve to provide unity and integrity to realms of knowledge that reach across all culture and history. An axial idea is central focal point around which other related ideas flow. The axial idea or concept becomes the presupposition from which integral or unified perspectives are elaborated. These perspectives move toward creating a composite view that reveals common patterns and themes that are found across across all time and place.
The search for unity or integrity in experience must also be balanced with a sensitivity toward the uniqueness and diversity that exists, otherwise our composite models and theories of ourselves lose their vibrancy. While is is important to map out broad patterns that can help evolve our understanding of humanity, there must also be sensitivity toward preserving its unique and interesting features as well.
The axis of the technium may be described as an integral view of technology and humanity in which technology is a natural and inherent dimension of what it means to be human. Some key qualities in the technium would include interaction, interplay, relationship, association and pattern. Stated in a terse manner, humanity cannot be explored from an integral perspective without consideration of the technium.
Footnotes
1. Kelly, Kevin. 2004. The Technium: Inventing Our Humanity Accessed on January 29, 2009.
2. A good overview of the word technology can be found in Wikipedia: Technology – Definition and Usage Accessed on Jan 29, 2009.
3. deVos, Corey. 2009. Exploring the Technium. Part 3: Humanity, A.I., and the Great Google in the Sky. Accessed on January 29, 2009.
4. The integral view refers to the work of Ken Wilber
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