Transductions: Bodies and Machines at SpeedWhat do the patented data structures embedded deep in the code of an online computer game or the massively complicated architecture of the latest supercomputer used to simulate nuclear explosions have to do with culture, life or meaning? Why does technology attract such wildly differing responses - from fervour to boredom to distrust? Transductions explores these questions by drawing on science and technology studies, contemporary critical theory and corporeal theory. An exploration of complex technologies such as online computer games, genomic databases and the global positioning system reveals how the borders between bodies and machines, between what counts as social and what counts as technical, are no less diverse and complicated than culture itself. Indeed, they constitute a crucial dimension of contemporary culture. Through a critical analysis of the widely accepted notion that technology speeds everything up, Transductions argues that there are only ever differences in speed. The question for us now is how can such differences be represented? Transductions was originally part of the Technologies: Studies in Culture and Theory series. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Radical contingency and the materializations | 29 |
the depth and speed | 57 |
Copyright | |
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Acheulean Agamben artefacts articulation associated atomic clocks Avara becomes Bernard Stiegler bioinformatics biopolitical biotechnology bomb Bruno Latour BSP tree Chapter coding complex complicated computer game constitutive contemporary technology context corporeal culture databases delay detonation diverse realities domain embodiment entities essence of technology event existence folding genes genetic gestures Gilbert Simondon global hand-axe Haraway Heidegger Heidegger's historical human and non-human Huygens hylomorphic images indeterminacy individuation informatic instance interaction involved iterability Latour limits living and non-living living bodies machines mapping material matter metastability milieu modern technology modulation mould networks notion nuclear occurs organisms originary technicity oscillations pendulum clock Ping Body play premodern problem protein question radical contingency real-time relation semiotic sequence signifying Simondon simply singular social specific stability Stelarc's Stiegler structures supercomputer synchronization technical elements technical ensembles technical mediations technical objects technical practices theory thermonuclear bomb thought tion transductive understood Virilio