"The machine is neither an intimate part of me, nor
is it other. Instead: it is that within me which
belongs to the other. The machine is ex-timate."
This book attempts to challenge traditionally held
theories of technology assuming a clear-cut
distinction between the machine and the human.
Heralded by both instrumentalism and determinism
alike, the belief in technology as a radical other to
subjective becoming has seduced current debate into
an apocalyptic deadlock that ultimately presents us
with a false choice between salvation and
destruction, technophilia and technophobia. Here, a
psychoanalytic theory, derived from the work of
Jacques Lacan, may be introduced as a method of
critical intervention. The machine is re-imagined as
no longer the fantastic locus of final overcoming,
but an originary supplement to the negotiation of
being. Not least Martin Heidegger s famous lecture
"Die Frage zum Wesen der Technologie" as well as its
profound influence on thinkers such as Marshall
McLuhan and Jean Baudrillard may thus be critically
explored from a Lacanian vantage point.
is it other. Instead: it is that within me which
belongs to the other. The machine is ex-timate."
This book attempts to challenge traditionally held
theories of technology assuming a clear-cut
distinction between the machine and the human.
Heralded by both instrumentalism and determinism
alike, the belief in technology as a radical other to
subjective becoming has seduced current debate into
an apocalyptic deadlock that ultimately presents us
with a false choice between salvation and
destruction, technophilia and technophobia. Here, a
psychoanalytic theory, derived from the work of
Jacques Lacan, may be introduced as a method of
critical intervention. The machine is re-imagined as
no longer the fantastic locus of final overcoming,
but an originary supplement to the negotiation of
being. Not least Martin Heidegger s famous lecture
"Die Frage zum Wesen der Technologie" as well as its
profound influence on thinkers such as Marshall
McLuhan and Jean Baudrillard may thus be critically
explored from a Lacanian vantage point.