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The Resonating Interval:
Exploring the Process of the Tetrad
By Anthony Hempell |
Tetrads: Present
Computer
The computer is the transitional technology which, by most accounts, will
shape a transformation from a manufacturing consumer society to an
information-based knowledge society. The computer may also be the great
divider of the Western world, carving a socio-economic cleft between
those who have access and understanding of information technology and those who do
not (the "information haves and have-nots").
Far more than just a collection of microchips and transistors
accelerating the task of data processing, the macro-environment of
computers both reduces human experience to discrete bits of "on" and
"off," while at the same time allowing the rebirth of metaphor and
communication as a prime factor in the negotiation of everyday life (the
graphical user interface, for example).
Table 10: Tetrad of "Computer" (McLuhan & Powers, pp.176-7)
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Accelerates logical sequential calculations to speed of light:
Like the telegraph, which accelerated communication to
light speed, the computer compresses the time required to process data.
Once valuable enough to be considered a public resource (libraries),
information now becomes a processed, packaged commodity.
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Erodes or bypasses mechanical processes and human logic in all
sequential operations:
The decline of the machine age, of mechanical industrialization; the
so-called "information society" takes its place. The dissolution of
hierarchies, monopolies of knowledge, and the federal state. Also, the
decline of the traditional mass media, in favour of micro-media (fragmentation of
audience markets) and meta-media (navigational tools for the roving
cyberconsultant: Wired, etc).
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Retrieves quantitative power of numbers; highlights "numbers is
all" philosophy, and reduces numbering to body count by touch:
Mystical reverence for numbers; the return of mythology and
non-hierarchical spirituality/consciousness; search for content and
reference points for stabilizing culture within the data stream.
Retrieves community space through networks.
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Flips into the simultaneous from the sequential;
accentuates acoustic over visual space to produce pattern
recognition:
Information overload; virtual reality, computer
viruses, "crackers"; loss of centralized control, standards, moral/social
cohesion. Life as a video game.
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Introduction | The Global Village | Tetrad:Concept | Tetrads:Past | Tetrads:Future | Bibliography
copyright ©1996 by Anthony Hempell.