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digest 2006-04-06 #001.txt
litsci-l-digest Thursday, April 6 2006 Volume 01 : Number
156
In this issue:
"SUB 06" An Evolutionary Necessity? Machine and Human
(Co)evolution in Heinrich Hauser's "The Giant Brain" (1948)
Call SUB 06 panel "The First Supper: Living with New Life Forms
RE: RE: SUB 06 Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the
Promotion of Science as "Rational Religion"
SUB 06 Anti-Entropic/Evolutionary Modernism
Working Visual Artists: slsa members
SUB 06 Inviting and Dismissing A Post-biological Evolution
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 13:28:44 -0400
From: "Youngman, Paul"
Subject: "SUB 06" An Evolutionary Necessity? Machine and Human
(Co)evolution in Heinrich Hauser's "The Giant Brain" (1948)
Heinrich Hauser's 1948 novel Gigant Hirn (The Giant Brain) contains a =
remarkably prescient analysis of human and computer co-evolution which,
=
in the 1940's and 50's, read like the most hair-brained of science =
fictions. From the year 2005, however, that which Hauser foresaw =
regarding the capabilities of computers does not seem so far fetched. =
On the contrary, the discussions of technological evolution found in =
Gigant Hirn are cutting edge today. In 1990, for example, Norbert Bolz
=
famously declares there to be little difference between the mechanical =
and the organic world. In 1999, Ray Kurzweil proclaims technological =
evolution "a human-sponsored variant of evolution." And in 2004, Steven
=
Shaviro cites mere "leaky distinctions" between the evolution of humans
=
and machine evolution. He does not go so far as to claim that the =
distinctions have been eliminated, but he does believe the "boundaries =
that used to define them have become 'permeable.'" Using Hauser's work
=
as a springboard, this paper will analyze human and machine co-evolution
=
with a particular focus on the following questions: Are we comfortable =
with technologically removing the limits to the organ we use to think, =
and what are the evolutionary implications of removing the limits to the
=
brain using computing technologies?=20
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 14:54:17 -0500
From: Brahnam
Subject: Call SUB 06 panel "The First Supper: Living with New Life Forms
This is a call for presenters for the following panel for
SLSA 2006. I am looking to expand this. Please send
proposals ASAP. My email is below. Especially solicited
are essays that incorporate science fiction, film, and
media. But all ideas are welcomed.
Title: The First Supper: Living with New Life Forms
Panel abstract:
Kenneth Gross in his essay "Moving statues, Talking
Statues" imagines the day when sculptures step off their
pedestals to join us for dinner. He is certain we will
need a manual for dealing with these animated sculptures,
a helpful "handbook (suitable for poets, critics, and
sculptors--at once a history, a book of spells, a courtesy
manual, and a diagnostic treatise)" that will tell us how
properly to address them, how set the table for them, how
lead them out of their misconceptions, and how, if
necessary, to insult and even to destroy them.
That day--when human artifacts come to dinner--is rapidly
approaching. Technology is evolving, separating itself
from the human to become a myriad of life forms. As robots
and virtual creatures begin to populate our social space,
fragments of "a history, a book of spells, a courtesy
manual, and a diagnostic treatise" are taking shape. This
panel will examine science fiction, art, media, film,
philosophy, literature, and the study of human-computer
interaction with the intent of piecing together some of
these fragments. What is it we are being told to do, and
why? Of what are we being warned, and of what promised? In
a word, how are we to greet these approaching social
intruders?
Dr. Sheryl Brahnam
Assistant Professor CIS
Missouri State University
sbrahnam (at) misssouristate (dot) edu
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------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 15:00:29 -0500
From: JoAnn Palmeri
Subject: RE: RE: SUB 06 Harlow Shapley, Cosmic Evolution, and the
Promotion of Science as "Rational Religion"
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In reply to:
Doctress Neutopia, who posted the following -- Perhaps during the
conference
we could discuss the differences between the two approaches. The Gaia
Religion is based on love as the universal glue. As Albert Einstein
wrote,
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." The Gaia
point
of view is not only rational or objective, but mystical in that it
observes
the inner workings of love.
My reply:
Yes, this would be an interesting conversation. Shapley's "stellar
theology"
was a perspective on the cosmos based in science and rationality, but it
was
one from which he derived some interesting lessons concerning humanity
and
moral/spiritual values. Shapley's emotive reaction to, and aesthetic
appreciation of nature are indicative of the scientist's enchantment
with
the universe, something that perhaps exists beyond rationality.
