October 2011
8 posts
“Whether we like it or not, war has often been a powerful goad to technological innovation. Now technology is on the verge of supplanting the human soldier altogether—with consequences that can only be guessed. The question in the case of military robotics, even at this relatively early stage, is the extent to which we will manage to retain control over the process. Whether we are ready or not, the answer will soon be clear.”
—Predators and Robots at War - Christian Caryl
“As Web Squared and the Internet of Things alter the opacity of distance, and as knowledge about sweatshops, child labor, exploitation, and environmental damage becomes widely accessible on a computer or mobile phone, radical shifts in the possibilities for development present themselves. Actors in the Global South would have a venue to communicate their knowledge and experience of labor and environmental conditions. Consumers in the Global North would be able to better distinguish between the many glossy (and often exaggerated) claims made by TNCs regarding the beneªts they provide to workers in the developing world, having gathered enough information to identify those commodities and chains which truly do result in tangible beneªts to producers in the Global South.”
—Mark Graham - Transparency and Development: Ethical Consumption Through Web 2.0 and the Internet of Things
“Staring into the vastness of the ocean, in a digitally noisy image branded by the Google corporation, the woman is disconnected
from anything concrete. There is not enough context to identify where she is in
relation to any other landmarks and, even if there were, the digital noisiness of
the image makes it almost impossible to know for sure what it is that one would
be looking at. For example, it’s difficult to tell whether the woman is wearing a
flesh-colored bathing suit or is, in fact, nude. Re-contextualized in Rafman’s collection, the image reflects back to the viewers their own condition in relation to it: disconnected from nature, drowning in the ongoing accumulation of digital noise.” —Gene Mchugh on Jon Rafman
from anything concrete. There is not enough context to identify where she is in
relation to any other landmarks and, even if there were, the digital noisiness of
the image makes it almost impossible to know for sure what it is that one would
be looking at. For example, it’s difficult to tell whether the woman is wearing a
flesh-colored bathing suit or is, in fact, nude. Re-contextualized in Rafman’s collection, the image reflects back to the viewers their own condition in relation to it: disconnected from nature, drowning in the ongoing accumulation of digital noise.” —Gene Mchugh on Jon Rafman
