Similaire à On the Political Origins of Digital Dualism: From Rousseau's Masturbating Habits to The Front Page of the New York Times - David Banks (20)
5. Plato, writing as Socrates:
“In fact, it [writing] will introduce forgetfulness into
the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice
using their memory because they will put their trust
in writing, which is external and depends on signs
that belong to others…”
Quoted from page 79 in, Plato. Phaedrus. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1995.
9. Rousseau on the Enlightenment:
Academy of Dijon Essay Contest:
“Has the restoration of the sciences and
arts tended to purify morals?”
10. Rousseau on the Enlightenment:
A “In our day, now that more subtle study
and a more refined taste have reduced the
art of pleasing to a system, there prevails in
modern manners a servile and deceptive
conformity; so that one would think every
mind had been cast in the same mould.
Politeness requires this thing; decorum that;
ceremony has its forms, and fashion its laws,
and these we must always follow, never the
promptings of our own nature.”
11. 1 Rule of the Enlightenment
st
• We have to be
predictable, uniform, and
courteous despite our
true feelings.
• We are busy impressing
ourselves with filler:
we’re just replacing
natural needs with
artificial ones.
• We’re not being real
with each other.
16. “Digital Dualism”
• The digital and the physical are two seperate
“worlds.”
• The Internet is an instrument. (And there is
a right and a wrong way you use an
instrument)
• The spacial metaphors of the internet are
taken literally. When you are doing
something online you are not doing anything
offline.
18. Hyperlogocentrism
Metaphysics of digital
dualism. i.e.digital dualism
occurs when someone
commits hyperlogocentrism
Privileging of speech
Privileging over the written
offline speech word
or the written
word, over
online
communication
19. Why We Write, Why We
Tweet.
• “To write is indeed the only way of keeping or
recapturing speech since speech denies itself as it
gives itself.” (p.142)
• Text stands outside of the presence and
intentions of its author. Text lets our ideas be
there when and where we are not.
• Hypertext (social media) lets our ideas be where
and when we are not, instantly given certain
economic, social, and technical constraints.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24. Rousseau using Chrome
in ‘Incognito’ Mode
• Masturbation is bad because it is not
productive.
• Entertainment and social media (and porn!)
are bad because they are not productive.
• This is a privileged normative critique of
what people use social media to accomplish.
25. How do we Prevent Ourselves
from Committing Digital Dualism?
• We can learn by first doing a “double
reading” of popular technology critiques.
• The “logic of the supplement” should send up
red flags.
• Identify post hoc list of work that does not
approach their topic from a hyperlogocentric
perspective / does not commit digital
dualism.
• Works for Science fiction too!
27. boyd
• “Those who adopted
MySpace were from
different backgrounds and
had different norms and
values than those who
adopted Facebook.”
(p.204)
• Note the metaphor
“adopted”
28. Burrell
• “This book offers a
contribution to the way
the user is conceptualized
in STS by considering this
special class of invisible
users....In particular, this
entails loosening up on the
tendency to account for
users in ways that are too
narrowly circumscribed
around their direct
engagement at the human-
machine interface.” (p.17)
29. Chun
• “...can Asian/Asian
American as robots, as
data, be a critical mimesis
of mimesis itself-- a way
for all to embrace their
inner robot?” (p.52)
• Race as technology
30. Butler’s Dawn
- “And yet I pleased you. I pleased you very much.”
- “Illusion!”
- “Interpretation. Electrochemical stimulation of
certain nerves, certain parts of your brain…
What happened was real. Your body knows how
real it was. Your interpretations were illusion. The
sensations were entirely real.You can have them
again—or you can have others.” (Butler, 1997, pp.
188–189)
