(Week 14) new media: determining or determined? 2

★ Williams and the social shaping of technology

*Human agency versus technological determination
*The plural possibilities and uses of a technology
*concepts of technology
*concept of a medium

★ The many virtues of Saint McLuhan

1. The extension thesis

* Aristotle
the idea that tools are extensions of soul and body.
(Body is the soul’s natural tool.)
* Marx
Productions of Human industry
* Kapp
Technology as a form of 'organ projection'
* Bergson
If our organs are natural instruments, our instruments must then be artificial organs.

2. The environmental thesis

robocop

3. The anti-content thesis

"THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE"