Books | Oregon | Technology

OPB | Jan. 20, 2013 midnight | Updated: Jan. 20, 2013 3:53 p.m.

David Miller

Kyla Harrison

Kayo Lackey / OPB

Amber Case

If you're struggling for words to describe your relationship to your cell phone, your iPad or an Android Google app, a new dictionary may help you update your lexicon database.

Self-described "cyborg anthropologist" and Portland author Amber Case has written An Illustrated Dictionary of Cyborg Anthropology, a dictionary that defines relationships between people and their technological devices.

For example, Case classifies popular calorie and location tracking apps as part of the "quantified self movement." The widespread exposure to global news stories is "microsingularity." Omnipresent devices such as cellphones and Facebook-like sites cause a phenomenon she describes as "connective obligation," where you feel like you need to respond to every message and update in case you miss out.

In an interview with Think Out Louds Dave Miller, Case discusses the dictionary and explains that as our relationship to technology evolves, our language needs to evolve too.

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Portland Author Amber Case on 'Cyborg Anthropology'