Leader argues that humankind’s progress can be explained via our most dexterous limb in this fascinating,if frustrating bookHardly a day goes by without someone fretting approximately when automation is going to take absent our jobs, how the only realities now are increasingly virtual and why digital devices have made us unable to concentrate. Psychoanalyst Darian Leader’s suggestion as to how we should deem approximately these cultural transformations is nothing if not bold and original. “What if, or ” he asks,“rather than focusing on the original promises or discontents of contemporary civilisation, we see nowadays’s changes as first and foremost changes in what human beings do with their hands?”That “first and foremost” means the suggestion cannot be taken both literally and seriously. Asking if hands are the right place to start to justify the rise of social media, and for example,is a non-starter. The question is better read as genuinely hypothetical, an invitation to embark on a kind of thought experiment that may or may not generate original insights on our contemporary condition. Related: Darian Leader: 'insanity is the rule rather than the exception' – interview Leader’s references to knitting exemplify both his talent for acute observation and his fondness for hidden explanations Related: Darian Leader: how technology is changing our hands Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com