Techniques and Technologies of Thought: A Short History of Media Models

Abstract

What is the connection between thought and media? In what ways can media technologies be said to model our thoughts? Can we think of techniques and technologies of thought? And what would a media theory of thinking look like? To best address these questions, this dissertation embraces a broad interdisciplinary and transhistorical perspective, mapping out some of the most significant historical correspondences between the forms and processes of hegemonic media technologies and coeval theoretical frameworks. This project proceeds from the assertion that the field of media studies is uniquely poised to contribute to the understanding of human thought processes currently spearheaded by disciplines as diverse as neuroscience, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and the philosophy of science. Through an investigation of various media forms (writing, pictures, sounds, forms, spaces) and modes of mediation (techniques, operations, processes) I show that media studies can provide a sophisticated understanding of the intercessions between conceptual and material domains. Holding ‘thought’ as indivisible from specific media environments, this dissertation addresses one crucial aspect of thought that has been largely ignored by media studies: the human ability to mentally extrapolate an abstract model from a media technology. I define this process as the production of a ‘media model.’ Chapter One, “Early Media Models” introduces the concept of media model by discussing the development of some of the earliest cultural techniques—such as modeling human figures out of clay—in relation to ancient myths that describe the supernatural creation of human beings in terms closely related to such techniques. This chapter claims that the ability to mentally extrapolate an abstract model from a concrete technique or technology is indivisible from historically situated techniques for molding matter that emerged in prehistoric times. Chapter Two, “The Agro-Hydraulic Media Model” focuses on cultural techniques developed in the Fertile Crescent at the beginning of recorded history. I analyze the impact of the agro-hydraulic media model in relation to coeval myths, beliefs, and medical practices that understood human physiology, the flow of time, and the origin of the world in circulatory and agricultural terms (particularly as systems of flows and fluxes, and through the lenses of channelization, irrigation, and fertilization). Chapter Three, “The Mechanical Media Model” looks at the material development of clocks and other complex mechanical technologies and at the simultaneous emergence of mechanical interpretations of reality in seventeenth century Europe. The mechanical media model is shown to correspond to the idea of the cosmos as a mechanical construct and of the human body as a machine: an automaton that acts through the interplay of a biological system of pulleys, cogs, and pivots. Chapter Four, “The Computational Media Model” closes my historical trajectory by looking at the invention of modern computational machines and at the simultaneous materialization of ideas of computational knowledge, artificial intelligence, as well as at various attempts at reframing consciousness, physics and metaphysics in computational terms. Through these four interrelated case studies I show that media models can be recognized in ancient myths, scientific theories, and many of other forms of cultural expression. Media models emerge and unfold over a ‘middle ground’ in which thought and technology are constantly co-determined. Overall, this dissertation enacts a deep dive of history to advance a ‘media theory of thinking’ that can be applied across different techno-cultural contexts, ranging from the study of ancient civilizations to media philosophical investigations of our contemporary media landscape.