Lexicon

Abject
Accretion
Actant
Aeration
Aerobic
Algae-boosted
Animal
Anthropomorphism
Anti-Continuous Construction
Apocalypse
Aquaculture
Aquanaut
Ark
Artificial Intelligence
Autopoiesis
Assemblages
Asymmetry
Atrophy
Attraction
Autarchy
Automata
Automation
Autosymbiosis
Bambassador
Bathyscaphe
Bioconurbation
Biomedia
Bionics
Biosphere
Biotechnique
By-product
Capacity
Actant
Coisolation
Composting
Conservative Surgery
Consumer Envelope
Consumption
Continuous Construction
Conurbation
Correalism
Cultural_Memory
Cybernetics
Cybertecture
Cyborg
Dispositif
Diving Saucer
Dross
Earthship
Ecocatastrophe
Effluvium
Egosphere
End-use
Entanglement
Eutopia
Feedback
Foam
Folk
Gadget
Garbage House
Green Cyborg
Heuristic
Hoard
Holism
Homogenization of Desire
Hostile
Human Affect
Hybridized Folk
Hydroponic
Hyper-Materialism
Information Economy
Inner Space
Interama
Intra-Uterine
Maque
Megalopolis
Min-use
Mobility
Monorail
Multi-Hinge
Non-Design
Oceanaut
Oppositional Consciousness
Organic
Ouroboros
Panarchy
Parasite
Perceived Continuation
Permanence
Place
Prototype
Post-Animal
Reclamation
RI: Data Farms
RI: Garbage and Animals
RI:Shipbreaking
RI: Toxic Sublime
Sampling
Scale
Sensing Structure
Simulacrum
Simulation
Soft Energy
Spaceship Earth
Submersible
Superwindow
Symbiosis
Synthetic Environment
Technocratic
Technological Heredity
Technological Sublime
Telechirics
The Sublime
Thermal Panel
Actant
Thing-Power
Thinking Machines
Tool
Toxic Withdrawal
Turbulence
UV-Transparent Film
Vibrant Matter
Waste
Work

TOOL

Frederick Kiesler used the word "tool" to describe "any implement created by man for increased control of nature... enabling man to reach levels of higher productivity." To Kiesler, the system of tools is what the technological environment was composed of, produced by the human environment - or more specifically, human needs - for better control of the natural environment. These three environments made up the total environment and were intertwined and constantly in flux. Kiesler noted, "No tool exists in isolation. Every technological device is co-real; its existence is conditioned by the flux of man's struggle, hence by its relation to his total environment." Since the needs of humans were constantly changing, tools too were evolving alongside them. Kiesler theorized the idea of technological heredity where a tool evolved from "the present standard" to "the new standard" through a series of steps: absorption, inefficiency, observation, discovery, invention, resistance, projected need, small scale production, promotion, quantity production, and absolute need. Responding to evolving needs of humans, these tools are co-real and totally inherent to their context; indeed Kiesler states, "Each new environment creates new varieties or new standard types of tools which lose their validity if applied backward or forward in history." While Martin Heidegger viewed tools (or equipment - das Zeug) as potentially "ready-to-hand" or "present-at-hand," Kiesler offered a much less experiential perspective of a tool; instead, he viewed tools as a collective response to human needs.1

Citations
Kielser, Frederick. "On Correalism and Biotechnique: A Definition and Test of a New Approach to Building Design." 1939, Architectural Record 86. pp.60-75