| brian carroll on Mon, 23 Jul 2001 19:45:20 +0200 (CEST) |
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| <nettime> the Architecture of the U.N. |
[this is part of a larger project i will be launching soon, Autobiography of Madness, as the result of having another project, electronetwork.org, derailed by forces behind the scenic electronic screenery... this is a counterpoint to EMPIRE, in that, there are concrete aspects to what is now going on that are not being discussed, as they are not part of the academic viewpoint sanctioned by the incorporated U of Mindshare. without acknowledging the matter-of-fact mundane aspects of policy, the reals, and only wanting larger ideals, facades, then the structure will remain unchanged. just as in language, if it is a private wo|man's reality, that is all it is. only 6 billion humans can be one, as humanity. and that's the scale things are happening on, not emulating the egotism of another private ID. knowledge is open, as are ideas. but everything being talked about is bounded by a proprietary limit upon the wordage, the languaging, the psychographics of the sayer, what is said, and the receivers whom replicate and extend that (versioned) envisioning. if change occurs, it will occur firstly in minds. else, everything is way too simple and without a scale and gravity as to its consequence. it is time to organize transparently. yet there is only silence. one thing seems clear, that if the global talks between nations are in trouble, then 'terrorism' will likely become local, with mysterious 'events', staged by someone or other, going off in localities, "More and More Reason for More and More Security." etc. and no one will be to blame, except the old ideas that have total control over the image and its interpretation. time to regroup, rethink. and speak with one voice, human, the one institution that everyone belongs to.] THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE UNITED NATIONS final paper for course on the United Nations, U of Minnesota, USA brian thomas carroll. received a C- or D+ in 1993. college drop out. questions 1 and 2, were those of the professor whom did not understand what i was trying to write about and why. this is an electronic draft. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ the Architecture of the United Nations / 1993 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The order and unity of the United Nations is critical to maintaining peace and allowing interaction between nations. The education, culture and symbolism that will allow a sense of world community to exist in the technology of modernism, in electricity and the upcoming telecommunications infrastructure, inside and out. Precedent is found in Mies van der Rohe, who as an architect of modernism, described what is the essential basis for the unified form and context of technology... " Technology is rooted in the past. It dominates the present and tends into the future. It is a real historical movement - one of the great movements which shape and represent their epoch. It can be compared only with the Classic discovery of..(humans)..as a..(people), the Roman will to power, and the religious movement of the middle ages. Technology is far more than a method, it is a world in itself... [cyberspace] Whenever technology reaches its real fulfilment, it transcends into architecture. [telecommunications] " It is true that architecture depends on facts, but its real field of activity is in the realm of significance. I hope you will understand that architecture has nothing to do with the inventions of forms. It is not a playground for children, young or old. Architecture is the real battleground of the spirit. Architecture wrote the history of the epochs and gave them their names. Architecture depends on its time. It is the crystallization of its inner structure, the slow unfolding of its form. That is the reason why technology and architecture are so closely related. Our real hope is that they will grow together, that some day the one wil be the expression of the other. Only then will we have an architecture worthy of its name: architecture as a true symbol of our time." 1 As time is now instant and "real", and as the future tends toward the internal workings of telecommunications, and as the history of such a climax has been born of electricity, so to then, is there precedent in the modernization of the world by the United Nations, and potential for world governance by the public acknowledgment of this architecture. The physical presence of artifacts which recognize the unity between nations and peoples, a common bond with which the presence of the United Nations can be realized. The United Nations is the only chance there is for international governance of technology, and it needs to define its mission more directly to the real implications of a telecommunications infrastructure, for it holds great promise to bring people together, but as it progresses now, its goals may be to keep people apart, unaware. To put this influence of telecommunications and the United Nations in context it is necessary to see it on the outside, outside of policy, and to be aware of its impact and its invisible quality that defies normal understanding and awareness. The United Nations is an essential body of governance in a world shrunken by science and technology. The world is becoming closer through technology, and the U.N. has a great history in the transfer of technology to pre-industrial countries. In fact, the function of this transfer is to bring Modernity itself. Modern living can be seen by corporate buildings and highways, but the foundation of modern living has its foundation on electricity. Since the 1880's, the electrical system has sustained the growth of an international society. Once radio and television, then the computer and now the computer network and high-speed transportation of information, or telecommunications. The public, all over the modern world, relies on these technologies. Civic buildings now include radio stations and power stations, and they are standard buildings in the technological culture. This is a private asset of the United Nations, and this aesthetic is an ordering device in societies. Most essential is now to see where telecommunications exists in this modern structure... Between the transmission of ideas one and two-way, to the change in time and space of the distribution of these ideas. What awareness exists in the international public? With the dedication of developing the computer networks, and transmission techniques involved in telecommunications, an interior world has now evolved, and at the same time become an internal subject. (As with General Mckenzie, E.C., NAFTA). Telecommunications is to be a standard international infrastructure as common as the streetlight, the wooden distribution pole and the metal transmission tower, but then how will it be seen, and how can the United Nations govern over