[Air-L] Metaphors in Technology

[Elizabeth Van Couvering]

The internet or network (rather than technology) is very often  
referred to as a place or space - you go to or visit a website, for  
example.

Elizabeth

On 30 Jun 2008, at 21:17, Joseph Reagle wrote:

> On Sunday 29 June 2008, Gordon Carlson wrote:
>> In case anyone is counting here is a newer list with the additions
>> thus far.  Thanks again and please do keep them coming!
>
> In my class on technology "Understanding how we understand:  
> technological
> predictions, myths, and implications" [1] I talk a lot about  
> technology as
> myth and narrative -- and I've been enjoying this thread.
>
> [1]:http://reagle.org/joseph/2007/impacts/syllabus.html
>
> I'm thinking of bringing in Goffman's "frames" next semester, but in  
> any
> case I try to identify some of relations implicit/presume in the  
> metaphors
> from our class readings. So, for example:
> [[
>     * Themes to keep an eye out for
>          + technology as artifact
>               o In speaking about technological artifacts, the  
> following
>                 themes often come up in terms of how we understand
>                 technology and its effects
>                 relationship: recursive, emergent, shaping, injection
>                 (embedded, inscribed values)
>                 audience: relevant social group, wider context
>                 reading: interpretive flexibility, closure
>                 movement: stabilization, momentum, replacement,
>                 incremental, organic
>                    # propagation: massive (car), limited (cockpit  
> design)
>                    # speed: fast, slow
>                 scope: micro/macro
>                 consequences: intended/unintended
>                 causality: singular/multiple; direct/indirect
>                 perspective: hindsight, those born to it, those seeing
>                 the change
>          + technology as social substrate
>               o authority: source, operation
>                 cooperation/altruism: source, enabling (e.g., crowds),
>                 effect, understanding (economic, moral, cognitive)
>                 contentment/happiness: contrary to intuitions,
>                 hyperactivity
>                 identity, power, civic interation
>                 pervasiveness/privacy: double edged sword
>     * Narratives of technological tropes
>          + ascent
>               o the "sleeper" "blows up"
>               o the new displaces the old (e.g., iPod over Walkman)
>               o the old sustains (e.g., silicon)
>          + descent
>               o fade/die
>               o the hype bubble bursts
>          + prediction
>               o "20-20 hindsight"
>     * Technology metaphors
>          + e.g., Lawler's computer as machine, tool, workplace, etc.
> ...
> ]]
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Elizabeth Van Couvering
PhD Student
Department of Media & Communications
London School of Economics and Political Science
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/vancouve/
e.j.van-couvering at lse.ac.uk



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