Technical objects extend the human organism by replicating or amplifying bodily and mental abilities.
All technologies are amplifications or accelerations of functions originally performed by the unaided human organism, that take over or supplement these functions.
Our intentions, normally only contained within our own organism, become embodied in our artifacts, and are hence extended by them.
Human beings continually try to realize their intentions, whether selfish or altruistic. As a result, they try to change the world so that it conforms to those intentions. To do this, they initially only have their bodily and mental faculties available. These are the original means by which they can realize their intentions. Technological artifacts extend, or add to, these means.
The human organism harbors a set of mental and bodily faculties that are intentionally employed for the realization of intentions. These faculties include limbs, controllable muscles, sense organs, those mental faculties that are under conscious control, and any human faculty that can be controlled by the central nervous system. These faculties constitute one’s inalienable set of means that can be employed to realize intentions formed by the will.
Artifacts enhance the functional powers of the organ that they extend, not by independently performing a function that resembles the organ’s function, but by cooperating with the organ in a way that enhances its activities, in this way engaging in a symbiotic relationship with the organ. For example, a telescope extends visual perception, not by engaging in perceptual tasks independently from the eye (as for example infra-red detectors do) but by teaming up with the eye, thus forming a functional unit consisting of telescope plus eye, that is more powerful than the eye alone. When a telescope is used, inception of visual perception no longer takes place when light rays hit the eye, but when light rays hit the front lens of the telescope.
The user of a calculator performs cognitive tasks in symbiosis with this device. The calculation is not performed solely by the user (who relies on the calculator), nor by the calculator (as it has to be operated by a skilled user who knows what operations to perform in what order). It is, instead, performed by a new symbiotic unit, a system composed of two mutually dependent functional units, human and machine.
New technologies can be understood by analyzing how they help realize human intentions by extending and building on the existing inventory of human means, including human faculties (at their current state of development) and other extensions already present.
The telegraph cables are quite literally the nerves of humanity, just like nerves are cable installations in the animal body.