Comments | morality_play: Techno Demonology 1: The politics of designed artifacts

morality_play

Techno Demonology 1: The politics of designed artifacts

May 02, 2007 19:45

turkishb left a comment in my recent cautionary tale about political centrism in the US, directing me to the work of an author that has inspired me to articulate some thoughts on technology, politics, the relationship between morality and design, and a critical failure of market libertarianism. The explanation is necessarily complex, and will meander ( Read more... )

Comments 12

turkishb May 11 2007, 00:20:34 UTC

it is important to remember that while individuals might surmise teleology in their narratives of consciousness, the systems used to serve those teleologies serve only their own function and not the conscious goal... ie. tomatoes not for yummy but for strong

morality_play May 12 2007, 00:22:57 UTC

Your meaning isn't quite clear to me Turkishb. I suppose I'm concerned with what you intend by "narratives of consciousness." You seem to be alluding to my remarks on "design" in the life sciences. Of course, my only point there had been that the life sciences are unique among the sciences in that their adopted nomenclature uses teleological statements about "design intent" to describe evolutionary phenomena. And of course, they only use this for want of a better nomenclature. It's awkward to talk about the formal qualities of a tree without alluding to "design." I wanted to emphasize this distinction between a designed artifact and an emergent organism ( ... )

turkishb May 12 2007, 03:39:43 UTC

I was agreeing with you... my meaning is simply that we select certain things to be part of memory from consciousness, and then part of new consciousness from memory, giving a narrative... you see? But also this is important because the narratives of other consciousnesses are encoded to us as myths and conventions of our culture. I was just trying to infuse what I feel from my own media text critiques intrinsic to my undergrad major... More later.

morality_play May 12 2007, 00:27:42 UTC

Reading this again, perhaps you just intend the turn of phrase "narrative of consciousness" to mean the idea of a thing (the tomato) represented in the popular imagination.

themookish May 20 2007, 20:03:13 UTC

You points are very sound, but we differ in perceptions ( ... )

themookish May 20 2007, 20:04:56 UTC

*your

...and I'm sure there are other mistakes. I should really consider proofreading these things.

morality_play May 21 2007, 22:42:36 UTC

"You points are very sound, but we differ in perceptions ( ... )

morality_play May 21 2007, 22:51:39 UTC

I should emphasize though, that I am not that interested in your positions failure to be reconciled with available data on US homelessness demographics. Certainly, we can imagine that _somewhere_ there must be at least one homeless guy who has never worked or paid taxes, and who wants to take advantage of public facilities like these. The likelihood becomes exceedingly remote as we educate ourselves about who the homeless are and where they come from, but that is immaterial. The point is what rights this person has to those facilities and where such rights originate. I'd submit that your position fails even if we pretend that this "shiftless layabout" you imagine represents 100% of the homeless population, because you've misidentified where "rights to use" come from, and what the proper understanding of the park's purpose is ( ... )

Thread 8