OK, this is the final general/metaphorical/metaphysical post until after friday's crit. It was written earlier today, as a result of conversations with Aurthur, and thoughts spun off of his intriguing blog, trapped in the green box.
I'm interested in this notion of the "network surface." It is really provocative and no doubt accurate visual metaphor, and yet it seems deeply pessimistic. It paints an image of an undifferentiated landscape of data; a liquid film spreading out over human thought and culture.
It is apparent that the network surface has the capacity (particular with the introduction of Web2.0) to fold back onto itself, clumping around particular, often transient nodes. This clumping is more or less what I mean by patterning. I'm thinking of DNA, which is nothing more then a linear array of data, most of which is junk. This is obviously limiting, and yet the organism has created all sorts of strategies - from the physical folding of the DNA chain, to chemical messenger pathways - to link disparate elements of the genetic code. This give the genetic content the capacity to jump out of the constraints of the physical/chemical structure of the code and cross-fertilize, an essential feature of any adaptive, self-referential, intelligent system.
But I'm still stuck in generalities, so maybe this is no help...
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1 comment:
I think this is a better explanation if it's worthy anything...
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