March 10, 2006

Sterling's ETech Talk Online

Bruce Sterling has posted the text of (and some images from) his recent ETech talk. Spimes, theory objects, Web 2.0, the problems of labeling, RFIDs, and more. Here's a bit that will likely show up in my talk at the WIDE conference at Michigan State in April (theory objects are articulations):

I entirely agree with Alan Liu that Web 2.0 hype is a lash-up of technologies that is made in a big hurry by catch-as-catch-can hacker types. That might even be considered a virtue. The deeper problem is that language is a lash-up, too. We don't get a red-hot tech lab separate from a cool and contemplative ivory tower where we can make permanent historical judgments. We'd be kind of lucky nowadays just to get "Theory Objects," which are electronic lash-ups of data, ideas and weird riffing. A "Theory Object" is a kind of hack for English majors.

[via Beyond the Beyond]

Posted by johndanseven at March 10, 2006 12:40 PM