-Maurice
Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of
Perception.
Out of the lingo dominating our increasingly
technological and information laden society, no phrase has been quite as
prevalent as the ubiquitous command: “Google it”. When someone asks a question
like “What’s the capital of that country?” or “What does that word mean?” we
invariably seek out the nearest search engine for the answer. In many ways,
search engines have come to function as one of the foundational tools of modern
society. Because of this it is necessary to consider how our conceptions of
something as a “tool” can be augmented by our increasingly digital
environments. In his book Being and Time,
Martin Heidegger describes how a tool becomes subordinated to the goal which it
is seeking to accomplish, such as a hammer hitting a nail, and in this way
becomes not simply a “Thing” to be conceived but “equipment” directed toward an
end. Heidegger writes:
In
dealings such as this, where something is put to use, our concern subordinates
itself to the ‘in-order-to’ which is constitutive for the equipment we are
employing at the time; the less we just stare at the hammer-Thing, and the more
we seize hold of it and use it, the more primordial does our relationship to it
become, and the more unveiledly is it encountered by that which it is-as
equipment (69).
For
Heidegger, “equipment” is anything directed at an “in-order-to” or the end to
which the tool is directed. When a tool ceases to be a "Thing" and becomes “equipment”
it is no longer simply “present at hand” but “ready to hand”. From an
ontological viewpoint, Heidegger believes that the “readiness to hand” of a
hammer is the only way to discover its essence or “being” as a hammer,
In what ways then does a modern tool
like a search engine function like “equipment”? And how are our conceptions of
these tools complicated by the ways in which we use them? It seems like
something such as the search engine on Wikipedia functions like “equipment”
when it allows us to accomplish our “in-order-to” of finding a specific article
or piece of information. But what happens when our “in-order-to” remains the
same but the tool used to accomplish it changes such as in this interactive web
game based on the layout of Wikipedia?
After playing this game
a few times with varying degrees of success, it becomes clear that the
designation of the Wikipedia game as “equipment” used to accomplish the
“in-order-to” of finding the article is greatly dependent upon one’s success at
the game. For if I give up and cannot reach the article through clicking on
links then does not the technology of the game become “present” to me? The game
now draws attention to itself as a “Thing”, a piece of technology and no longer
as “equipment” used to accomplish a task. In his book Natural-Born Cyborgs: Minds, Technologies, and the Future of Human
Intelligence, Andy Clark refers to this difference in technologies or tools
as “transparent” and “opaque”. He writes, “A transparent technology is a
technology that is so well fitted to, and integrated with, our own lives,
biological capacities, and projects as to become…almost in invisible in use. An
opaque technology, by contrast, is one that keeps tripping the user up,
requires skills and capacities that do not come naturally to the biological
organism, and thus remains the focus of attention even during routine
problem-solving activity” (37). Thus in Clark’s theory, the game is “opaque”
regardless of whether or not someone is able to reach the predetermined article
because it is clear that this game, and any game for that matter, is inherently
concerned with “tripping the user up”.
Central to Heidegger’s and Clark’s theories about our
conception of tools and technology seems to be binary oppositions between
absence/presence and visibility/invisibility, with the privileged term coming
first. Of course, as we have learned from Derrida, binary oppositions can be
misleading and often times present an oversimplification of the situation and
neglect the interdependence of the two terms. Thus in the case of this game I
am hesitant to designate it as either a “transparent” or “opaque technology”
or, to use Heidegger’s terms, “equipment” or a “Thing”.
Before your read the conclusion of this paper, please follow the directions below:
1)
Open a new tab and go to the Wikipedia
homepage.
2)
Type “egg” into the search browser. Then,
once on the disambiguation page, click on the “egg (food)” link which will take
you to the Wikipedia article on the egg.
3)
Now, clicking only on links within the
article, attempt to navigate to the homepage of the Jacksonville Jaguars
(football team). Remember, you cannot click on countries or dates, cities and
states are fine. If you give up, simply
type “Jacksonville Jaguars” into the search engine and move onto step four.
4) Click on the appropriate link below depending on the outcome of your game play.
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