When Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase "The medium is the message" in the mid-1960s, the ensuing dialogue on media theory encouraged an approach that persists to the present day: to examine new types of technology through the societal and cultural changes that they engender.
Of course, it can often take years, if not decades, before such changes can be identified — by which point the technology in question has lost all its novelty and been normalized within the public consciousness.
This is why the annual Japan Media Arts Festival and events of its ilk are so important. The technology and media at JMAF are impressive, but the real value is in the way the artworks on display encourage viewers to consider the sociocultural impact of emerging technologies. This year's pieces cover contentious themes ranging from unmanned warfare and digital surveillance to bionic prosthetics that actually supersede human limbs in their performance.