From Pierre Lévy, Collective Intelligence
Transductions
- technicity
- technical elements
- technical ensembles
- originary technicity
- ontogenesis vs ontology
“The technicity of technical element is more mobile or detachable than the technicity of an ensemble which is always in situ”.
»Adrain Mackenzie, Transductions. Bodies and Machines at Speed.
Paul Baran’s diagram of a communication networks, from his RAND paper ‘On Distributed Communication’ (1964)
Student Information Literacy Self-Assessment, The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008
Gartner hype cycle
[t]he uses to which [appliances] are put are civilization, and without the things the uses would be impossible
— John Dewey, Democracy and Education, III, 4
Mike Wesch’s video, ‘The machine is Us/ing us’. An oldie but a goodie.
Network warfare
“Today, new systems are being fielded to allow soldiers to enter data on the spot—even during battle.
These technologies are wonders, but generally they have not been accompanied by shifts in military doctrine and organization. The result: a tidal wave of data is being created that can swamp systems still organized around large units (such as army divisions, naval strike groups, or air force wings) whose goal is to apply “overwhelming force” at some mythical “decisive point.” Generally speaking, these large units cannot quickly disseminate the information they collect throughout their networks and then allow smaller constituent parts to swarm against insurgents.”
Full article by John Arquilla in Technology Review March/April 2008, p. 12
Firefox logo spied in space!
This is your brain on video
“Here’s another example: a new trend on Flickr called the long portrait. These are short videos in which the subjects simply stare into the camera. The first time you see one, it’s unsettlingly intense. The subject’s gaze—staring at you—totally discombobulates the normal voyeuristic payload of a photo.”
The viewer's cut
“Watch Late Fragment straight through and you won’t really understand why a young woman kills her doting father. Take control of the film, unlocking hidden footage and shuffling scenes around, and you learn that Dad may dote a little too much. Because the truth is, our perception of stories and characters shifts as we learn more about them. On this filmfest-and-DVD-only feature from a trio of Canadians, you delve deeper by using your remote: Click at the beginning of a scene and you’ll be taken somewhere totally different than if you do so at the end. Any given viewing might weave 90 or so of the 139 available scenes into a Pulp Fiction-like circular story arc.”