this technology when it is so very independent? If the greatest outside impact of this new technology will be seen with just another line on the wooden utility pole, how will this be utilized as freedom rather than control over the international public ? First, with the scale of technology, there is no difference between national and international problems in dealing with its ethical questions. But these questions exist outside of the publics awareness as a whole because the information or the condition itself is never unveiled for its political context. But the policy, at the local and international level is questionable for public aims, and the absolute control of telecommunications over the perceptions and actions of those "inside" this world have an incredible opportunity to censor and defy human-rights and non-self-governing peoples. This is said to be a result of science in relation to the United States Constitution, where there exists no law protecting the citizen ownership of government, but rather allows public and private interactions to go unchecked. The relationship between the United Nations (DPI) and Non Governmental Organizations (NGO's) is questionable. And with regard to telecommunications, and its power over people and ideas, in the information economy where knowledge is for sale, there exists a undefined goal for this technology that could easily be more concerned with money than with human goals of solving complex societal relationships. Telecommunications, and the computer network, allow society and its structure to be mirrored inside a virtual space. To explore such a network (internet) is to see how the United Nations or the White House is just another destination in the organization of the network itself. On the outside, if not only ideally, the potential for the U.N. to be a governing source for the world is powerful. Every dam and airport, park and television station, and electrical and communications system could be checked on an international level and could guarantee a certain public responsibility over these. The real situation is more that of the internet, where governement finds itself as just another in international organization. This is a result of a great unsaid of the political structure extended through science and technology, and the goodness of telecommunications, the grounding of this technology for public control is held back by the lack of recognizing this structure. If the United Nations were to regain some control it has lost to these other NGO's it will need a public awareness to enforce its laws. Telecommunications offers such a direct interaction with the public, and the United Nations could unveil itself as a great motivator in the recognition of its subservience to such discrete powers. If the United Nations does not progressively pursue the human-interests of this technology, it will be ended with a lack of control over the information available, and in the attempt to appear as a governing force will be easily found out to be a sell-out to private interests, as many already feel. The United Nations is the only chance there is for international governance of this technology, and it needs to define its mission more directly to the real implications of telecommunications infrastructure, for it holds great promise to bring people together, but as it progresses now, its goals may be to keep people apart, unaware. The United Nations has a common symbol all over the world. This is the electrical system of wooden distribution poles and metal transmission towers. Here, telecommunications can be seen for what it is. A subset utility which is assumed to connect to every house in the future. This new "line" is an independent economy inside this "line". It will change the world. But to look and to meditate as to how this one line can be a future in and of itself is to be deceived. Its implementation is minor, a subset of a larger system, which is also true of the electrical system on which it shares space. Everywhere, all over the world, this order is the same, and everywhere it is political. Now instead of a Cold-War Nuclear Economy there will be a Global Information Economy. In the backyard, in the alley, in the desert, in the mountains, everywhere these wooden poles are-are potential connections to this economy. This power. This political structure. And if its political influence goes unrecognized to the public, it offers a screen of reality which can be controlled by the private media. The condition for this to happen is predetermined by the illusion that diplomacy is only within government and not subservient to private demands, such as power or telecommunications. So to look at this pole is to see the enormous influence that a single line will carry for the future of society. The international future and governance in a fragile ecosystem of technology and ideas. And here it becomes more apparent to realize that in questioning the advance of "telecommunications" is actually to question the entirety of the technological system, the empirical machine that needs to sustain its autonomous control in the public. The United Nations then, exists as a servant to these goals unless it defines itself as independent of these interests, which the technology allows it to do. The United Nations role in this development would be to democratize the technology and allow the public direct involvement with the questions in this area, instead of private committees discussing the future of this system, there could be "visions" more for the public, with which the public would hold the private companies accountable by international law. The responsibility and purpose of this technology needs to be declared by the United Nations for the international society. There exist too many unanswered questions that can too easily be censored in the development of this infrastructure. The United Nations could use this technology and raise international awareness of the context of international governance. No one would be independently singled out as a "enemy" but rather it would ground public awareness in the state of international affairs, and allow the power of the public to be the checks and balances of the international system itself. Second, the United Nations has a common aesthetic with the technology itself. This is the electrical system, and much of the unsaid aspect of political control. Here, awareness could be raised with utilizing this cohesive quality of the U.N. all over the world. Every person can relate their place in the U.N. by seeing this wooden pole or metal tower, and with the publics support, the U.N. could raise its level of influence so as to truly be a governor, a steerer of this technological society, its laws and its influences. Then, to look at this pole, one would see the manifestation of global governance, economy, and interconnection, and the citizen would understand the presence of the United Nations through the aesthetic utility of architecture. 