The meaning of any tool depends entirely on its historical moment

Evidence

Situations change everything. This is one of the basic truths. And it is, in its essence, a truth about history. Things mean different things in different moments. This is fundamental. A steel-nibbed fountain pen was the coolest new gadget in the universe in 1820. In 1920, it was just an ordinary doodad. By 2020, it indicated that you were some kind of weirdo. Time matters. Looked at one way, that is kind of an obvious thing to say. Looked at another way, it’s one of the most profound insights available to humans. — The Friends of Attention, Attensity!, 424

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s own point about trees as infrastructure — a tool’s function is historically situated, same theme as how grafted trees shift meaning across eras. — connects to: The past’s force and meaning depend entirely on present projects; One’s fundamental project determines the meaning of one’s past — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1184; Each mode of production generates its own historically specific forms of cultural meaning — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 209 (+3 more)
• SEED: A possible essay framing: reviewing inherited tools of attention-resistance whose meaning depends on the moment, mirroring Lyon’s barricade hardware.

Broader Connections

• One’s fundamental project determines the meaning of one’s past #expands (0.92) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1184
• Heteroglossia makes every utterance’s meaning depend on its specific time, place, and conditions #expands (0.90)
• The past’s force and meaning depend entirely on present projects #expands (0.88)
• Words shift meaning across historical periods and individual authors #exemplifies (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 362
• Language is always metaphorical relative to past civilisations’ meanings #exemplifies (0.85) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1600
• Each mode of production generates its own historically specific forms of cultural meaning #exemplifies (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 209