Dreams of a New Machine

Dreams of a New Machine
CCR 633 ::: 4/12/11

Friday, April 15, 2011

How do the surrounding cultural contexts inﬂuence the goals of
technological development for computing?

How are these concerns and ethical stances still evident in the
machinery or in the ways we use digital networks to communicate
or distribute knowledge?

Kate:
Of the readings, what epistemological model seems most
productive? How is the understanding of knowledge
related to a particular era of technology? What is our
current internet-age epistemological model?

Rachel:
Two threads within these texts continually sparked my interest:
information denisity/organization and the reasoning behind this
progress in communication/data sharing.


Ephraim Chambers,1734

Kate:

Although Chambers notes the imperfection of the ﬁrst edition
more directly than the second edition, there is still an implicit
understanding that the vast spread of knowledge and its accuracy
was quite a difﬁcult project that required as many contributors as
possible. ... What is particularly interesting is that these points all
suggest a progressive understanding of knowledge as collectively
produced, constantly evolving, important for all people to have
access to, and important for all people to contribute to.


Babbage and Lovelace, 1820s

Difference Engine

1866 - 1946

Kate:
In the “Contribution,” the focus is a project that collects,
categorizes, and stores all of the knowledge of all of mankind in the
“Permanent World Encyclopedia.” This claim is hard to even take
seriously; however, if unpacked, it suggests that all knowledge is
accessible; it merely needs to be collected, observed, and found. ...

Although Wells seems opposed to specialization in regards to the
university, certainly he mostly points to specialized occupations
that will either be collecting and organizing this mass of
information, or in the end, using it. He argues for knowledge for
all, but still seems to be suggesting its greatest usefulness will be
for those already comfortably within the center of society.


1890 - 1974


• Director, Ofﬁce of Scientiﬁc Research &
Development (Council of Nat’l Defense)
• National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics
• Primary organizer of the Manhattan Project
• Raytheon


• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
(DARPA)
• United States Department of Defense
• MIT
• Lincoln Laboratory


Dreams of a New Machine

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