Spimal Tap
In an illuminating lecture on RFIDs, theory objects, the internet of things, and related matters at the Emerging Technology Conference 2006 , writer Bruce Sterling discussed the role of language in shaping (for better and worse) emerging technologies. Sterling describes a need for neologisms to break away from the archeologisms that have anchored ideas about technology in stagnant waters (like the quest for Artificial Intelligence that has obscured the real potential of computers to file, sort, link info). The lecture is also about Sterling's recent speculative theory manifesto (Shaping Things) about everyday objects that are supported by an active network of information (so that you could 'google' your keys on-line to find out where they are physically hidden, for example). Sterling's word for this is "spime"-- an object trackable in space and time. "Spimes are manufactured objects whose informational support is so overwhelmingly extensive and rich that they are regarded as material instantiations of an immaterial system," writes Sterling. "Spimes begin and end as data. They're virtual objects first and actual objects second." (Sterling)
This is interesting to think about in relation to the cryptozoological. Cryptids are (possibly) confabulated entities sustained by extensive and dense informational support facilitated by active participants and believers. They begin and end as data. Sightings and reports lead to investigations for the physical creature--it eludes physical capture--but is caught by a camera. The Patterson-Gimlin 16mm film, as Sasquatch researcher Alton Higgins contends is "a gold standard against which other pictures must be compared.” (Higgins) It exists (as all moving images do) virtually. We do not see 24 frames per second of celluloid (or video scan lines for that matter) but comprehend the imperceptiblly singular instances as an animated whole mentally in the virtual space of memory.
Of course, cryptids feature spimal cord injury missing links between virtual identities. Their instantiative stance obscured by a lack of physical traces
This is interesting to think about in relation to the cryptozoological. Cryptids are (possibly) confabulated entities sustained by extensive and dense informational support facilitated by active participants and believers. They begin and end as data. Sightings and reports lead to investigations for the physical creature--it eludes physical capture--but is caught by a camera. The Patterson-Gimlin 16mm film, as Sasquatch researcher Alton Higgins contends is "a gold standard against which other pictures must be compared.” (Higgins) It exists (as all moving images do) virtually. We do not see 24 frames per second of celluloid (or video scan lines for that matter) but comprehend the imperceptiblly singular instances as an animated whole mentally in the virtual space of memory.
Of course, cryptids feature spimal cord injury missing links between virtual identities. Their instantiative stance obscured by a lack of physical traces
posted by cdiehl at 5:54 PM
1 Comments:
I am caught in a sticky situation. Although, an atheist-materialist at heart I am having to learn to wander out of the mobius strip nihilism of postmodern deconstruction towards the strange attractor relational truths of network culture and Latour’s notion of ‘Taking into Account.’
For example, even though biology + cybernetics has lead to ecosystems and whole systems view of the world, if one takes the reductive materialist scientific lens to the problem of global warning, and doesn’t take into account spiritual ways of knowing the landscape, the mental environment may be too homogenous to effectively deal with the problems of global planetary change. From a policy perspective, religious zealotry may be just the kind of stochastic kick the technocratic elite needs to search the problem space more imaginatively. http://www.si.umich.edu/~jlking/ John King had some really interesting things to say about this point at the recent http://www.joshuakauffman.org/2007/01/11/notes-from-the-global-place/ Global Place conference here at U. of M. You can see a really good video of the 4 speakers (he is last) http://ummedia02.rs.itd.umich.edu/tcaup/GlobPlace_Fri_AM_1.wmv here.
Similarly, the fuzzy edges and unverifiable nature of the blobsquatch while not true may be necessary to add some noise to an increasingly homogenized global mental environment, and keep our collective consciousness robust. In the information environment art shouldn’t be just noise, but it should help prevent the techno-scientific worldview from becoming so dominant that humanity eats itself. The unkowable is a happy stochasticity.
Finally, Sterling’s Spimetopia is an interesting thought experiment, and tells a really nice tale of industrial ecology + ubicomp, but I wonder about what is unknowable in a world where every atom is be tagged and geo-located. It may help us prevent global environmental collapse, but just as likely might be the end of humanity as well. There is no poetry embodied in the acoustic guitar on my shelf when its entire lifecycle is embedded second by second, longitude and latitude. The economy of language that is poetry will give way to the superabundance of the mundane data streams. After all humans will be relegated to spime WRANGLERS, subservient to our information made material.
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