Human–Technology Connection

This study examines multiple manifestations of human–technology connections (HTCs) as a phenomenon that challenges the delineation of boundaries between the biological and the technological and, in the process, calls for the reimagination of the social in the tradition of the actor–network theoretical ontology. HTCs, as a rapidly advancing sociotechnical phenomenon, are deemed by some to be liberating relative to human biological limitations and follows a long line of human–technology connections that have become integral to—and indeed been a driver of—social evolution and progress. The general historic centrality of human–technology connection, especially in high-income societies, more so than in low-income societies, is reflected by the fact that most social processes and the operations of primary social institutions have increasingly been mediated and shaped by various forms of technology. In multiple spheres of life, especially in recent decades, technical implements have substituted, supplemented, augmented, and expanded what humans must, want to, and can do. The emerging forms of HTCs significantly elevate the connection and relative “reliance” of humans on technology. The extent to which HTC transformations engender substantive erosion of boundaries between the biological (human) and technical (mostly computational), as well as the broader societal and specific intellectual implications of these transformations, is the focus of this study.