Through the lens of media archaeology, this book reveals a profound philosophical insight: "the interface is our condition of existence."
基于媒介考古，揭示"界面即我们的生存境况"的哲学命题
This book takes "the interface as existence" as its guiding thread, embarking on a ten-thousand-year odyssey from the ancient past to the age of intelligence. It opens by transporting readers to prehistoric contexts, exploring how the body-as the original interface-communicated with the world through gestures and rituals, while cave paintings emerged as the first externalized mediators. It then journeys through the historical sites of writing, manuscripts, printed books, photography, film, and television, analyzing how each medium reshaped human perception of time and space, memory, and social connectivity.
The second half of the book delves into the digital era, tracing the evolution from command-line interfaces and graphical user interfaces to touchscreens and the natural language interactions exemplified by ChatGPT-revealing how AI interfaces are subtly reshaping cognition, emotion, and forms of community.
Breaking free from the conventional dualism of content and materiality, the book conceives of the interface as a fluid relational field, arguing that humanity has always inhabited an "interface world": we continually come to know the world through interfaces, and in doing so, we shape ourselves. Integrating media archaeology, philosophy, and the history of technology, this work is an intellectual pilgrimage into how humans encounter themselves through technological mediation. Rich in case studies, grounded in theory, and expansive in vision, it offers both an ontological reinterpretation of the concept of "interface" and a vital intellectual resource for understanding the co-evolution of humans and technology. Readers are invited on a long exploration of the interface world, where they may glimpse how interfaces shape our perception, our subjectivity, and our world.
本书以"界面即存有"为线索，展开一场从远古到智能时代的万年探险。开篇将读者带入史前语境，探讨身体作为最初的界面如何通过姿态、仪式与外界沟通，而洞穴壁画则成为外部化的首批中介。随后穿越到文字、手抄本、印刷书籍、摄影、电影与电视的历史现场，剖析每种媒介如何重构人类的时空感知、记忆方式与社会联结。
本书后半部分深入数字时代，从命令行、图形界面、触屏到以ChatGPT为代表的自然语言交互，揭示人工智能界面如何隐性地重塑认知、情感与社群形态。
全书打破内容与物质二分的固有思维，将界面视为流动的关系场域，论证人类自始便栖居于"界面世"：我们不断通过界面认识世界，也在界面中塑造自我。本书的研究融合了媒介考古学、哲学与技术史，是一部关于人类如何通过技术中介与自我相遇的思想漫游。书中案例丰富、理论扎实、视野开阔，既是对"界面"概念的本体论重释，也是理解人与技术共生关系的重要思想资源。读者可在界面之世的漫长探险中，洞见界面如何塑造我们的感知、主体与世界。
