>i do agree with this idea of substituting IBM, Microsoft, CIA, MI5, VISA, >T-COM, The Chinese Communist Party, etc, etc for Google, the text would >read largely the same...but these groups differ in the way that google >(and its party members) us, function in a communicative, un-suppressive >manner, its a form of controlled voluntarism...mediated in someway by an >unobtrusive control group...and isn't google(internet, web) itself the >very extension of the people immediately around you? ie. global community, >haven't we just broadened our network, granted, there is more congestion >and verbiage, but then the argument that, we should still be living fire >side in a cave in groupings of 12 to 18 could prove to be a more >productive system for understanding the world around us.
Who says that having a rich local network is about cavemen? and I think the source, impact, and power structures embedded in the "broadening" process can't simply be shrugged off, nor the price paid for that broadening -- because it takes life-time to deal with the remote others (and the technological infrastructure that supports it), this drains life-time off from local human engagement, you can't double-up on attentive human interaction, despite the 'necessities' of participating in the techno-social multi-tasking system. And the word "extension" has to be carefully looked-at -- how exactly are those people immediately around one 'extended'? What is the means of extension, how does it proceed? Does the extension function in a Cartesian sense, or is it a purely social abstraction? How is it constructed, fabricated, and, since thermodynamics would suggest that extension consumes energy, what is the energy source? What happens to the body when extended? The mind? Does it become thin? or more powerful? How does it affect survival rates versus un-extended peer groups? Is there a relation between extension and congestion? What is civil society when everyone is remotely present? How is it that a critique of an 'unobtrusive (??!!) techno-social control group can be given a Luddic label? John # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
