Though it seems to be doing nothing, the machine is quietly accumulating stuff. An analogy of a computer not as a machine but as a being that is constantly doing. I wonder if this description changes if the use of the machine is sparodic and not turned on all the time. As a indicated before, my use of email at the moment is forcing the comparison to the mailbox and letter because I retrieve my information from an outside source when I choose. My program of choice to do this is Eudora, a program that works with the modes we are already familiar with and although it does much more, essentially it is a program that allows you to write letters.
Electronic media are supplements to the human organism.
Computers become the brains, engines the legs, video camera the eyes, telephones the ears, and wires the nerves, veins and arteries of the world organism. The lifeblood of theis corporate body is electricity. For a while millions of people refused to approach their messages,afraid that the very act of reading would cause infection. Indeed the rumor that the new medium of digital textuality will infect or corrupt our print-based practices is as baseless as the hysteria caused by the alleged virus.