What is Technology?

Whether a branch or a rock, a hammer or a tennis racket, technology is the thing that fits our hands and gives us more of what we want. It’s an expression of our desires and an extension of our capabilities, whether we’re talking about carpet, a lightbulb or a garbage truck. (Yes, technically carpet fits our feet, not our hands: I meant it metaphorically. Let’s agree not to discuss toilets, OK?)

Perhaps, then, technology is a continuation of labor by another means.

The things we create are the stories we tell ourselves made manifest; both good and bad. Archaeology is a thing because it takes the idea seriously that our stuff says something about what we think, what we need and how we behave. Technology isn’t a perfect or complete expression of who we are, any more than our languages are. There are limitations to our skill and our patience. But we are there; in it somehow. We are the foot, the shoe we make and wear, and the footprint we leave behind.

Technology isn’t separate from us, it is us.