Identity and Technology

            Wagner’s To Know Where He Lies discusses technology in a much different light than the other pieces we have read this semester. One interesting aspect of Wagner’s book is the juxtaposition of how technology can both remove identity and return it. Weapons technology played a significant role in the actual genocide, and it can be argued that the UN did not adequately provision their technological resources to protect Srebrenica. Furthermore, without guns and means of the transport, it is highly unlikely that the death toll could have reached the numbers that it did. The Bosnian Serbs relied on this technology to sequester the Bosniaks and execute them without much resistance.

            Nevertheless, without DNA technology the missing would have remained just that in the minds of their loved ones and their remains would be unidentifiable amongst the thousands of others in the mass graves. Yet, even this type of technology has its shortcomings in terms of returning humanity to victims and their families. The people examining the bodies had to emotionally separate themselves from their work and see the remains as specimens of DNA rather than as people whose lives ended tragically soon. Perhaps this distance between the scientists and the remains is insignificant in the grand scheme of things, but it still sheds light on the way technology molds identity. It seems that even technology aimed at identifying must morph the subject in some way. In terms of the larger themes in the course, it will be interesting to look at technology from this lens, that is how the identity of the scientist shapes technology and how technology changes the scientist’s identity.