IME Course Response: 21.9. Digitality · 21 September 06 by Ray Crowley
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘In most domains of human activity it is enough to handle the digital representation instead of the actual matter. For example, think about money, ideas, concepts, knowledge, ... What is there that cannot be modeled as a digital representation?’
The raw psycho-genetic forces which drive man to create the tools (such as transistors) under discussion might be immune from digitization. Although the human brain can be scanned and analyzed in terms of electrical waves and transmission paths one might argue that the deep psycho-genetic processes at play cannot be digitized for the very reason that it is beyond our current capabilities. In a sense our innate quest to ‘know’ will always remain one step ‘beyond’ our grasp. If this were not the case human techno-cultural development may have plateaued prior to the 15th Century BCE.
Mauri Kaipainen asks ‘In most domains of human activity it is enough to handle the digital representation instead of the actual matter. For example, think about money, ideas, concepts, knowledge, ... What is there that cannot be modeled as a digital representation?’
Communities may have always striven towards the creation of models and frameworks to enable it’s selected members to understand the ‘whole’. Astronomy being a case in point and its necessary cultural consequence; astrology. Phenology may provide us with another example; by observing and recording a sample of botonological and meteorological occurrences and comparing the current sample against prior records (transmitted orally amongst the community prior to text based records) communities may have been able to make informed predictions about the ongoing seasons. In this way simulation and modeling may have been a feature of human culture for centuries
tags: digitality, psycho-genetic