cover image The Inner History of Devices

The Inner History of Devices

. MIT Press (MA), $25.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-262-20176-6

Providing a number of perspectives on how everyday technology ""inhabits the inner life and becomes charged with personal meaning,"" this collection from author, editor and MIT professor Turkle (Evocative Objects, The Second Self) reconsiders ""sanctioned ways of understanding"" average devices. Divided into personal, clinical and field experiences, the collection opens with blogger and MIT grad Alicia Kestrell Verlager describing how she came to accept a prosthetic eye-and the considerable computer equipment that came with it-as an extension of her body. In contrast, cultural anthropologist Aslihan Sanal looks at the invasive experience of dialysis and kidney transplant for two patients. Child psychiatrist John Hamilton uses the online behavior of his adolescent patients to probe their identity issues, and PhD candidate Anita Say Chan looks at online addiction through the contributor network at tech-geek news site slashdot.org. Perhaps most fascinating is anthropologist Anne Pollack's look at 11 patients with internal cardiac defibrillators, pacemaker-like implants that work as in-chest ""emergency rooms,"" restarting a heart in cardiac arrest. Though entries are brief, they should absorb more serious-minded science buffs, and thorough notes provide further sources to explore.