Framing, and then an unexpected tangent

In reading up on the idea of “framing” in the context of Digital Media, I found quite a few things to spark my interest. For instance, Donna Haraway explained how we are all cyborgs BECAUSE of the fact that we depend on technology. Without our technologies, we would be quite different as a society. I never thought of it this way before, instead thinking of cyborgs more as something like this picture on the right. However, we have become dependent on machines (for instance, the laptop that I am writing this on right now) to do our work for us. Sure, I could write this with a pencil and paper, but aren’t those both pieces of technology we have developed to help us communicate with one another? It seems that the only way that we could avoid our cyborg nature is to stop using anything outside of our bodies. But then, upon a little more thought, I realized that isn’t language just another technology that we have developed in order to communicate with others? Walter Ong brings up this idea as well, saying that talking and writing have merged into one way of communicating. However, both are definitely something intangible that we created as “machines” to do our bidding (in this case, to communicate). And have you ever realized that you think in a language? Nobody has abstract thoughts, it is all in a language, be it English, Swahili, or even music. Language is what gives us memory, what gives us thought, what allows us to be cognizant of our own existence. Without language, we would not even understand that we exist, that we are hungry, that we are tired, et cetera. So language leads to understanding, making speech possibly the greatest invention of mankind. Without it, we would have any way of recognizing anything.

Think about Buddhist monks who have reached nirvana. They never speak. They smile. Have they transcended the idea of language? Do they just experience sensation at all times? Have they completely lost their memory, shutting down (or perhaps activating more of) their brain, in order to just experience? If you have ever had a near death experience, you may remember a feeling, a sensation, a memory, that can only be described as bliss. You lose your concept of self, you see all color, hear all sound, feel all sensation. And it lasts for eternity (at least in your own head- it could just be a second in real life). But is this bliss truly bliss, or is it just ignorance? Is breaking down all sense of memory our initial or our final form? Or is it something that just happens by accident when you almost die (and maybe when you actually do die as well)?

I enjoy thinking on tangents like this- I read too much philosophy.