Re: ankoku techno (re:occult / trance)

David Rodger (MUSDR@LURE.LATROBE.EDU.AU)
Sat, 17 May 1997 09:05:16 +1000

G Hilton wrote:
> My experience of daily exertion with keyboard and mouse is of a struggle
> to shake life into a thing wavering between existence and its oppostite.

Are you talking about yourself or the computer? Yes, I'm being a facetious,
but I'm reminded of a .sig I saw recently which said "Turn off your computer
and go outside".

> Corporate IT moguls love robust technologies - I think I may prefer mine
> to be brittle. Like performance, the the anxious moment of proving,
> waiting to see if code will compile / run is deliciously intense.
> Efficiency & robustness are just so _dull_.

Robust technologies _sell_, especially to people who are more interested
in getting a task done (which the technology claims to do or help) than
in the process of getting it done. If you're interested in the _result_,
repeated compile failures merely become frustrating, especially when you
can't figure out why it happened. If efficiency and robustness are dull,
then maybe it's because the process has become veiled or even invisible.

> Machinic struggle enacts an abjection all of its own.

I'm not sure that everyone would find using machines abject. The younger
readers here may be so acculturated to them that they just get frustrated.
Is _that_ abjection? It sure doesn't get me in the pit of my stomach!
(and I'm not that young either!)

Regards, David
musdr@lure.latrobe.edu.au
http://farben.latrobe.edu.au/d_rodger

PS. BTW, kudos to Mark Coniglio for being brave enough to admit that he
doesn't get all the postmodern psychobabble that flies around here.