The Mechanization of Me

Haven't been blogging lately, due in part to my long weekend in Los Angeles.  I love the pastoral landscape of Northern California, where I now live, but nothing beats the vibrance and electricity of Los Angeles.  I've returned with a strong desire to push myself mentally beyond what I've been comfortable with in the past.  Been thinking through a lot of stuff lately, most of it slowly congealing around books I've been reading. Currently opened in my lap is a book by Carolyn de la Peña entitled The Body Electric.  Not too far in at the moment - halfway or so - but the author is exploring questions which have plagued my underdeveloped frontal lobe in the past month or two. The author examines the slow but inevitable explanation of "the body as a system of interlocking parts, each of which depended on the others for growth and sustainability." (23)  This mechanization of the body in our cultural psyche, along with the industrial age's desire to make the "machines" bigger, better, and more efficient led to a variety of strange invigorating technologies in the modern world.  Perhaps what is most enjoyable to me, is reading someone who doesn't feel the need to be prescriptive every step of the way.  Questions of the immanence of technology in human culture, the supposed benevolence of machines, and our evolutionary telos arise, but de la Peña shows an attention to history and its resulting trajectory that offers no easy answer.  And for those of us surrounded by so much ignorance and misinformation, it's a breath of fresh air.  I'm sure I'll have more to say later, but I have a book to enjoy at the moment.