Skin has become inadequate in interfacing with reality. Technology has become the body's new membrane of existence.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that our physical bodies are no longer sufficient to engage with the complexities of reality; instead, technology serves as the new interface for our experiences.
Nam June Paikβs quote reflects on the transformative power of technology in our lives, implying that our traditional human senses and physical interactions are inadequate for fully engaging with the modern world. As we increasingly rely on digital interfaces, technology takes on the role of an essential extension of our existence, reshaping how we perceive reality and interact with each other.
In practice
In a discussion about the role of technology in modern communication, one might use this quote to emphasize how our interactions have shifted.
Our life is half natural and half technological. Half-and-half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life.
What is Apple, after all? Apple is about people who think 'outside the box,' people who want to use computers to help them change the world, to help them create things that make a difference, and not just to get a job done.
I'm struck by the insidious, computer-driven tendency to take things out of the domain of muscular activity and put them into the domain of mental activity.
I wrote an ad for Apple Computer: "Macintosh - We might not get everything right, but at least we knew the century was going to end".
The hope is that, in not too many years, human brains and computing machines will be coupled together very tightly, and that the resulting partnership will think as no human brain has ever thought and process data in a way not approached by the information-handling machines we know today.
Social engineering bypasses all technologies, including firewalls.
We humans are not the end of evolution, so if we can make a machine that's as smart as a person, we can probably also make one that's much smarter. There's no point in making just another person. You want to make one that can do things we can't.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.