The Tool as Body Extension

Have you ever noticed that when you use a spoon, you do not feel the spoon in your hand — you feel the soup? Your brain is so cool that it downloads the tool and makes it part of your body. A blind person's cane becomes their eyes. A painter's brush becomes their fingers. This means you are not just a person; you are a person who can grow new limbs to change the world.

You are a person who can grow new limbs to change the world. You do not feel the spoon. You feel the soup. The tool vanished. Your brain absorbed it. The blind person's cane is not a stick. It is a fingertip that reaches the ground. The surgeon's scalpel is not a blade. It is a nerve ending made of steel. Humans are the only animal that can extend their body at will. Every tool you master makes you larger. You have no final shape.

The extended mind thesis: tools and external objects are literally part of the cognitive process. When a tool becomes transparent through use, it is incorporated into the body schema. The ultimate expression of interconnection: we are fundamentally designed to merge with environment, tools, and creations. The hands are the bridge that turns the Other into Self. You have no final shape. You are still being built.

SOUND: The scraping of a shovel in the dirt: the tool speaking for your hands.

SMELL: The oil used to keep tools from rusting: caring for your extended body.

TASTE: The difference between eating with a silver spoon versus a plastic one: the tool flavoring the experience.

TOUCH: The vibration of a power tool in your arm: the material's texture felt through metal.

SIGHT: The world through a pair of binoculars: the tool extending your eyes.

BODY: Knowing exactly where the end of your car is when parking: your body expanded to the bumper.

Music: Experience by Ludovico Einaudi

Part of Craft & The Hand — ART — Education Revelation