Hi all,
When viewing all our papers on that timeline I was reminded of a really great TV series by British film director Adam Curtis – All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. The series is a critique of the integration of computers into society. Curtis weaves together a whole plethora of fields and ideas, such as economics, cybernetics, system theory, and ecology, and shows how they interrelate across time. Whether you are a fan of Curtis or not, he definitely adds, I feel, an important voice to the whole dialogue we are having.
Here is the wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace_(TV_series)
They are available on vimeo and youtube!
Add yours Comments – 2
OH YES! This is a wonderful series – we will definitely find a way to include it in the future! What a wonderful title as well..
This is the poem that gives the title to the series by Richard Brautigan:
I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.
I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms.
I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.
Oh wow, I didn’t know about that poem, or Richard Brautigan, thanks for sending us. “a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony”. I love this! In my mind it relates to Donna Haraway’s description of the contact zone as a place for multispecies relations, and definitely draws together this whole discourse around the de-centered human in [post?] Anthropocene thinking..