1- Programs and Manifestos on 20th-century architecture Ulrich Conrads, translated by Michael Bulloch MIT Press, Massachussetts. 1970 (10th Printing 1990) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Appendix / ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Looking from the inside, one can better understand the relationship between telecommunications and the United Nations. In the machinery of the United Nations, and in the interior positions of non-governmental organizations exists policy formation and topics of standardizing the telecommunications industry. The political influence of the specific technological and scientific groups are immense. Telecommunications (or the International Telecommunications Union) span many functions that are utilized in ordering and stablizing world affairs and security. Harlan Cleveland has written of this technological change and proposed a matrix of its influence on the economy, war, and development. What results is a complexity that lets governance stay within the scientific groups because of specific applications. But what is unique in the up and coming technological change is that it will take place inside telecommunications. The economy, education, health, police, entertainment...these will all be internal to the function of telecommunications, and Harlan Clevelands matrix model will exist all in one place, inside this technology. There is a contradiction in trying to approach the subject as solely a function of language, and it becomes increasingly complex and untamed. 1. How can the future of society be so influenced by this technology? 2. And how does telecommuncations have so much influence? The influence of telecommunications has within it an ideology that it can solve some of our human deficiencies, and it will expand our ability for action in society. What goes along with this advance, is a belief that the technology itself is good, when in fact, it is the people who direct the technology and make the laws that ensure its goodness. As the United Nations has the opportunity to use this technology for internal and external activity, it becomes apparent that there may be limits to the amount of change that can occur in a bureaucratic system. The system may become leaner through change and management, but its direction will be hard to sway or redirect. And in this respect, there is a possible weakness in controlling the forces of technological change in society. Human rights and freedom of speech and non-self governing people will need to be updated with the technological change. This control over human destiny is a result of techological control, and control of the human sense and perception. Telecommunications can be used to retain a political control which leaves little choice or freedom in the individual, and this occurs at once on the national and international level. A private political unit can advance the telecommunications infrastructure and approach a level of "total control" over people, and in this respect, the people no longer govern themselves. The danger of such systematic normalization of choice and peoples is a mental slavery that technology allows to the powerful. And as telecommunications is happening spottedly around the globe, by independent nations, and not on a cohesive directed and lawful international level, there is no international control of the way it will develop. The United Nations tried to develop such a policy and direction for the worlds technological change. The New World Information and Communication Order existed for some 12 years in the U.N. halls. Its discussion was unique in that it not only dealt with the policy of advancing telecommunications, but the broad realm of technology itself, and its political power in society. Here, it was repeated by many smaller and less developed nations that the western ideology was with the technology itself. To implement such technological change in societies would mean to lesson their individual political control, or sovereignty, and become part of a much larger functioning of the global technological change and ideology. The influence of a free-market and freedom of speech are inherent with this change. This policy disappeared on the whole, but it involved both a Committee on Information and the Department of Public Information (DPI). This discussion may have well merged into the New International Economic Order with which the United Nations promotes global activity which is necessary to technological development. And in this economic structure, one finds telecommunications as the driving source of the global economy, what is called the Information Economy is this New World Economic Order. The information economy will revolve around a market of information, both for ideas and for utility, as the varied systems will find an electronic medium in which to relate. The structure of health care, the military, and education would all exist in this economy, and the use of these would be truly global in respect to information. On the international scale, this economy is developing in the European Community as once independent European nations are now interconnecting their countries through direct and planned electrical and telecommunications connections. This will make a larger, and more fluid system for information to travel, and is an internation-market. So too is the North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, Canada, and the United States. Not only are permanent structures being realized for telecommunications, but a transfer of technology is allowing countries to unite under common interests of increased trade and commerce, and a stronger world and cultural exchange. The technology transfer of telecommunications is one that brings immediate connection to the world, or between nations, and allows a unique electronic market to exist. Beyond nations or land itself, there exists a competition in this market between the United States and European Markets, and the Pacific and developing nations. The implementation of this telecommunications infrastructure is a massive international market, and here exists the competition. An example of this development can be seen in Mexico where the French have offered to survey the entire country for a water infrastructure, for free, if they are allowed to build it. In the future, the implementation of telecommunications infrastructure could follow this type of nation to nation building. Also, in this national competition with telecommunications, comes a unique transfer of a political democratic structure. This is not a written law, but it is inherent that technology is hard to contain some old ways. In China, this struggle is noticed in the freedom of choice that technology brings, and in government rules and regulations that may oppress the consumer of the technology. The structure, or organization of telecommunications is based on both science and technological