[Nettime-bold] Re: <nettime> The War Between the Two Technologies

["wade tillett" <wade@thefrictioninstitute.org>]

electrical/mechanical
mind/body
language/action
infinite/finite
individual/autonomous

> one odd thing in the juxtaposition of the mechanical and the
electronic/electrical is that they are not, as far as i know, mutually
exlusive. (bc (human@electronetwork.org))

-This sums up the crux of the crisis we are encountering. In fact, the
economies, laws, morals, etc. (the power structure) are based on this
binary. One is allowed free speech, not free action. One is allowed
freedom of belief, but not freedom to act on those beliefs. One is
encouraged to have an individual mind, but is prohibited from
constructing individual space.

Said another way, the old stratagem of containing actual mechanical
action by creating an electrical utopia of freedom (free speech, etc.-
a utopia that is in fact constructed within a mechanical structure in
order to subvert/delay/plan bodily power and action), is no longer
tenable. As the electrical/mechanical language/action converge, the
binaries of the structure come to look absurd, and whats worse, expose
the real limits of the mechanically-constructed electric utopia.

For example, look at the DeCSS case. With code, language becomes
action. There is suddenly a problem: is code language, free speech,
belonging within the confines of the electric utopia, or is code an
action that redefines the mechanical (political) bounds of the
electric. Code has the potential to self-configure an environment,
individual and autonomous. Code potentially escapes its own boundaries
by redefining them. Language is no longer purely electrical. Action is
no longer purely mechanical.

And what really shakes the structure is that it is now possible to see
that the binary never was pure, it has ALWAYS been an enforced
division. What was relegated to exceptional grey areas becomes
apparent as the norm. This is the problem for the structure of power,
no longer does language operate within the mechanical confines. There
is therefore an overwhelming (political) desire to force it back
within them: to control access, to force identification, to require a
finitude (via copyright/sssca/etc.). But the problem is that the
mechanical limits of the electric utopia are apparent, and imploding.


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