""The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers." - Sydney J. Harris
The nature of media--in fact, all of life itself--could not be fully understood until the advent of the computer.
The computer is an in-your-face, cut-and-dried, loudly proclaimed combination of hardware (equipment) and software (instructions).
Mankind's tools down through the ages were actually nothing more than a combinaton of hardware and software. If you use a club, a knife, a shovel, a gun, a hammer... any kind of hand tool, the tool is the "hardware" and the user is the software (instructions).
When you drive your car, the car is the hardware and you (instructions) are the software.
The dynamic meshing of hardware and software within a computer is a universal paradigm for all of life.
With computers, as in life itself, if either is lost, the other is useless.
Software can perform cerebral gyrations unimagined by the human mind. Hardware can perform movements unimagined by human hands.
When you draw an arrow in a bow, the bow, arrow and string serve as hardware and the perceptions, thinking processes and musculature of the archer serves as software.
When you read a book, the book is the hardware and your perceptions and thought processes are the software.
When you play music, the machine is the hardware and the CD is the software.
If you ride a bicycle, the bicycle is the hardware and you are the software.
In nature, all designed movements represents some form of hardware (equipment) and software (instructions).
When a worm moves across the earth's surface, the gelatinous substance which makes up its body bulk is hardware. The crude system of natural instincts and involuntary reflexes which makes up the worm's "thought" processes is the software (instructions).
In one very real sense, all living things are a combination of hardware and software.
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