Extended body … extended mind: The risk of thought
Ian Angus
Explorations in Media Ecology June 1, 2021 DOI: 10.1386/eme_00089_1 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key points | Argues that approaching communication through its medium, rather than its manifest meaning, reveals an "affective network" that sets up human–machine relations through subjectified anxiety. Contends that the objectification of intelligence generates a fundamental anxiety about what it is to be human, and asks where thought may yet intervene in a world pervaded by algorithms. |
Abstract
Communication may be understood through its manifest meaning or through the medium in which it is expressed. The latter approach begins from the material social relations and technologies that constitute the medium of communication. This approach has a certain similarity with affect theory understood as a pre-cognitive focus on bodies and technologies. An affective network sets up the manifest subject–object, or human–machine, relations with a subjectified anxiety. The objectification of intelligence produces a fundamental anxiety about what it is to be human. I attempt to determine where thought may yet intervene in a world of algorithms which is pervaded by anxiety.