knowledge. The knowledge exists in the technologically developed countries, and within its functioning exists political and economic influence in the world economy. This influence has precendence in the established power in Nuclear Science in the cold war economy, and as political power. This power is internal to the United Nations, and yet it has had an overwhelming influence over the "whole" direction of governance, where international groups such as the International Atomic Energy Commission are of major political influence and direction, and yet exist as a subset, and in many cases independent. This world influence of telecommunications is not only a technical or scientific advance, but the advance of a further subsidized political structure that has a majority of future influence, while it is treated as a subset to overall governance. The new power structure that is developing is an extension of the political power that energy has in the world and nation. Telecommunications, as a leading force behind both NAFTA and the E.C., is a very faint topic when presented to the public. To focus on telecommunications would be to show that government is not centered around the political, but in a more questionable realm of public and private interaction. Education is held hostage by the way this changing force is entering the society. People are unaware and unprepared for action with telecommunications, and as the United Nations, there needs to be a broader understanding of what is happening, so that goals and directions can be defined instead of determined by necessity, so that the international public will know some of what the future will bring, and the United Nations would have a defined direction for order and justice in the future, for the public outside. To see from the outside the influence that telecommunications has on international governance, one needs to notice the way this technology will show itself. The Architecture of the United Nations. Transmission and Distribution. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Outline / ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The United Nations and Telecommunications 1- Looking from the inside - political influence of energy-telecommunications - NGOs and the interior machinery - the future of governance - Harlan Clevland and the scientist - complexity and contradiction 2- How does telecommunications seem to have so much influence ? - faith in technology to solve human deficiency (goodness) - bureaucratic system staying the same - weakening control - freedom of speech - human rights - technology to control - Singapore and political control - the national level - International control - The New World Information and Communication Order - The New World Economic Order (new guise) - Information Economy - market of information - ideas - utility - health care, military, police - Inter-Nation - European Community - Electricity - Telecommunications - North American Free Trade Agreement - Canada, Mexico, U.S.A. - Technology Transfer - Market of Telecommunications - Based on Land - Yugoslavia - linking power-grids - public-suffrage of private-control - Russian conflict - Competition - U.S. and European Markets - free-trade - trade-barriers - Korean Infrastructure - French and Mexico water survey - National competition, conflicts - Transfer of Democratic Politics - Influence in China - containment - power-struggle - Elitist organization - technical knowledge - scientific knowledge - Western ideology - education / political inevitable - precedent in Nuclear science - political influence - economic control, world economy - Governance Interior Function -established power - Telecommunications as a new Power Structure - branch of the interior of energy power - invisible quality - sounds heard - - not mentioned by media - government not in control - National / International - NAFTA - E.C. - sight - the public - the university - the state (Minnesota) - Context - Energy - hierarchical - Generation>Consumption - Parrallel -Transmission>Distribution - See Chart 1 - regional/national -MN-Canada - Internation - E.C. - Telecommunications - hierarchical - Supercomputer>PC - Parrallel - Transmission -distance - Local Area Network - Wide Area Network - Global Network - Servers/Client -access -education and commercial - The Science of Information - create the dynamic, the structure - Standards - U.N. and the International Telecommunications Union - U.N. and the Atomic Energy Association - So much future influence on political/economic structure - yet a subset of the machinery - Independence in governance - Internationally - NGOs and policy - ? of power - human in context, not important, relies on policy - No policy-law ensuring human rights against misuse by - NGOs - Government - Education - Governance formed around the actions of these - individual - as consumer/experiment - The United Nations and Telecommunications - the future - new infrastructure -global -world organization - information-ideas-education-entertainment - status quo - transition state - inside or outside the system - everyones effected - socially marginal peoples -integration and Singapore - secrecy and the Wizard of Oz - Military/FBI survellience - Questioning? - weakness of social goals- -geared toward consumerism - The price of the question - instantly political - public awareness voided (media) - Jobs-Health Care-Police-University - The Interior Mirror World - Layers of Information - layers of networks -as various water, gas, electric - Economy -manufacturing-trade-travel - Education -science -R+D public-private -libraries - Entertainment - HDTV sets - Government? - Cyberspace - will the structure -corporate, be the same? visible - will the United Nations be a destination? -when it is everywhere - Governance of the interior - the U.N. exists almost everywhere - What is unique to these "places" is that the majority have a common moderness. - The speed of technology allows these to exist in one realm (cyberspace) - The modern rights and questions are virtually identical and unsaid - oppression by technology is subtle in that no one is to blame - openess in political debate - bring public awareness to the masses through the media - educate them through the transition period - education and development with technology needs... - structure and performance -scientific knowledge - knowledge and understanding of people -human to human, natural level - Knowledge should not be pre-processed in telecommunications - too much power outside of law & governance - effectiveness from bottom-up -inevitable public application - The realm of the United Nations - government of governments - Presence-?- - interior, could be a structure of those inside the U.N. - Categories and Information -Policy and Projects - Public Involvement --total control.... EDUCATION - (1993 student paper. idea-logical deconstruction appreciated.) # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net