Anti-computing : dissent and the machine / Caroline Bassett.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bassett, Caroline, author.

Contributor:

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computers and civilization.

Computers--Social aspects.

Computers.

Physical Description:

x, 252 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Manchester : Manchester University Press, 2021.

Summary:

We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation. Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its operations. 0Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: 1. Anti-computing: a provisional taxonomy

2. Discontinuous continuity: how anti-computing time-travels

3. A most political performance: treachery, the archive, and the database

4. No special pleading: Arendt, automation, and the cybercultural revolution

5. Polemical acts of rare extremism: Two Cultures and a hat

6. Apostasy in the temple of technology: ELIZA the more than mechanical therapist

7. Those in love with quantum filth: science fiction, singularity, and the flesh.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

0719083788

9780719083785

OCLC:

1255214935