MachineMachine /stream - tagged with history https://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss LifePress therourke@gmail.com <![CDATA[the "undifferentiated mass of organic sensation" origin]]> http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/378843

In this text from 1966, Robert Smithson quotes Roland Barthes as saying the “undifferentiated mass of organic sensation.” But I can’t find the origin of the quote. A skewed translation? or possibly just made up by Smithson? Any ideas where it might come from appreciated.

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Thu, 14 Mar 2024 13:38:54 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/378843
<![CDATA[AI and Indigenous Languages]]> https://blog.westerndigital.com/indigenous-languages/

It is estimated that one language dies every 14 days, with it a world of concepts and ideas that could only be expressed in its words. Most of the languages at risk of extinction belong to Indigenous communities.

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Mon, 19 Feb 2024 16:42:43 -0800 https://blog.westerndigital.com/indigenous-languages/
<![CDATA[Why so much of the world runs on counterfeit software - The Hustle]]> https://thehustle.co/why-so-much-of-the-world-runs-on-counterfeit-software/

LAGOS — Adegunji Kazeem vividly remembers the day his life fell apart. It was December 4, 2019. Kazeem was a final-year student at the University of Lagos and writing his undergraduate thesis, a requirement for graduation.

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Mon, 10 Jul 2023 02:52:58 -0700 https://thehustle.co/why-so-much-of-the-world-runs-on-counterfeit-software/
<![CDATA[AI is the Scariest Beast Ever Created, Says Sci-Fi Writer Bruce Sterling]]> https://www.newsweek.com/2023/07/21/ai-scariest-beast-ever-created-says-sci-fi-writer-bruce-sterling-1809439.html

I've seen a lot of computer crazes in my day, but this one is sheer Mardi Gras. It's not proper to get stern and judgmental when the people are costumed and cavorting in the streets.

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Mon, 10 Jul 2023 02:52:48 -0700 https://www.newsweek.com/2023/07/21/ai-scariest-beast-ever-created-says-sci-fi-writer-bruce-sterling-1809439.html
<![CDATA[How AI could change computing, culture and the course of history | The Economist]]> https://www.economist.com/essay/2023/04/20/how-ai-could-change-computing-culture-and-the-course-of-history

Among the more sombre gifts brought by the Enlightenment was the realisation that humans might one day become extinct.

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Tue, 25 Apr 2023 18:51:25 -0700 https://www.economist.com/essay/2023/04/20/how-ai-could-change-computing-culture-and-the-course-of-history
<![CDATA[Black Swan events disrupting or delaying (pop) cultural releases]]> http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/367655

I am looking for examples of (pop) cultural events/releases that were delayed or cancelled because an unforeseeable event eerily echoed their content in some way.

For instance, I just discovered that Kylie Minogue's 6th album 'Impossible Princess' was delayed by almost a year because Princess Diana died just before its planned release in 1997 (obviously because of the proposed title).

What other cultural creations suffered similar setbacks because of absolutely unpredictable circumstances (so-called 'Black Swan' events)? Three others that came to mind were:

  • Nintendo's recent delay of 'Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp' for the Switch because of the war in Ukraine.

  • The infamous summer 2001 trailer for Spiderman depicted a helicopter suspended between the World Trade Towers. This scene then, quite possibly because of the events of 9/11, never made it into the final movie.

  • And a more obscure one... the recall and reissue of UK Indie band The Bluetones' single 'Cut Some Rug', because the artwork depicted a classroom emptying... an image that then eerily echoed the tragic school shooting at Dunblane school in 1996.

All four of these examples are because of a serious, tragic event taking place that strangely echoed their proposed content. These are the kind of things I am thinking about, though they need not necessary be considered 'tragic' to count.

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Mon, 17 Oct 2022 09:51:14 -0700 http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/367655
<![CDATA[Horror stories of cryonics: The gruesome fates of frozen bodies - Big Think]]> https://bigthink.com/the-future/cryonics-horror-stories/#Echobox=1659611382

Several facilities in the U.S. and abroad maintain morbid warehouse morgues full of frozen human heads and bodies, waiting for the future. They are part of a story that is ghoulish, darkly humorous, and yet endearingly sincere.

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Sun, 28 Aug 2022 19:51:26 -0700 https://bigthink.com/the-future/cryonics-horror-stories/#Echobox=1659611382
<![CDATA[Horror stories of cryonics: The gruesome fates of frozen bodies - Big Think]]> https://bigthink.com/the-future/cryonics-horror-stories/#Echobox=1659611382

Several facilities in the U.S. and abroad maintain morbid warehouse morgues full of frozen human heads and bodies, waiting for the future. They are part of a story that is ghoulish, darkly humorous, and yet endearingly sincere.

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Sun, 28 Aug 2022 15:51:26 -0700 https://bigthink.com/the-future/cryonics-horror-stories/#Echobox=1659611382
<![CDATA[Instagram and Snapchat Are Ruining Our Memories]]> https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xydwz/social-media-is-ruining-our-memories-v26n1

Documenting our lives for Snapchat and Instagram can decrease the likelihood of retaining those moments as a significant memory. This story appears in VICE Magazine's Truth and Lies Issue. Click HERE to subscribe.

