Re: [microsound] purple particles

[m <m@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

mitchell whitelaw wrote:
> 
> > it disturbs me to read phrases like
> > 'the hard drive's gigabyte wilderness'
> 
> damn right, me too. it just rolls right over so much of how those
> technologies come to be, how they work, etc. etc... and that's what
> makes me a bit uneasy about this digital materialism, that there's a
> quite romantic idea of "matter" down there (and fair enough) but that
> this ignores both the particular strictures and special powers of the
> digital. a bit is _not_ an atom.

It seems to me there are several ideas asking for different kinds of
attention here...

1) a bit is not an atom... meaning it is a unit of information which
does not have a one to one physical correspondence.

2) in a similar sense our subjectivity/consciousness does not have a
straightforward physical manifestation, yet it is the source of our
world, it's structure and the bits of which we speak. Our body often
serves as a surogate for those wishing to physically touch the soul, but
the two might not the same, however intimate their connection.

3) it is often through a physical process that abstractions like the
soul or bits are brought to our awareness, i.e. building a computer
which can then run software and create, access and organize bits (in
some sort of parallel to the way our brains conjure ideas, thoughts,
even speech).

4) while it may be inaccurate to speak/think of bits as atoms, it is
largely through physical processes and analogies that we experience the
abstractions of bits and ideas... and always through the technology of
communication (whether language and/or email) that we can share these
ideas with one another. 

5) the two processes saturate one another, the abstractions of ideas and
the physicality of their manifestations. Seperating them is largely
artificial, a conceit of our self awareness. It is blurring lines that
describe the world - now a man, now a computer, now an insect...

Michael
-- 
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