[Air-l] Montréal researchers in MPLS?

[brian carroll]

  Assoc. of Internet Researchers, to those attending
  the conference in Minneapolis (mpls).

  i was going to wait to write but will soon be shipping
  my computer so i could not wait for a more appropriate
  time to post this message regarding internet research.
  thus, my apologies if it is off-base for larger issues.

  i have tried (2x i believe) to have my work presented
  in the conferences but did not make the cut. my work
  is not of the traditional academic approach, dissecting
  'the Internet' from its other factors, but rather looking
  at the things preceding the Internet, in basic research.

  for example, i believe it is a limit to focus on 'the
  Internet' as a foci of study, when it is an extension
  of a system 15 billion years old, if it were openly
  debated and could be reasoned this way in public. but
  such is not the case, it seems.

  i am interested in finding those who will be in MPLS,
  like i, during the conference who would be interested
  in meeting and discussing work outside the conference.
  i grew up in Minneapolis and will send a short list of
  some unique places one could visit to understand the
  local environment and some of its jewels.

  but first, i am interested in networking with those
  from Montréal, Québec, Canada, whom are approaching
  this subject and are open to exploring it in detail,
  outside of current paradigms.

  my work, as most others, began in a displicanary
  construct. architecture, for me, as a way of under-
  standing, describing, defining. architecture is and
  has always been a discipline allowing a broad/general
  approach, general and specific, which can get a big-
  picture view of a discrete event, such as the Internet.

  logically, the Internet is an extenstion of much of
  the electrification of our societies over the last
  200 years. without it, no Internet. but more, further
  back, without the science of batteries, static elect-
  ricity, back to Thales 2500 years ago, and further,
  to the concepts of religion and the 'charge' often
  associated with these, such as the gods of lightening
  and thunder, Zeus and Thor. further back, into the
  reigning cosmology, that the electromagnetic big-
  bang, theoretical as it is, still offers a direct
  lineage from the Big Bang to the Internet which
  transverses the progession of electromagnetism
  from realms of the natural, to artifice of the
  tools and technologies of power, media which are
  at the foundation of the current network, most
  have began using in the last 5+ years, dealing
  mostly with its 'virtual' aspects, and defining
  it in traditional terms of traditional disciplines,
  another brick in the wall of the previous paradigm.

  yet, it is this compartmentalization of the Internet
  from issues it is directly related to, such as the
  power plant and pollution, and its connection to
  global warming and war, nuclear even, to economic
  devastation should these systems fail (california),
  and great inefficiency which underlies 'the Internet'
  that i do not find in any of the speakers or sessions
  in your conference. thus, i can see why such work
  may not fit into an academic approach to something
  beyond the scope of any one discipline.

  one reason for this, i believe, is that 'the Internet'
  has become the focus of disciplines, each adding its
  own vantage on its interpretation. and, in conferences
  such as AoIR 2, that the whole view is supposedly to
  be found in bringing these separate views together.
  i disagree. and will explain why...

  the way things are, in research today, focusses on
  the discipline as the organizer of content, and its
  expertise in dealing with content, the content, in
  this case 'the Internet', added onto the heap of
  things each discipline, economic or social, pursues.

  it is like McLuhan's 'the medium is the message',
  where messaging ideas about 'the Internet' is by
  default, assumed meaningful, as it describes/defines
  the medium. but the medium, the computer networks
  and power plugs, do not end at the socket and plug.
  nor do there impacts. an alternative to this type
  of approach would be to focus on the 'the Internet'
  as the meaning, which seems to be done, but what
  is 'the Interent' if it is not its grand design,
  its grand infrastructure, science, technology,
  and cosmology? i no longer wonder about this.

  thus, my work focusses on 'electromagnetic studies',
  and educating citizens about the basics of this, and
  its ramifications, and its connections to current
  events, such as is the electronic internetwork.

  if EM studies were the center, not the part, and
  the discplines approached it together, instead of
  at a conference, but as its own entity, it would
  be closer to the large world picture that the
  Internet is yet but one more extension of.

  for example, fascinating it would be to see a
  researcher look at the evolution of economics
  from shells to e-cash. a military historian from
  spears to EMP bombs. an artist, from paint to
  painting software. an architectural researcher
  from building pre- and post- electrification.
  a political scientist, from oral debates to
  online debates. a writer, from text to word-
  processing. some of which has been done, but
  not around a common theme. so too, with physics,
  with cosmology, with archaeology, geology,
  medical science, amongst myriad other things.

  focussing on 'the Internet' as the center of
  study, and research, is akin to looking at
  the foot of an elephant and trying to describe
  the whole. common sense, it has no place in
  the expertise, if 'the Internet' is as far
  as the logic can go. and this seems to be
  the manufacturing of knowledge about what
  is going on, where it is limited by a para-
  digm, a way of seeing/perceiving an event,
  as discrete, seperated, dissectable from
  a larger, much more complex, but also much
  more simple who. a GUT feeling, if you will.

  the basic public R&D i have worked on started
  off with architecture, for its generalist view-
  point, trying to grapple with the Internet, yet
  getting into its interconnections with other
  things, on the whole unacknowledged....

  the architectural of electricity
  http://www.electronetwork.org/works/ae/

  recently, i published a more detailed account
  for the everyday citizen, still in an archi-
  tectural language, but one which allows for
  these larger connections with other events,
  such as war, pollution, inefficiency, and
  goals for action (multidiscplinary electro-
  networking around electromagnetic knowledge).

  Seeing Cyberspace:
  the electrical infrastructure is architecture
  http://www.electronetwork.org/works/seeing/

  i can find no support for this work in my
  current environment, and would like to meet
  those from Montréal, in Universities, as i
  desire to base my work there, given that
  the cultural aspects of research are supported
  much moreso, it seems, that the years of failure
  for pursuing this different approach to the ideas.

  for example, the University you hold your conference
  at censored my work in the early 1990s, which was
  dealing with the Internet at this time. more info
  can be found at:

  http://www.electronetwork.org/works/automadness/

  my goals are public education, for everyday citizens,
  about understanding, at least comprehending that
  there are cultural aspects to electromagnetism,
  both artisitic and scientific, and to make a
  resource for these works. this project, the
  Electronetwork, can be seen at:

  http://www.electronetwork.org/


  please be in contact, on or off-list, as i would
  like to meet those from Universities in MTL and
  to discuss opportunities there to share this basic
  research work, and to work with others to approch
  'the Internet' in its larger context, through an
  educational lens, but outside of traditioinal
  disciplinarian constructs, based on the past,
  and making 'the Internet' fit into the pre-
  existing puzzle of expertise and certainty.

  i will be in south MPLS and could meet near
  the University or at one of the great locations
  around the city. i hope you explore the unique
  aspects of the City, which may not be in the
  tour guides for what makes this city so beautiful.





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brian thomas carroll		the_electromagnetic_internetwork
electromagnetic researcher	matter, energy, and in-formation
human at electronetwork.org	http://www.electronetwork.org/