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Fri, 03 Jun 2022 05:52:50 -0700 https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xydwz/social-media-is-ruining-our-memories-v26n1
<![CDATA[Instagram and Snapchat Are Ruining Our Memories]]> https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xydwz/social-media-is-ruining-our-memories-v26n1

Documenting our lives for Snapchat and Instagram can decrease the likelihood of retaining those moments as a significant memory. This story appears in VICE Magazine's Truth and Lies Issue. Click HERE to subscribe.

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Fri, 03 Jun 2022 01:52:50 -0700 https://www.vice.com/en/article/8xydwz/social-media-is-ruining-our-memories-v26n1
<![CDATA[Stephen Wilhite, creator of the GIF, has died - The Verge]]> https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies

Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from COVID at the age of 74, according to his wife, Kathaleen, who spoke to The Verge. He was surrounded by family when he passed.

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Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:51:54 -0700 https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/23/22992066/stephen-wilhite-gif-creator-dies
<![CDATA[A Declaration of the Interdependence of Cyberspace]]> https://www.interdependence.online/declaration/e-bw-AGkYsZFYqmAe2771A6hi9ZMIkWrkBNtHIF1hF4?s=09

Sign

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Thu, 25 Nov 2021 02:51:21 -0800 https://www.interdependence.online/declaration/e-bw-AGkYsZFYqmAe2771A6hi9ZMIkWrkBNtHIF1hF4?s=09
<![CDATA[The Metaverse Has Always Been a Dystopian Idea]]> https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7eqbb/the-metaverse-has-always-been-a-dystopia

Silicon Valley CEOs keep hailing its imminent arrival as they hawk digital goods, but the metaverse was a dystopian idea from its inception. A big shift is apparently underway in Silicon Valley.

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Thu, 25 Nov 2021 02:51:13 -0800 https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7eqbb/the-metaverse-has-always-been-a-dystopia
<![CDATA[The Rotting Internet Is a Collective Hallucination - The Atlantic]]> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/

Too much has been lost already. The glue that holds humanity’s knowledge together is coming undone. Sixty years ago the futurist Arthur C. Clarke observed that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

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Thu, 08 Jul 2021 23:55:19 -0700 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/06/the-internet-is-a-collective-hallucination/619320/
<![CDATA[Atomic Hobo: Interview with director of THREADS, Mick Jackson]]> https://huffduffer.com/therourke/611886

I phoned Mick Jackson in LA to discuss THREADS. We also talked about A Guide To Armageddon, and The Day After, plus liquorice and all manner of nuclear horror.

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Wed, 26 May 2021 09:12:29 -0700 https://huffduffer.com/therourke/611886
<![CDATA['Remember the Internet': An Encyclopedia of Online Life - The Atlantic]]> https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/03/remember-the-internet/618350/

For many of us, for better or for worse, the internet is home. Our communities are here, because many of them could not exist any other way.

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Mon, 17 May 2021 23:55:31 -0700 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/03/remember-the-internet/618350/
<![CDATA[Māori are trying to save their language from Big Tech | WIRED UK]]> https://www.wired.co.uk/article/maori-language-tech

Te Hiku Media gathered huge swathes of Māori language data. Corporates are now trying to get the rights to it

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Mon, 17 May 2021 23:55:23 -0700 https://www.wired.co.uk/article/maori-language-tech
<![CDATA[RESOURCE PORTAL ON ANTI-RACISM AND DECOLONIAL APPROACHES TO ART HISTORY AND VISUAL CULTURE – For Art History]]> https://forarthistory.org.uk/latest-news/resource-portal-on-anti-racism-and-decolonial-approaches-to-art-history-and-visual-culture-2/

This portal contains hundreds of references arranged along subject, themes and media in eight bibliographies.

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Thu, 15 Apr 2021 22:36:40 -0700 https://forarthistory.org.uk/latest-news/resource-portal-on-anti-racism-and-decolonial-approaches-to-art-history-and-visual-culture-2/
<![CDATA[Please Stop Calling Things Archives | Perspectives on History | AHA]]> https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2021/please-stop-calling-things-archives-an-archivists-plea

Various disciplinary “archival turns” over the course of the past few decades have resulted in a tendency towards the over-casual use of the word “archive” as a shorthand to refer to, well, just about anything.

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Wed, 31 Mar 2021 07:56:06 -0700 https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2021/please-stop-calling-things-archives-an-archivists-plea
<![CDATA[Is Westernisation fact or fiction? The case of Japan and the US | Aeon Essays]]> https://aeon.co/essays/is-westernisation-fact-or-fiction-the-case-of-japan-and-the-us

In 1860, Fukuzawa Yukichi, a young Japanese student still learning English himself, accompanied the first ever Japanese diplomatic mission to the United States as its English interpreter.

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Wed, 31 Mar 2021 07:55:58 -0700 https://aeon.co/essays/is-westernisation-fact-or-fiction-the-case-of-japan-and-the-us