Davis: Ch. 1-2 (Lauren)

Davis mentions many different interesting concepts, in particular The Great Divide and electricity. The Great Divide is a phenomenon that Latour, a French philosopher, claims is identified by the split between nature and culture. This divide has been imposed upon through modernity. The idea of nature versus culture is very interesting, because these two ideas are frequently viewed upon as opposing concepts. What is classified as “nature” can not come about with the influence and interference of humans, and the establishment of culture is attained in opposition to nature. Davis suggests that hybrids (aka technological innovations) push us deeper into a “no man’s land” which lies between nature and culture where “science, language, and social imagination overlap and interpenetrate” (3).

This diagram that I found is a good visual representation of this “no man’s land” that Davis is making reference to. Humans are not part of the “nature” side, rather they make up the “culture” side, and there is a clear division between the two. Underneath it all is the complex network of hybrids, the “no man’s land”. 

Another interesting concept Davis mentions is the simple fact of electricity. We seem to take electricity for granted without quite fully understanding what it is exactly. Originally entering the English language in 1650, electricity has been used to its full potential. I like how Davis shows a more “spiritual” aspect of electricity, stating that it “transmute[s] the energies of earth into the divine realization of human dreams” (36). Electricity is something that mankind would have never thought possible, yet today we would not last one day without it. Relating back to Davis’s nature versus culture, electricity in my opinion falls into the “no man’s land”, because it is something that is found in nature (lighting) and has been innovated into something humans rely on in their daily lives.