ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an over view of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book traces the broad sweep of the mutually defining relationship between bodies and machines as it evolves through time. It considers mechanist accounts of the body as primarily a matter of engineering, something that can be disassembled, and even reverse engineered, through the use of autopsies, diagrams, and mechanical simulations, beginning with the anatomical demonstrations of the Renaissance and moving to the automata of the Enlightenment. The book discusses the ways in which the exaltation of information and information technologies has produced a further shift in how human body and machine are seen to relate to one another, creating a move towards the dematerialisation of both body and machine. The specific technologies have changed over time, from ropes and pulleys, to clockwork, to steam engines, to digital visualisation, but the external perception of bodies has remained of crucial importance.
