[Air-l] re:-my first post(reply to Ulla)

[Charlie Breindahl]

Eero wrote:

> Doesnt this give us enough to research and study without 
> hallucinating about cyberspace?
> Must we have so much "cyber jargon" to describe what are very 
> simple processes and for most users merely a convenient 
> communications tool?
> 
> Communication is all about speaking/writing clearly and 
> simply. The greater the number of people who can understand 
> you, the greater your ability to communicate.
> I dont understand how "cyber jargon" and hallucinating about 
> cyberspace makes the world a better place or enriches 
> humankind - or how it makes one a greater communicator.
> :-)

Nah. Communication is about at least three things, all involving time and
space: 

1) Historically, communication is a synonym to transportation. Prior to the
telegraph, virtually any message had to be physically carried from sender to
receiver. Needless to say, we still conceive of communication as a process
involving transport/dissemination of messages and thus, time and space.

2) Communication is about the (electronic) exchange of information that you
allude to. This is not a trivial matter, though. 

2a) A bus schedule (trivial informatiation) works in most parts of the
world, but it works according to complex local customs and tools structuring
the time-space continuum (spatial knowledge such as geography and the use of
time keeping devices).

2b) Richer forms of communication mostly use verbal language. According to
Mark Johnson et al., language is full of metaphors alluding to space and
time - surely you would _go along_ with this _proposition_, right?

3) Communication is about shared interiorities, as I think John Durham
Peters calls it, i.e. the bond to our fellow humans. I think that he fails
to recognize how much objects and our bodies matter in communication. If you
love somebody, do you send them an e-mail? No, you present them with a rose.
Sharing sentiments is often a matter of bodily gesture:

    :o)=

Now if I should deliver a bold jab at your world-view, just as you did to
mine (and I thank you for it), I would suggest that you are so focused on
communication as trivial information (2a above) that you forget about all
the rest. In essence, you are like a blinkered horse, faithfully trotting
along sensing only the familiar road ahead, but missing all the exciting
things happening in the landscape around you. You should be galloping in the
fields instead!

Best,
Charlie
--
Charlie Breindahl
Ph.D. Student, Copenhagen + Malmö

Web:    http://staff.hum.ku.dk/hitch/
        http://www.creativeenvironments.mah.se/
Phone:  +45 35 32 81 14
Mobile: +45 51 92 15 98
E-mail: hitch at hum.ku.dk

"For the modern Don Quixote, the windmills have been preprogrammed to turn
into knights"
        - Janet H. Murray