From the Publisher: 
A Question of Identity 
Life on the Screen is a fascinating and wide-ranging investigation of the impact of computers and networking on society, peoples' perceptions of themselves, and the individual's relationship to machines. Sherry Turkle, a Professor of the Sociology of Science at MIT and a licensed psychologist, uses Internet MUDs (multi-user domains, or in older gaming parlance multi-user dungeons) as a launching pad for explorations of software design, user interfaces, simulation, artificial intelligence, artificial life, agents, "bots," virtual reality, and "the on-line way of life." 
Turkle's discussion of postmodernism is particularly enlightening. She shows how postmodern concepts in art, architecture, and ethics are related to concrete topics much closer to home, for example AI research (Minsky's "Society of Mind") and even MUDs (exemplified by students with X-window terminals who are doing homework in one window and simultaneously playing out several different roles in the same MUD in other windows). Those of you who have (like me) been turned off by the shallow, pretentious, meaningless paintings and sculptures that litter our museums of modern art may have a different perspective after hearing what Turkle has to say. 
This is a psychoanalytical book, not a technical one. However, software developers and engineers will find it highly accessible because of the depth of the author's technical understanding and credibility. Unlike most other authors in this genre, Turkle does not constantly jar the technically-literate reader with blatant errors or bogus assertions about how things work. Although I personally don't have time or patience for MUDs,view most of AI as snake-oil, and abhor postmodern architecture, I thought the time spent reading this book was an extremely good investment.

스크린 위의 삶 = Life on the screen : identity in the age of the internet

One dimensional man

It comes as something ofa surprise to reflect that the New York Review ofBooks is now over twenty years old. Even people of my generation (that is, old enough to remember the revolutionary 196os but not young enough to have taken a very exciting part in them) think of the paper as eternally youthful. In fact, it has gone through years of relatively quiet life, yet, as always in a competitive journalistic market, it is the controversies that attract the interest of the reader and to which the history (especially an admittedly impressionistic survey that tries to include something of the intellectual context in which a journal has operated) must give some attention. Not all the attacks which the New York Review has attracted, both early in its career and more recently, are worth more than a brief summary. What do we now make, for example, of Richard Kostelanetz's forthright accusation that 'The New York Review was from its origins destined to publicize Random House's (and especially [Jason] Epstein's) books and writers'?1 Well, simply that, even if the statistics bear out the charge (and Kostelanetz provides some suggestive evidence to support it, at least with respect to some early issues), there is nothing surprising in a market economy about a publisher trying to push his books through the pages of a journal edited by his friends. True, the New York Review has not had room to review more than around fifteen books in each issue and there could be a bias in the selection of

http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3507774.pdf

The New York Review of Books

Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia.

Systematic Review of Emergency Department Crowding: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

THE QUESTION concerning the condition and application of the contemporary State of Emergency is now at the centre of theoretical exploration across a range of specialities within the humanities and the critical social sciences, from sociology and political theory to literature, cultural, philosophical and international studies. The 14 articles written by highly distinguished contributors for this Special Section of Theory, Culture & Society on the State of Emergency are varied in their theoretical viewpoints, the cultural intentions behind their texts and in their social emphasis. The contributions are engaged with investigating questions such as the critical social significance of state and military institutions, with law and political order, the implications of terror and violence, and for whose political objectives the State of Emergency is planned. The orthodox modern State of Emergency was a situation, declared by the state, in which the strategies and tactics of the military were employed legally, typically because of a number of occurrences of civil disorder such as terrorism, the methodical use of carnage and coercion to attain political aims. Nazi Germany’s Decrees of 1933 are, for instance, a first-rate illustration of the modern State of Emergency. The 28 February Decree, for example, was one of the most oppressive acts of the new Nazi administration. It authorized the suspension of civil liberties in the wake of the fictitious crisis produced by the Nazis as a consequence of the fire that wrecked the Reichstag parliament building on the preceding day. Now, George W. Bush, the President of the United States, and Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, have not, of course, formally affirmed a contemporary State of Emergency in their governments. Yet, in this Introduction, I shall argue that the Bush and Blair regimes are certainly beginning to lay the foundations for the state and purposes of a ‘hypermodern’ State of Emergency (Armitage,