JoAnn Palmeri
************************************************
JoAnn Palmeri
School of Library and Information Studies
University of Oklahoma
401 West Brooks, Room 120
Norman, OK 73019
palmerij@ou.edu
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 17:27:01 -0400
From: Blake Leland
Subject: SUB 06 Anti-Entropic/Evolutionary Modernism
Keywords: vectored time, reversible time, Biblical time, scientific
time, thermodynamics, Modernism
Anti-Entropic/Evolutionary Modernism
A master trope of Western history is the notion, rooted in Biblical
eschatology, of vectored time. Yet the great instauration of modern
science, Newtonian mechanics, was founded on a notion of un-vectored,
reversible time. By mid-19th century, the Biblical timeline and the
un-vectored time of classical mechanics (and uniformitarian geology)
had been displaced by, or entangled with, the vectored scientific
temporalities of thermodynamics and evolution. For the past few
centuries the West has attempted, in various ways, to sort out or
re-braid its tangle of times. This paper examines briefly some of
the ways in which Modernism often attempted to subvert notions of
vectored time (both eschatological and scientific)-attempts which
include the valorization of the isolated, infinite moment found in
Pater, Bergson, Pound; the Modernist refusal of notions of artistic
progress found in T.S. Eliot or Picasso; the Modernist flirtation
with exotic images of infinite temporal cyclicality found in Nietzche
or Yeats; the Modernist notions of synchronic structuralism laid out
by Saussure and Freud-and will, I hope, offer some tentative
suggestions as to why Modernism felt so often compelled to deny a
direction to time.
Blake Leland
Georgia Institute of Technology
- --
Blake Leland
Associate Professor
School of LCC
Skiles 322
Georgia Tech
(404)-894-2737 (office)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 16:17:17 +0000 GMT
From: "Steven J. Oscherwitz"
Subject: Working Visual Artists: slsa members
I am trying to organize a panel of artists working in the visual fine
arts-- painters. And digital media integrating contemporary media
philosophy and practice within this conferences themes.
The difference of this panel would be that its presenters working mostly
within the cognitive drive ( viseral experience ) of picture making
would use pictures and images as the primary vehicals to express their
work.
In summary the product of this kind of presentation would be pictures
intertwined with contemporary media practice that use hybrid visual
experiences that would possibly present unique perspectives and
excavations of this conferences themes.
Steven J. Oscherwitz
Sjosch@u.washington.edu
Artist/Technoscience
Steven J. Oscherwitz Artist/Technoscience Reseacher
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 22:29:17 EDT
From: Stmart96@aol.com
Subject: SUB 06 Inviting and Dismissing A Post-biological Evolution
Paper Proposal
=20
=20
=20
Inviting and Dismissing A Post-biological Evolution in the Discourses
of=20
Biomedia and New Media =20
Patricia Ticineto Clough =20
The Graduate Center CUNY =20
_pclough@gc.cuny.edu_ (mailto:pclough@gc.cuny.edu) =20
Taking up recent critical discourses on biomedia and new media (e.g. in
the=
=20
works of Eugene Thacker, Mark Hansen,Brian Massumi, Alexander Galloway
and=
=20
Wendy Hui Kyong Chun among others ), I examine the way these discourses
are=
=20
drawn to a post-biological evolutionary threshold. which is
approached=20
nevertheless with a strong ambivalence. I explore this ambivalence by
focu=
sing on=20
the way these discourses treat both the autopoietic body-as-organism
and =20
digitization in terms of the philosophical conceptualization of the
virtual=
. I=20
argue that it is in crossing an empirical treatment of digital
technology a=
nd =20
the human body with the philosophical conceptualization of the virtual
that=
=20
the postbiological threshold reached at the informationalization of
life =20
generally and the human body particularly is invited in these
discourses, e=
ven=20
while being dismissed. . Yet, it is at this threshold that capital
is=20
accumulating in the domain of life itself while deploying a racism
(somethi=
ng like=20
Michel Foucault=E2=80=99s notion of state racism in Society Must be
Defende=
d) that=20
allows some life capacities to be valued against other life capacities,
all=
ows the=20
risk to life of some populations against others to be calculated as a
matte=
r=20
of biopolitical control. I argue that informationalization of life
itself=20
and the body as organism are central to present day capital
accumulation a=
nd=20
a deployment of racism and represents an investment in a
post-biological=20
evolution. Yet, in their ambivalence to a post-biological threshold,
I wa=
nt to=20
argue, the discourses of biomedia and new media are restricted in
fully =20
being able to critically engage the present day political economy of
life a=
nd=20
death. =20
Key words: biomedia and new media, post biological evolution capital
=20
accumulation, state racism =20
------------------------------
End of litsci-l-digest V1 #156
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