at the moment i'm thinking about neoteny (the juvenile part of life - lanier talks about this towards the end of `you are not a gadget`) and how cultural neotany is both conservative (a generation displays juvenile characteristics longer, conserving their status as cuturally dominant) and radical/experimental (characteristics of juvenalia). i feel that i (and my immediate peers) occupy a strange middle ground between a generation who's identity was formed in web 2.0 and a generation who's identity was formed before the internet. we are both deeply nostalgic for reality (a newpaper made of paper which exists for a time and occupies space in our lives - stories which disappear in an instant online lay on your kitchen table, in your recycling bin, on your floor catching paint or lining a litterbox for weeks or years or...you get the idea) we are nostagic for materiality at the same time as we are seduced by the web and excited and inspired by the possibilities emerging from new methods of computation and new ways of thinking about order and organization (and truth?).
i'm thinking about how my generation, how i have a job to do - making sure that i find ways to express the feelings i miss in virtual reality: the things i am nostalgic for (already), the things/experiences that i identify with and value, finding ways to create (send/receive) feelings at least as good/interesting/complex/complete as those to pass on, as new nostalgias (things experienced) to those coming up after us, at lightning speed and slow as snails.
on my list today is to look at borges "on exactitude and science" and record a bit more poodcast.
also on my list today is to try a few modeling ideas with my new skills in grashopper/rhino
9 years ago
