ABSTRACT
The fact that human beings can influence the composition of the atmosphere is definitive evidence, in McKibben's view, of human hubris taken to its extreme, a sign that humans have finally succeeded in overcoming their status as mere creatures and become god-like. Although he concedes that it is impossible entirely to reverse the processes that have led to this point, he contends that the proper response to the humanisation of nature is repentance, and a scaling back of human desires to fit a more humble self-conception. Technology is centrally implicated in this debate, since it has been the primary agent of the transformations that have subsumed increasing portions of the biosphere under human influence. Radin's sensitivity to context and her adoption of a pragmatic methodology that rejects univocal theories of commodification may be taken as a suggestive model in evaluating complex instances of humanisation in relation to technology.
