There is a deep and dynamic relationship between the evolutionary pathways of computers and humans, each influencing and helping to configure the other. Yet while machines are getting lighter, faster, easier to use, performing ever better at ever lower costs. The same cannot be said of the human, which has not kept up with the raging pace of development of the machine. Humans have not changed in any significant way in the last 200,000 years. There is, however, an illusion of productivity, which reinforces this relationship. Parallels can be drawn between this situation and the psychology of addiction. A damaging habit persists while the illusion of a perceived benefit is fed.
Where critical media theory focuses on the impact that different technologies have upon human culture. The concerns addressed in Computational Somatics are slightly different. The impact I am most concerned with is not cultural but somatic, it pertains to the body.
In the same way that when a human misuses a machine the machine eventually breaks down. When a machine misuses the human, it is the human that breaks down.