Tuesday, August 31, 2010

A reflector reflects...

Jarod Lanier in the Chronicle of Higher Education talks about the end of human specialness and the alarming ascendance of a computerized collective unconscious:

"If you listen first, and write later, then whatever you write will have had time to filter through your brain, and you'll be in what you say. This is what makes you exist. If you are only a reflector of information, are you really there?"

His speech at the LSE last year, in which he lays out the premise behind his book "You are not a gadget" is interesting, provocative and is available as a podcast here.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

That Which Is Beauty Is Also Beast

Fiona Banner has hung up a couple of fighter jets at the Tate Modern - this extract from either The Sunday Times or The Observer or the New Yorker is her comment about them...


PS: If anyone knows the exact source, do let me know- would be happy to cite and link up.