Technology transforms human thought and social relations as much as it transforms matter

Evidence

Looking back to those few winter nights of 1966, it is now clear to me that I was being inducted in ‘historical materialism’ – the method of understanding history as a constant feedback loop between, on the one hand, the way humans transform matter and, on the other, the manner in which human thinking and social relations are transformed in return. Thankfully, Father’s historical materialism was nuanced, his enthusiasm for technology tempered by judicious doses of angst about humanity’s infinite capacity to mess things up, to turn miraculous technology into living hell. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 47

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines historical materialism as a feedback loop between matter-transformation and thought/social-relations transformation.
• XREF: This is the interpretive lens Varoufakis will apply to cloud capital later in the book; connects to the reader’s prior reading on Black Marxism and the Frankfurt School. — connects to: Modern communications technology has fundamentally reshaped human consciousness and social relations; Digital communication technologies have fundamentally changed public communication, reshaping perception of space and interaction — The Influence Of Communication Technology On Human Relations; Communication technology shapes culture through interests, symbols, and community — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 622 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern communications technology has fundamentally reshaped human consciousness and social relations #expands (0.92)
• Communication technology shapes culture through interests, symbols, and community #expands (0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 622
• Tele-technologies dismantle the body’s unified synthesis of action, perception, perceptibility, and vulnerability #exemplifies (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 953
• Technology reveals fundamental truths about human existence beyond mere usefulness #expands (0.78) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 1020
• Attention and technology co-evolve through reciprocal causation #expands (0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 534