106 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
106 lines
5.4 KiB
Plaintext
minus 24x
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A Manifesto
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by Grenzfurthner
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http://www.monochrom.at/english/
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Things and thoughts advance or grow out from the middle, and that's
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where you have to get to work, that's where everything unfolds. ("On
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Leibnitz", Gilles Deleuze)
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A specific use is never inherent to an object, even though technical
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demagogues like to claim that it is (cf. the term "self-explanatory" and
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the term "archeological find"). Instead, the use is concatenated with
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the object through definition ("instructions for use"). Turning an
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object against the use inscribed in it (as sociolect of the world of
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things) means probing its possibilities. Indeed, I would like to pound
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in a nail with a power drill, but at the moment the fear of freedom and
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fear of responsibility predominate ...
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Why do I write this? Well ... I came across a book. "Tales from the
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Tech Line". The subtitle identified it as "Hilarious Strange-But-True
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Stories from the Computer Industry's Technical Support Hotlines"
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(Berkeley Books, NY). In it there are stories about people who ask in
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software shops about "Word for Gameboy". Or people who think their
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Netscape beta version doesn't work because they have a VHS computer. Or
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those who evacuate their house because of an Apple error message with
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the bomb icon. Or those who think the mouse is a foot pedal. Or those
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who punch holes into their diskettes to put them in a binder ? or simply
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think that the CD-ROM drive is a coffee cup holder.
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An excerpt:
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TECH: All right. Now I'd like you to quit any programs you're
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running, and close any windows you've got open.
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CALLER: Well, OK ... There are only two windows here in the basement,
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and they're both already closed.
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TECH: No, no ? the windows on your screen ...
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One might think this is poking fun at others. That probably was roughly
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the intention of the publishers as well ? a few laughs at someone else's
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expense. A baleful grin for the woefully stupid. Taking "delight" in the
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ignorance of those not in the know, the smugly esoteric giggle of the
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cognoscenti. It is a joke collection for the happy "winners" of the
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digital two-class society. "Get wired or you are toast." Even the field
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of humor appears to be trimmed to productivity. But wait! Let's change
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the reading! These Luddites(*) of inability are the saving clog in the
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cogs of the machinery of progress; the human factor in the
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simple-mindedness of the programmers of our future. Inability is
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glorious, unknowing is a virtually miraculous deceleration, a sneer at
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the high-speed processes of our capitalist-technological world. Oh dear,
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dear people! Honorable failures! The clicking of your keyboards is the
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erosive crank of the anthropophagous meat grinder that your doing wears
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out. Your "approach" ? the way you use your computer ? makes corporate
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bosses cry and sublimates capitalism with the procession of GRAND
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EMOTIONS into top management. The information age is an age of
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permanently getting stuck. Greater and greater speed is demanded. New
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software, new hardware, new structures, new cultural techniques.
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Life-long learning? Yes. But the company can't fire the secretary every
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six months, just because she can't cope with the new version of Excel.
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They can count their keystrokes, measure their productivity ... but!
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They will never be able to sanction their inability! NEVER! Because that
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is immanent. The Peter Principle has to be applied to humanity as a
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whole, too: one rises higher and higher in the hierarchy of life - until
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one reaches a point where one will no longer be promoted, because one is
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simply too incapable for a new climb. One has reached the level of
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incompetence, where one will ultimately perish miserably. Nothing other
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than a conspiracy of ignorance, both natural and artificially and
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artfully cultivated, can save us from the last step into a world that we
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no longer understand, because it couldn't care less about us. Endless
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possibilities for failure await us. These people cannot be laughed; on
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the contrary: these stories should be read as a eulogy in honor of
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dissidence: The staff member who complains about the fragility of the
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extendable coffee cup holder "24x" on his PC is the fevered nightmare of
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the manual author thinking he has almost reached a didactic
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breakthrough. And just imagine the moment of epistemological panic, in
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which his boss' world collapses, as he is forced to recognize that it
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would have been better to spend the money for developing his CD-ROM
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drive on a pleasant celebration with friends, because his system,
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disastrously determined in principal and transbiologically by human
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consciousness, CANNOT be perceived in the interpretation provided for
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it. His life work is a coffee cup holder, and he expires in mental
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derangement. And his company with him.
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Someone I know recently defined a personally spoken sample as the
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standard error sound in WinNT with the text "Just piss off". Although
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this is hardly congenial and certainly irritating after some time, it is
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more than apt. So be it: go forth and make mistakes - small ones and
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big, nice ones and stupid, trivial and catastrophic. And while we are at
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it: be sure to watch your speellling.
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(*) Erudite annotation: the English Luddites and German machine wreckers
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of the 19th century defended themselves against new machines in the
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textile industry, which impinged on their work, wages or status.
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---------------
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A project of
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http://www.monochrom.at/english/ |