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