IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017 - 35

A smartphone is designed, produced, and marketed as an object
to assist us in our daily errands.
We do things with the neutral technical capability of the device, yet
individual patterns of use var y
widely. A smartphone in the hands
of a teenager is vastly different
than the same device in the coat
pocket of a business executive.
That the two physical devices are
interchangeable is irrelevant. It is
in use that they acquire form, function, and meaning.
In our enthusiasm to adopt technology we often forget its social
effects and the extent to which it
a ffect s us. We a scr ibe agency
to humans and regard ourselves as
an essentially different and separate reality from inanimate technology [2]. When we locate agency
in the human the prominence of
the technological artifact fades
and, in the extreme, we disregard
it completely.
To illustrate, consider a modern
automobile. As an intricate mechanical and electronic object it
represents the quintessential technological artifact. From the point of
view of the vehicle traveling along a
straight highway, how does it change
from the right lane to the left? Most
people, and certainly experienced
drivers, will report two actions consisting of a slight counterclockwise
rotation of the steering wheel followed by a return to its original position. Not only is this answer wrong (in
fact, a correcting clockwise rotation
is necessary to return to the original
heading) but, to the point, it shows
our reflexive response to grant privilege to the human. The question was
about the vehicle, not the driver. The
vehicle-as-artifact quietly vanishes.
References to its user interface aside
(e.g., steering wheel or rearview mirror), we ignore the vehicle completely and grant all our attention, and
agency, to the human.
DECEMBER 2017

If we reverse the roles
and grant privilege to the
artifact we surrender conCitizen trust and confidence in
trol a nd r isk a n ir ratio nal conclusion that we are
the public institution and notions
the "object." A for got ten
of the public good are, in many
password-as-artifact will
temporarily prevent our
ways, the bottom line for the
logging into a system; however, this interaction neipublic sector.
ther objectifies the human
nor objectifies the artifact.
The means/ends distinction obscures a subtle but important
to be there, available (or
point alluded to earlier - that of
sometimes not), for us to
the co-dependency of artifacts/
draw upon. Lurking in the
humans and humans/artifacts. The
shadows of our intentional arc
ontological dualism that agency is
they sometimes emerge as
located either in the human or in the
relevant, become available,
artifact is unsatisfactory. They must be
fulfill their function, and then
coupled because each influences
slip back into the forgotten
the other during use. They are not
periphery of our intentional
separable in any meaningful sense.
project - often doing the
We must further abstract the coninvisible work that was allocatcept of artifacts and think of their
ed to them in a now forgotten
discrete processing capabilities as
time and place. In many ways
realizable and meaningful only upon
we have allocated to them the
use. Artifacts cannot be dissociated
role of silent workers, the
from their contexts of operation and
decor and backdrop that constill be considered to "exist." A forstitute the possibilities of our
gotten password has no significance
lives, but are best forgotten.
in and of itself. If we dispense with
Nevertheless, as we draw on
our anthropocentric point of view
them they become more and
we find ourselves equivalent particimore part of who we are, or
pants in a network of humans and
who we are becoming. It
artifacts that (temporarily) align to
would not be incorrect to say
achieve particular effects. Artifacts
that our existence has now
become meaningful - they acquire
become so entangled with the
their form and attributes - only
things surrounding us (if it
through their relations with others
even makes sense to use the
in practice. From this perspective
notion of 'surround') that it is
there is no distinction and separno longer possible to say, in
ateness between human and techany definitive way, where we
nological elements. They mutually
end and they begin, and vice
shape each other [3].
versa. ... We are the beings
Introna [4] offers a vivid narrative
that we are through our entanof this dynamic:
glements with things - we
are thoroughly hybrid beings,
Yet we most often do not concyborgs through and through.
sider these things that surround us beyond their instruThis lengthy exposition of "Informental value. They seem just
mation Technology" highlights a
∕

IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

35



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - December 2017

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