James G. R. Cronin

The characteristic of the contemporary age, says Ivan Illich (1926-2002), is “system”, understood through the science of cybernetics as a comprehensive metaphor to describe the computer world "information revolution". This term “system” marks the end of, what Illich calls, “The Age of Instrumentality” which he understood as a time in which our relationship to the world was mediated, primarily, by our tools. Using the term "tool" in its widest possible sense to signify any engineered instrumental means of mediation, Illich argues that what characterises a tool is what makes it distinct from its user. By contrast, the “system” lacks this distinction because it integrates its user within it. In cybernetics the world system, metaphorically, becomes a "network" and an "ecosphere" whereby the computer becomes increasingly identified with the self. Paradoxically, for Illich, this does not lead to holistic integration, but rather to disembodiment. In...

International media are reporting that President Obama was watching on a TV screen as a commando gunned down Osama bin Laden ( White House released image ) Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, White House chiefs of staff watched as bin Laden was shot in the left eye. This sequence of events has already been anticipated and rehearsed, as far back as 1984, in Paul Virilio’s prophetic vision of the prosthetics of technology whereby the eye itself, through technological mediation, becomes a weapon: 'The Eye-Tracked synchronization system fixes the pilot’s gaze, however sudden the movement of his eyes, so that firing can proceed as soon as binocular accommodation is achieved. Finally, there is the “homing image”, which joins together an infra-red ray and an explosive projectile fitted with a special device. This device acts in the manner of an eye, picking up the image of the infra-red-lit target. The projectile that makes its way towards the image – and thus towa...