We use our tools and our tools use us. Our actions get mediated by the tools we use. Our tools get mediated by those users of the tools. The effects our tools have on our minds, efforts and outcomes results from the combination of our using our tools and our tools using us.
If our relationships with tools were unilateral, we could use them without being affected by them. We could safely assume we had not adopted the outlooks, sensibilities and premises of a tool by using it. We could delude ourselves into an asymmetrical view of being superior to our tools, in control of our technologies and responsible for their effects.
If our tools relationships with us were unilateral, they could get used by us without getting misused, overused, under-utilized or abused. They could perform without getting handled, applied, interpreted or deployed creatively. They could maintain an asymmetrical picture of being extremely reliable, rational and predictable while we were being unreliable, moody and impulsive.
Our relationships with tools are symmetrical. We reciprocate, accommodate and cooperate beyond reason. We define them and they define us. They meet our needs and we adapt to their requirements. When we don't meet their needs, they don't meet ours. They teach us to comply with their wishes in order for them to comply with ours.
We think about how to use our tools and they're designed with thought about how we will use them. When we think differently than the thought that when into them, we end up with better or worse results. When we fail to think about using them, they can use us without thinking. We become slaves to the machine, pawns in the mechanistic game or tools for others use. When we're wise to this symmetry, we can use our tools to make a difference and make new tools to make a different difference. We become effective and creative just like our tools.
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