Consciousness in the Age of Machines

It’s clear that our world is profoundly shaped by machines, from
motor cars to mobile phones. But what impact do they have upon
our awareness? In the latest Sheldrake-Vernon dialogue, Rupert
Sheldrake and Mark Vernon discuss a fascinating new book, In The
Shadow of The Machine by Jeremy Naydler. It’s a prehistory of the
computer, tracking the way human consciousness evolved in order
to conceive of a mechanised world. Sheldrake and Vernon ask
what’s been gained and what’s been lost in this process, the ways
in which our perception of life and consciousness has been
moulded, and how human consciousness might evolve further as the
machine metaphor itself "runs out of steam".