The aim of this Section is to present and analyze the four kinds of human-technology relations that Ihde proposes (Ihde, 1990). I will also present the propositions made by Peter-Paul Verbeek for the augmentation of Ihde’s approach (Verbeek, 2008). Additionally, I will put emphasis on the notion of technological mediated intentionality, and I will connect this issue with the use of contraception technologies.
According to Ihde, there are four kinds of human-technology relations, which are the following (Ihde, 1990, p. 107):
[1] Embodiment Relation (Human – Technology) → World [2] Hermeneutic Relation Human → (Technology – World) [3] Alterity Relation Human → Technology – ( – World) [4] Background Relation Human (– Technology/World)10
The aforementioned list of human-technology relations was augmented by Peter-Paul Verbeek (Verbeek, 2008). His approach is focused on new forms of technologies that are not addressed by Don Ihde. According to his analysis, there are certain technologies that cannot be fully understood by using Ihde’s approach. Firstly, in the cases in which “the human and the technological are merged into a new entity, rather than interrelated, as in Ihde’s human technology relations” (Verbeek, 2008, p. 390[emphasis in the original]). These forms of relations are defined by Verbeek as cyborg relations. Secondly, in the cases in which “not only human beings have intentionality, but also the technological artifacts they are using” (Verbeek, 2008, p. 390). These forms of relations are defined by Verbeek as composite relations. The schematization that Verbeek proposes is the following (Verbeek, 2008):
[5] Cyborg Relation (Human/Technology) → World [6] Composite Relation Human → (Technology → World)
As it is obvious in the above schematization, cyborg relations are forms of human-technology relations in which the relations between the human and the technology cannot be adequately understood if defined as embodiment relations, since “the human and the technological are merged into a new entity, rather than interrelated” (Verbeek, 2008, p. 390[emphasis in the original]). Composite relations are also forms of human-technology relations, which cannot be
10
The presented schematization of background relation was adopted by Peter-Paul Verbeek’s book “What
Page. 17 2nd Chapter
adequately understood as hermeneutic relations, on the grounds that the technological artifacts that are used have intentionality, just like the human beings that are using them.
In order to describe how certain technologies affect human action and perception due to the human-technology relations that they make possible, we have to understand the notion of intentionality. As I already mentioned, Ihde states that the notion of experience that we have with the world is always referential, namely we always have the “experience of” something. In that way the subject and object of the “experience of” are closely intertwined in what Ihde defines as “relativistic ontology of human existence” (Ihde, 1990, p. 23). In this relativistic ontology, technologies “by providing a framework for action, do form intentionalities and inclinations within which use-patterns take dominant shape” (Ihde, 1990, p. 141[emphasis added]).
The example that Ihde gives has to do with the editing activity, the speed of composition and the effect of style, in the cases of using an old-fashioned dip pen, a typewriter and an electronic word processor (Ihde, 1990). Each of the aforementioned technologies creates a different framework for action. When someone is writing with an old-fashioned dip pen, he/she writes slowly, his/her thoughts are well ahead of his/her writing, while the editing activity could be very painful and time consuming. In the examples of typewriter and electronic word processor, the aforementioned characteristics of the writing process will not hold any more, since they provide a different framework of action and as a result the writing experience that they make possible differs from the experience of writing with an old-fashioned dip pen. Additionally, the writing process with an electronic word processor gives to the writer the option to move whole sentences and paragraphs around his/her text, while such an option is not available when he/she uses a typewriter.
Contraception technologies do also provide a framework for action, and due to this fact they do also form intentionalities. In order to describe how contraception technologies provide a framework for action and form intentionalities, we need to analyze what is the basic technological property of contraception technologies. Contraception technologies are used in order to reduce the possibility of pregnancy that the “experience of” having sex includes, this is the technological property that was ascribed to them by their designers. However, there are not used as instruments that can help individuals to have sex without worrying for an unwanted pregnancy. According to Ihde “for every revealing transformation there is a simultaneously concealing transformation of the world, which is given through technological mediation… [t]echnologies transform experience, however subtly, and that is one root of their non-neutrality” (Ihde, 1990, p. 49[emphasis in the original]).
By reversing Ihde’s quotation, it can be said that contraception technologies by “concealing” the fact that the “experience of” having sex can lead to an unwanted pregnancy, they also revealed that the “experience of” having sex can take place in respect to other issues. And due to this issue contraception technologies are not neutral parameters that the “experience of” having sex includes; contraception technologies transform and redefine this kind of experience by making certain form of human-technology relations possible.
According to Ihde, “technics is the symbiosis of artifact and user within human action” (Ihde, 1990, p. 73). This means that in the case that the two individuals choose to use contraception technologies in order to have the “experience of” having sex, they have a symbiotic relationship with these technologies in order to perform this kind of experience. According to the relativistic ontology of Ihde, contraception technologies become what they “are” through their use during the “experience of” having sex between these two individuals, and in the examined case they become what they “are” when they are used in order to minimize the possibility of pregnancy
Page. 18 2nd Chapter
that the “experience of” having sex between heterosexual couples includes, and in the case of condoms in order to avoid the dissemination of sexually transmitted diseases and infections. As a result, in order to adequately understand this kind of “experience of” having sex a subjective analysis is not enough and the objective part of this symbiotic relation must also be analyzed.
In addition to that, the “experience of” having sex also changes due to the fact that individuals that do not use contraception technologies during this experience take this decision in the light of their existence as technologies that transform sexuality and reproduction; with subsequent results not only on the “experience of” having sex but also on what is considered to be the normative practice in terms of sex and reproduction11.
The aim of this Section was to present the four kind of human technology relations, which are proposed by Ihde, and also to introduce Verbeek’s augmentation to Ihde’s approach. I also introduced the notion of technologically mediated intentionality in connection with contraception technologies, in order to demonstrate that contraception technologies play an important role in the referential character of the “experience of” having sex and due to this fact they should be addressed in respect to the human-technology relations that they make possible. In the Sections 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6, I will present and analyze in more detail Ihde’s and Verbeek’s approaches, in connection with concrete technological applications, but also by making certain comparisons between them. This step is important, in order to examine contraception technologies in a more empirical light, which will be the aim of the Section 2.7.