Familiar And Foreign Bodies: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Human‐Technology Interface

This article examines some of the ways in which our experiences of, and interactions with, new technologies are grounded in the strategies and metaphors of reciprocity that govern everyday social life. Though I follow others in arguing that technology and society cannot be separated, I explore this interrelationship intersubjectively, looking first at some of the ways in which people relate to computers, then analysing the experiences of transplant recipients. I summarize my findings as a critique of the view that anthropomorphism is a quintessentially pre‐modern phenomenon, and as a challenge to the idea that innovations in gene technology and cyber‐technology presage a universal and inevitable dissolution of the boundaries between nature and culture, humans and machines.