For the self to exist, there must appear to be an inside (“I am”), an outside (“I am not”), and an interaction (“I can cause change”). With this in mind, it becomes clear how differing ideas about the permeability of the self can lead to different conclusions about the role of technology in defining or disintegrating identity. Technological forms can delimit as well as deterritorialize…
From the perspective of individual bodies and the local communities with which they interact every day, the pervasiveness and invisibility of radioactive waste appears to disintegrate ecocultural systems—especially when the communities in question find themselves threatened by much more than the presence of nuclear weapons laboratories…
From the perspective of massive and ancient nation-states such as France, which cannot see (or choose not to see) the contaminating cultural effects of nuclear technology, the drive to pull together a national identity may override the deterritorializing nature of hybrid forms…
Although the forces of nature can be observed throughout the universe, they behave very differently when applied to atomic nuclei as opposed to gaseous nebulas. By recognizing that scale is a choice with the potential to alter how we see the world, we can more carefully choose which questions we ask and—as a direct result—get better answers.
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