Activity

[...] computational objects do not simply or straightforwardly tap into pre-formed capacities or abilities, but instead generate new kinds of agency, which may be similar to what went before but which are nevertheless different; secondly, that the agency that is created is so as part of an asymmetr…

Languages for programming computers [...] designed, in a specific context, as a focused part of a particular set of sociotechnical arrangements, a constellation of forces - machines, techniques, institutional and economic arrangements and so on. A programming language is a carefully and precisely c…

[...] the figure of the geek, as something both powerful and flawed. The geek tragedy improves on the traditional mixture of these two qualities by adding the figure of technology. This variant of the tragedy is there since that of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and melted his wings. If the …

To be a geek is, in one way or another, to be over-enthused, over-informed, over-excited, over-detailed. There is an awkwardness born out of a superfluity of an extraneous kind of desire that becomes a febrile quiver in the face of an interesting problem. To be geeky is to have too much interest in…

[...] Rather than blame neoliberal economic policy, Tegmark shares Brynjolfsson’s view that the problem lies with the digital economy itself. Producing additional copies of digital products is essentially free: without having to pay for workers, companies may allocate the additional revenue to inve…