Ontological implications

33. Tools/Technologies/artifacts transform reality

• Tools are occasions for redefinition of goals and meanings.
• Artifacts are interfaces between\actors and environments.
• Artifacts embody the principles and
  practices of a given culture.
• Artifacts enable and constrain.
• Artifacts have politics and are involved in struggles for socioeconomic control.
• Artifacts modify practices, abilities, competencies, ways of thinking.

*Art's Pretty Geeky, even historically speaking

*Tools for thought/writing

*Real Hope in a Virtual World
Online Identities Leave Limitations Behind

*With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking

Question

Consider (esp.) the article about lenses and art in light of the current (and recently past) digital environment (the other articles are fair game here too). Is there a "hidden" technology in the current digital environment that may well be unnoted in a thousand years, but which underlies the dramatic changes in this computerized age?

Want to learn more?

Dava Sobel: Galelio's Daughter
Dave Sobel: Longitude
Mantovani, New communication environments