Just finished Kevin Kelly’s latest book, What Technology Wants, and learned two new words/phrases.
Skeuonym – an expression left over from an older technology, no longer used. Examples include, “rewinding the tape,” “dialing the phone, “filming a movie,” or “cranking the engine.”
Anti-civilization Collapsitarian – folks like the Unabomber who view technology with suspicion and fe
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly
The book was thought-provoking and I’m sure I’ll be referring it to again and again. My full review here on Good Reads.
3 replies on “Skeuonyms and Collapsitarians”
“Give us a bell.”
“I thoroughly enjoyed Kelly’s unique perspective on technology as an extension of our bodies. ” – From Ian’s book review in Good Reads
reminds me of a book I read 20 years back by Marshall Mcluhan – The Medium is the Message,”
For McLuhan a medium is “any extension of ourselves”, or more broadly, “any new technology”. – Wikipedia
Curious how is Kelly different than What Marshall said 40 years back?
I believe Kelly’s phrasings owe a great deal to Mcluhan’s thesis and he references Mcluhan several times. While TV and advertising was the emergent technology of Mcluhan’s day, the internet is Kelly’s.