‘It is like you to be more concerned for a machine than for a man.” He [eminent professor of sociology Simon Ninheimer] looked at her with savage contempt. It left her [US Robots’ Chief Robopsychologist Dr. ↑Susan … Continue reading →
“When we look at people’s cultures from the inside, it is seen that they—ritual and technology—cannot be separated.” (Condominas 1986: 28) CONDOMINAS, GEORGE. 1986. “Ritual technology in Mnong Gar swidden agriculture,” in Rice societies: Asian problems and prospects edited by … Continue reading →
Great and strange ideas transcending experience often have less effect upon men and women than smaller, more tangible considerations. (Wells 1995 [1897]: 44) ‘But did you—are you sure? Suppose a mirror for instance—hallucinations are so easily produced. I don’t … Continue reading →
Both “cyberspace” and “robotics” are neologisms by influential Science-Fiction writers. Both neologisms in turn are based on neologisms, too. For “cyberspace” ↑William Gibson preyed on ↑Norbert Wiener‘s concept of “cybernetics”, for “robotics” ↑Isaac Asimov preyed on writer ↑Karel Capek‘s “robot,” … Continue reading →
Imagine a world where speaking or writing words can literally and directly make things happen, where getting one of those words wrong can wreak havoc, but where with the right spell you can summon immensely powerful agencies to work your … Continue reading →
Die Bürokratie ist der nicht greifbare Feind des gesunden Menschenverstandes und der Gerechtigkeit, sie fördert Trägheit und Willkür, und oft haben wir das Gefühl, machtlos zu sein gegen kleinkarierte Beamte, die sich gegen alle Vernunft und manchmal mit tragischen … Continue reading →
In a 1994 television interview with ↑Alexander Kluge, ↑Niklas Luhmann warned: “Vorsicht vor zu raschem Verstehen!” [Attention if something is understood too quickly.] 70 years earlier, Hercule Poirot said: “If a thing is clear as daylight—eh bien, mistrust it! Someone … Continue reading →
Gaming is the most vital artform of the age, a field that has burgeoned from virtually nothing to one of the world’s most popular forms in no time flat, a field that has seen and continues to see an enormous … Continue reading →
According to Sterling (1993) it was John Perry Barlow who first adopted Gibson’s concept for use of all kinds of perceived technological spaces. Barlow stated that cyberspace “is where you are when you’re talking on the telephone” (Rucker, Sirius, and … Continue reading →
The wall went down last month. From now on in computer gaming, there were to be no real barriers between creator and audience, or producer and consumer. They would be collaborators in the same imaginative space, and working as equals, … Continue reading →