Comment by 12_throw_away
2 days ago
> at what point does a tool remain merely a tool, and at what point does it become an end in itself?
As technological animals, our tools are IMO never "merely" tools - we adapt ourselves to them at least as much as we ask them to work for us. E.g., the process of making art is, often, the 2-way process of integrating yourself with your tools. (Maybe art is just the point on the spectrum where the use of the tool is in itself the point of the tool?)
And anyway, every occupation (professional and otherwise) that I can think of fetishizes its tools, at least a little. Or, in a different direction, we might consider how the nature of policing has changed as they've been given more and more military-style tools.
I understand; tools arise from human needs, and therefore reflect and follow human nature (good or bad, and a little fetishizing in the good side probably..). Adapting to tools is essentially learning to use them better after their creation, and refining that until tools becomes an extension of oneself (transcending it) is a "healthy" god thing. It is much like an athlete learning to surpass their own limitations (the body itself is the tool). This is entirely different from merely becoming a slightly more intelligent appendage of the tool, learning and adapting does not mean trapping oneself within a limitation; i feel that one can always change the tool, the technique, or even the goal.