State of Emergency: An Introduction

This output introduces CARcentre activities that combine sociological content with fine art processes, and addresses the interdisciplinary opportunities afforded by the creation of the School of Arts and Social Sciences. Armitage, with a background in political theory, focuses his research on Paul Virilio, the French theorist of post-war military technology and space, and the relation of his work to contemporary fine art. The aim is to make Virilio’s ideas understandable to artists interested in the political organisation of territory and the body. The output is a 240 page book, commissioned by Featherstone, of Theory, Culture & Society, Sage Publications’ second-best selling journal. Armitage was asked to edit and introduce the book, contribute two [10k-word] interviews with Virilio and provide a critical bibliography of his writings. Armitage’s field of research parallels the editorial work of Arthur and Marilouise Kroker; and the e-journal ‘Ctheory’; a multi-disciplinary project that addresses the issues of art and technology, with theoretical discourse and curated multimedia pages. Armitage promotes the interview as a research tool; providing direct and succinct commentary to facilitate comprehension and enliven debate. In ‘Virilio Live: Selected Interviews’ several interview transcripts were translated into English for the first time and discussions with curators (e.g. Jerome Sans, Flash Art, and Catherine David, the Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art) gave greater context to Virilio’s perspective on the arts. ‘Virilio Live: Selected Interviews’ marks the beginning of Armitage’s engagement with CARcentre researchers (Brettle and Crisp) whose fine art practices respond to the politics of military and institutional power. His expertise in Virilio studies has provided seminar material for MA Arts Practice and fine art practice-led PhD students. In recognition of Armitage’s importance to the interdisciplinary research culture of the School, a research student (Affleck) was employed as his assistant during this project.

Virilio live : selected interviews

Introduction - John Armitage From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond - John Armitage An Interview with Paul Virilio 'Indirect Light' Extracted from Polar Inertia - Paul Virilio Virilio and Architecture - Neil Leach Paul Virilio's Bunker Theorizing - Mike Gane Virilio, War and Technology - Douglas Kellner Some Critical Reflections Virilio and New Media - Sean Cubitt Blinded by the (Speed of) Light - Scott McQuire The Tendency, the Accident and the Untimely - Patrick Crogan Paul Virilio's Engagement with the Future Virilio, Stelarc and 'Terminal' Technoculture - Nicholas Zurbrugg The Passenger - Verena Andermatt Conley Paul Virilio and Feminism The Conceptual Cosmology of Paul Virilio - James Der Derian Paul Virilio - John Armitage A Select Bibliography

Paul Virilio: From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond

Following a short discussion of the German philosopher Friedrich A. Kittler’s biographical and intellectual formation, this interview introduces the reader to Kittler’s theoretical efforts to develop our understanding of contemporary culture and society. However, the focus of the interview is on the core concepts of ‘discourse networks’, ‘the military-industrial complex’, and ‘technology’, arguably the three central themes of Kittler’s work to date. As the title of the interview indicates, the idea of ‘cultural mathematics’ is also considered important in this account of Kittler’s particular contribution to social and cultural theory, although this and related notions are critically appraised together with an assessment of their theoretical, social and cultural impact.

/pdf/from-discourse-networks-to-cultural-mathematics-an-interview-u5wymd41kz.pdf

From Discourse Networks to Cultural Mathematics An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler

Recently there has been an upsurge in the production, dispersal, encounters with and, therefore, interest in militarized bodies in continents as varied as Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Conspicuously evident is the escalation of militarization and militarism that is apparent in the efforts of the administration of President George W. Bush in the United States (US) to instill a military spirit into the civilian bodies of American citizens. The US government’s quest for militarized ideals and for the increasing preeminence of the US military in the formulation of political programs and policies has, of course, occurred on account of the catastrophe of 11 September 2001. Suicidal terrorists flying civilian airliners into, and subsequently razing, the World Trade Center in New York City have thus led the Bush administration to devise a policy of upholding powerful military organizations in antagonistic preparedness both for its ‘War on Terrorism’ and its war on Iraq in April 2003. The concept of militarized bodies accordingly indicates an assortment of practices consisting of the conversion of civilian bodies to military use and the inculcation into such bodies of military principles. However, this notion of militarized bodies can easily be expanded beyond the practices of the conventional armed forces of nation states to encompass, for instance, the paramilitary practices of terrorists, the civil servants of the US military-industrial complex, or the activities of anti-US guerilla fighters in Iraq. For these are all examples of the adaptation of civilian bodies, not to their own

John Armitage

Papers

State of Emergency: An Introduction

Virilio live : selected interviews

Paul Virilio: From Modernism to Hypermodernism and Beyond

From Discourse Networks to Cultural Mathematics An Interview with Friedrich A. Kittler

Militarized Bodies: An Introduction: