#Stephenson engineering society

[jv-f1]

“It was lovely to see everyone at Stephenson Society's Annual Dinner on the 12th March, with special thanks to our speaker Mr James Vowles. With this, we mark the end of this academic year's series of talks. Good luck to everyone with your exams this summer!”

— Stephenson Engineering Society (stephenson_eng_soc) via Instagram

[skarloey-studios]

Traintober 2024 Day 3: Trust

So today I’m going to switch things up from the usual stuff I’ve been doing for Traintober, and instead of writing a short story of some kind, I’ll be sharing a headcanon (inspired by @weirdowithaquill, go check this person’s stuff out if you haven’t already).

Given the theme of trust, I thought I’d talk about driverless trains - go into a couple of deeper concepts and then round up. (Below the break)

So, how do driverless trains work in the sentient locomotive universe? There must be an enormous amount of trust involved with allowing them to basically run themselves - and it really shows how much we’ve progressed as a society that we’ve gone as far as letting this happen at all. Although, there are pitfalls, of course.

Back in the day when steam locomotives were first created, chaps such as Richard Trevithick and Robert Stephenson - household names now - wanted to experiment with how much these new iron horses could really do on their own… and it turned out that the answer was ‘not much’. They were a creation of humans, and were really dependent on them to do things - without going too deeply into a philosophical debate here, they essentially had no freedom. The driver and fireman fully controlled the engine, and engines were pretty poorly treated for this reason, just like horses were. They were there to do work.

Now, engines don’t usually mind this because they’re generally quite simple minded beings… I mean, if you look at the Railway Series, do any of the engines really get particularly complicated emotions? The most we saw was Gordon’s depression, but that’s because his own siblings were being cut up. The mindset of locomotives is pretty much just ‘enjoy the small stuff in life and be a good engine’. There were some engines who were exceptions, and sometimes it got quite scary for the humans when engines just spoke up with really deep thoughts.

“Driver?” “Yes?” “If engines are just here to do work for you, then what’s the point of everything that we enjoy? If it’s all for nothing?” “… Woah.”

It wasn’t all work work work though - drivers who ‘knew how to speak to engines’ were well regarded in the early railway companies, and given the job purely because they were good at making an engine happy. A happy engine means that more work gets done, and you also get a good reputation - the Great Western Railway was a brilliant example of this, with CME Daniel Gooch letting engines choose their own names and giving them just their names without numbers. It was when larger companies like BR came along that locomotive happiness just got thrown out of the window, and this is reflected in the mass scrapping of the 1960s which gave no regard to feelings of engines (i.e. they were often sold to private companies to be cut up as this was cheaper - these companies often cut corners by not taking the body off the frames before melting the engine down… basically meaning they were still conscious. Even some of the BR works did this to make it easier to melt down masses of engines quicker.)

Anyway, this is a VERY LONG side tangent. How does this relate to driverless trains? Well, when locomotive rights improved massively in most countries in the late 70s, engines still didn’t really have any freedom from crews because they literally couldn’t. So instead the UK Government made sure to make it a requirement that UK railways made tough choices in regard to drivers - only ones who respected engines could stay, and those who were abusive or ignorant were fired.

But as technology improved in the middle of the 20th Century, driverless trains became a real prospect. Following experiments where computer systems were tried in cabs on new build electric locos, it became clear that trains could literally drive themselves from place to place without the need for a driver and wow that is an odd concept for most people! Even with better locomotive rights, it is DIFFICULT to put so much trust in this sentient machine to do the job well - which is why most railways still don’t have driverless trains to this day, as well as it being really expensive to implement. The 1950s saw the first experimentation with this concept in France, where one of the metro lines became semi-automated. The other lines of the metro system followed in the late 1960s, along with Barcelona Metro’s own driverless system - a few London Underground lines went the same way at a similar time.

Since then, a small handful of railways around the world have tried it… and amazingly, it works. The engine is able to control their own speed, but the computer system is there to automatically override if they get too close to another train, and stop the train in question immediately. This has caused some problems in the past on the Singapore metro, when multiple trains were mysteriously stopped at random intervals, disrupting an entire city. There were some wild theories behind why this could be the case, but it turned out that one of the engines’ computer systems was acting up… and the rebellious engine didn’t say anything.

The UK mostly has trains with drivers, although there have been a couple of recent innovations that have forayed into driverless territory. The London Underground was planned to be fully automated at several points, but it has yet to happen (although as previously mentioned, a couple of lines are now automated).

However - despite all of this innovation - there has yet to be a widespread driverless train movement on main line railways. It was only in late 2021 that a train, moving by her own control, ran on a line shared by other traffic. This was in Germany, although the UK is also trying out a couple of similar options, with the trialling of ETRMS in areas such as West Wales.

The engines themselves, of course, are greatly intrigued by the concept - the closest that a steam locomotive has got to this sort of level is Tornado, who was fitted with an in-cab signalling system which is going to be trialled after she is back in steam. The hope is that NWR engines will also be trialled with this same system if it goes well on Tornado… the engines have mixed views on the subject, with some simply preferring a hand at their controls and finding it comforting.

Despite this, it is still a fascinating concept. Ask any diesel or electric engine about the concept of driverless trains, and they’ll be giddy with excitement to tell you all they know about it!

Master Post

[cyberpunkonline]

Techno Vehicle Racing: The Pulse of Cyberpunk Culture

In the neon-lit streets and sprawling urban dystopias of cyberpunk media, the roar of engines and the blur of speeding vehicles aren't just background noise—they're the lifeblood of the narrative. Techno vehicle racing, a high-octane sub-category within the genre, embodies the spirit of rebellion, the thirst for adrenaline, and the relentless pursuit of freedom against oppressive regimes. This article revs through the essence of techno vehicle racing in cyberpunk, spotlighting iconic examples from games, TV, film, and literature that have left tire tracks on the hearts of fans worldwide.

Games: Speeding Through Virtual Dystopias

No conversation about techno vehicle racing in cyberpunk can ignore the juggernaut that is the "Wipeout" series. Launched in the mid-90s, "Wipeout" became synonymous with breakneck speeds, futuristic race tracks, and a soundtrack that's as much a pulse-pounding ride as the racing itself. But it's not alone; "Cyberpunk 2077" threw its hat into the ring with its visceral, street-level races through Night City, showcasing the grimy underbelly of a world where cybernetic enhancements and AI-driven vehicles blur the lines between man and machine.

TV and Film: High-Speed Chases on the Silver Screen

Television and film have long capitalized on the visual spectacle of techno vehicle racing. "Akira," with its iconic motorcycle chase scenes, stands as a pillar of cyberpunk, illustrating the rebellious spirit of youth and the anarchic energy that vehicle racing adds to the genre. Meanwhile, "Blade Runner 2049" offers a more subdued, atmospheric take, where high-speed pursuits are less about the race and more about the existential journey through a visually arresting dystopian future.

Books: Racing Through the Pages

Literature may not deliver the visual adrenaline of games or films, but it's no less capable of capturing the essence of techno vehicle racing. Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" features high-speed pursuits that mix virtual reality with real-world stakes, painting a vivid picture of cyberpunk's speedster element. Similarly, William Gibson's "Neuromancer" offers up the concept of navigating the cybernetic matrix at breakneck speeds, a metaphorical race against the clock that's every bit as thrilling as any physical race.

The Cultural Significance of Speed in Cyberpunk

Techno vehicle racing goes beyond mere entertainment in cyberpunk; it's a critical reflection of the genre's core themes. The relentless speed symbolizes the rapid pace of technological advancement and its impact on society. Races and chases are metaphors for individual autonomy, resistance against authority, and the pursuit of identity in a world where the lines between human and machine are increasingly blurred.

In the realms of cyberpunk, where shadowy corporations wield immense power and individual freedoms are constantly under threat, techno vehicle racing stands as a defiant scream for liberty. It's not just about the thrill of the race—it's about what the race represents: a fleeting taste of freedom, a chance to break free from the constraints of a system designed to suppress.

As we dive into these digital and dystopian worlds, the screech of tires and the roar of engines remind us that in the fight against oppression, speed is not just a way to escape—it's a way to feel alive. Techno vehicle racing, with its blend of speed, technology, and rebellion, is more than a sub-category of cyberpunk; it's the heart racing, engine revving soul of the genre.

So, next time you strap in for a cyberpunk adventure, remember that the race isn't just about reaching the finish line—it's about the spirit of resistance, the quest for identity, and the undeniable rush of freedom that comes with every turn of the wheel. Welcome to the world of techno vehicle racing, where the future is fast, and the rebellion is even faster. Gear up; it's going to be a wild ride. - Raz.

[educationtech]

History of Mechanical Engineering | Background & Inventions

Definition:- The study of physical machines involving force and movement, and the application of engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science to design, analyze, manufacture, and maintain mechanical systems.

Core areas:- Includes mechanics, dynamics, thermodynamics, materials science, design, structural analysis, and electricity.

Tools:- Utilizes computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), and product lifecycle management for designing and analyzing various systems

The Origins of Mechanical Engineering

The roots of mechanical engineering can be traced back thousands of years to ancient civilizations. The development of simple machines like the lever, wheel, and pulley laid the foundation for the field. In ancient Greece, Heron of Alexandria designed the first steam engine, while in medieval China and the Islamic Golden Age, engineers like Al-Jazari made significant contributions to mechanical design.

The Industrial Revolution and Beyond

Mechanical engineering truly emerged as a distinct discipline during the Industrial Revolution in Europe in the 18th century. The invention of the steam engine by James Watt is considered a pivotal moment, as it enabled the development of power-driven machines and transportation systems. In the 19th century, advances in physics led to the establishment of mechanical engineering science.

Key Inventions and Innovations

Throughout history, mechanical engineers have made groundbreaking contributions to society. Some notable examples include:

•             Nikola Tesla's work on alternating current electricity and radio technologies

•             George Stephenson's development of the first intercity railway system

•             Aurel Stodola's pioneering research on thermodynamics and his invention of the first heat pump

The Rise of Professional Societies

As the field of mechanical engineering grew, so did the need for professional organizations. The first such society, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, was formed in the United Kingdom in 1847. In the United States, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) was established in 1880.

Modern Advancements and Applications

Today, mechanical engineering encompasses a wide range of disciplines, from aerospace and automotive engineering to robotics and nanotechnology. Advancements in computer-aided design (CAD), manufacturing (CAM), and engineering (CAE) have revolutionized the field. Mechanical engineers now work on projects as diverse as designing medical devices, developing renewable energy systems, and exploring space.

The Future of Mechanical Engineering

Arya College of Engineering & I.T. is the Best Engineering College in Jaipur as technology continues to advance, the field of mechanical engineering is poised for even greater innovations. The integration of emerging technologies like additive manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things will undoubtedly shape the future of the profession. By continuing to push the boundaries of what's possible, mechanical engineers will play a crucial role in shaping the world of tomorrow.

[novelsmini]

Top ten Sci-fi novels along with theirs author and others info

  Certainly! Here are summaries of 10 classic science fiction novels, along with some information about their plots and characters:

1. **"Dune" by Frank Herbert**

   - **Plot:** Set in a distant future, it follows the story of Paul Atreides as he navigates the desert planet of Arrakis, the only source of a valuable spice called melange. The novel explores themes of power, religion, and ecology.

   - **Characters:** Paul Atreides, Duke Leto, Lady Jessica, Baron Harkonnen.

2. **"1984" by George Orwell**

   - **Plot:** This dystopian novel is set in a totalitarian society controlled by Big Brother. It follows Winston Smith, who rebels against the oppressive regime and seeks truth and freedom.

   - **Characters:** Winston Smith, Julia, Big Brother.

3. **"Neuromancer" by William Gibson**

   - **Plot:** A cyberpunk classic, it follows Case, a washed-up computer hacker hired for one last job. The novel is known for its virtual reality, hacking, and complex conspiracies.

   - **Characters:** Case, Molly Millions, Wintermute.

4. **"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley**

   - **Plot:** In a futuristic world, society is conditioned to maintain stability and happiness through genetic engineering and mind control. The story revolves around Bernard Marx, who questions the system.

   - **Characters:** Bernard Marx, Lenina Crowne, John "the Savage."

5. **"Foundation" by Isaac Asimov**

   - **Plot:** This is the first book in the Foundation series. It centers on mathematician Hari Seldon's plan to preserve knowledge during the fall of a galactic empire and the rise of a new civilization.

   - **Characters:** Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, Brother Day.

6. **"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card**

   - **Plot:** The novel follows Ender Wiggin, a gifted child trained to lead humanity in a war against an alien race. It explores themes of leadership, morality, and the consequences of war.

   - **Characters:** Ender Wiggin, Valentine Wiggin, Colonel Graff.

7. **"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin**

   - **Plot:** In a world where the inhabitants are ambisexual androgynes, an Earth ambassador, Genly Ai, navigates cultural differences and political intrigue.

   - **Characters:** Genly Ai, Estraven, King Argaven.

8. **"Hyperion" by Dan Simmons**

   - **Plot:** A group of seven pilgrims, each with their own story, travels through a far-future universe. They share their tales on a journey to a mysterious, time-altering structure called the Shrike.

   - **Characters:** Martin Silenus, Brawne Lamia, The Consul.

9. **"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson**

   - **Plot:** Set in a cyberpunk world, it follows Hiro Protagonist, a hacker and pizza delivery driver, as he investigates a virtual drug called Snow Crash and its connection to a linguistic virus.

   - **Characters:** Hiro Protagonist, Y.T., L. Bob Rife.

10. **"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams**

    - **Plot:** This comedic space odyssey follows the unwitting Arthur Dent as he is whisked away from Earth just before its destruction and joins an eclectic group of interstellar travelers.

    - **Characters:** Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Zaphod Beeblebrox.

These novels offer a wide range of themes and storytelling styles within the science fiction genre, making them essential reads for fans of the genre.

For more info visit here -https://novelsmini.blogspot.com/

[joezworld]

📁 Anything interesting about Early Preservation?

Early preservation in the UK is much more of a piecemeal effort than one might expect. 

Following in the footsteps of animal rights activists, locomotive rights groups were founded well by the 1890′s - although they were viewed much less favorably than dog-lovers, and had/have a much smaller overall membership than any similar animal organization. That does not mean that they are any less dedicated - in fact, they may be more involved as a result, and several very early locomotives from railroads like the GER, NER, and even the London Metropolitan Railway were saved by deep-pocketed members of the loco-rights societies were saved before the first world war. Unfortunately for those in modern day preservation circles, these groups were intentionally vague in where locomotives were taken, in order to hide them from scrap merchants and others of their ilk. Considering the significant influence held by the steamships Great Eastern, Great Britain, and Great Western, it is theorized that many of the early engines, if not still hidden inside quiet village halls throughout England and Wales, were spirited away to the New World onboard the “Great Trio” (see below). 

Richard Trevithick, inventor of the steam locomotive, was another pioneer of the preservation movement. Having witnessed firsthand the initial moments of life for the first mechanical beings, Trevithick reported that he felt as though he had “created new life” and was therefore responsible for it. The accidental failure and destruction of his “Puffing Devil” prototype steam carriage in 1801 haunted him for the rest of his life, as he had come to regard the machine as his child. This mindset was one that he kept until his death, and all subsequent locomotives created by Trevithick were either owned by him outright or were subject to significant restrictions in how and where they could be re-sold. One locomotive that Trevithick had sold to a colliery in Wales was reportedly scrapped following a mechanical failure - reports differ on exactly what happened next, but it is generally accepted that Trevithick arrived at the colliery in a “state of demonic rage” and physically attacked almost everyone in the colliery management. Trevithick would die penniless in 1833, and his “family” of locomotives quickly vanished into the pages of history. Little is known about their whereabouts in the years since, but it is assumed - based on letters from Trevithick in the libraries of George and Robert Stephenson - that Trevithick made arrangements for his locomotives to be cared for following his death. Some evidence exists to support the claim that at least some of Trevithick’s locomotives emigrated to Canada and Australia in the mid-1800′s, however little information is known for certain. 

George Stephenson, in a manner very similar to Trevithick, was very shaken by the revelation that his locomotives were a new form of life, created by him. He viewed many, if not all, of his engines to be his own flesh and blood on par with his son Robert, and a considerable portion of Stephenson’s fortune was spent supporting his numerous “mechanized children”. Many of Stephenson’s sons and daughters are still in existence now, as he ensured that they would be provided for via his mining businesses following his death. While many of the Stephenson family had been content to remain in the United Kingdom indefinitely, the overzealous nature of WW1/WW2-era scrap metal drives meant that many of the locomotives quietly immigrated to more favorable nations, including Ireland, Iceland, Canada, and the United States. It is also believed that the Stephenson family grew greatly in the early 1830s, following the death of Richard Trevithick and the subsequent inclusion of his locomotives. 

Another titan of the early railroads, Isambard Kingdom Brunel did not hold locomotives in the same regard as Stephenson or Trevithick, viewing them in much the same way as cart-horses - not quite sentient, but deserving of kindness. As old-fashioned as this sounds, it was a far sight better than most railways in the United Kingdom - even to this day! As a result, Brunel’s Great Western Railway was much kinder to its locomotives than its contemporaries, often acting in manners that weren’t economical in order to preserve its existing locomotive fleet. Indeed, when the GWR was merged with other contemporary railways in the 1923 grouping, management from those companies were astonished to discover that the GWR still fielded numerous 1840′s vintage broad gauge locomotives, which had been rebuilt several times over in order to keep up with changes in gauge. This distinct nicety to locomotives lasted all the way into the British Rail era, with Western Region management often turning a blind eye to locomotives being spirited away in the dead of night. In fact, it took until the end of the 1960′s for Western Region management to be replaced by BR stooges, as it’s likely that they would have continued to ignore the BR modernization plan otherwise. Even then, many old hands within the Western Region refused to abide by BR’s new rules, and continued to assist steam engines in fleeing to safe havens. Later efforts would also ensure the safety of many of the Class 35, 42, 43, and 52 diesel hydraulic locomotives during their withdrawals in the 1970s. 

While Brunel was not as attached to his steam locomotives as some of his contemporaries were, he was very attached to his steamships. Great Eastern, Great Britain, and Great Western were considered by Brunel to be his “crowning achievements”, and he viewed them in a similar light to his three human children - going so far as to divide his fortune amongst his six children - a move that, when uncontested by his biological children, astonished contemporary sources. (It should be noted that this news was quickly forgotten by the media following the death of Robert Stephenson several days later) The trio of Brunel’s ships were pioneers of what would later be called “the watery railway”, in which railway locomotives escaping scrap in the United Kingdom would be hauled away by ship to friendly foreign locales. It is believed that most of Stephenson’s and Trevithick’s locomotives were taken away to North American ports by Great Eastern in the late 1920′s. 

[airmanisr]

Ex Queensland Rail 1908 built PB15 number 448. crossing Patrick Street Swanbank. by Lance P. Castle Via Flickr: The design resulted from a need for more powerful engines for passenger trains. The PB15 Class was designed by Locomotive Engineer, Henry Horniblow and LW Piggott. Per Queensland Railway's classification system they were designated the PB15 class, P representing they were a passenger locomotive, the B that they had three driving axles and the 15 the cylinder diameter in inches. The PB15s were in essence identical to the B15 class. The first PB15 engines were delivered by Walkers Limited, Maryborough in December 1899. By 1912, a total of 202 had been built by Walkers (122), Evans, Anderson, Phelan & Co (70), Kitson & Co (20) and Toowoomba Foundry (20). They were fitted with Stephenson valve gear. In May 1918, no. 411 was converted at North Ipswich Railway Workshops into a tank engine, the one off member of the 6D15 class. In March 1922 however, due to poor performance it was converted back to its original tender form.[2][4] In 1924 one example was built by North Ipswich Railway Workshops for the Aramac Shire Tramway. It was acquired by Queensland Railways in 1958.[2][4] In 1925/26, Walkers manufactured a further 30 improved PB15 Class locomotives. These were fitted with larger tenders and Walschaerts valve gear. This earned this variant of the PB15 the nickname Walschaerts. In 1932, a number of PB15 class locomotives attached to Ipswich depot were fitted with a second sandbox for rear sanding to assist with shunting work on the colliery branches. These were nos. 351, 508, 567, 574, 587, 591, and 750, the last mentioned being a Walschaerts or 1924 type PB15. Later, the rear sanding equipment attached to No.591 was removed and PB15 No. 525 was fitted in lieu. Preservation Five examples have been preserved: 444 is on display at the Workshops Rail Museum, Ipswich 448 is operational on the Queensland Pioneer Steam Railway, Swanbank and has been named in preservation RV Armstrong after the society's late founding member.[6] It could be 446, but this is wrong.[1][6] 454 is undergoing a major overhaul at the Bellarine Railway, Queenscliff, Victoria[7] 732 is in storage at the Workshops Rail Museum, one of the 1924 Walschaerts[5] 738 is on display at the Rosewood Railway Museum, Rosewood, one of the 1924 Walschaerts

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

Last #Feathursday we posted a folded broadside featuring nursery rhymes and wood engravings by Enid Marx from a collection of forty broadsides entitled Forty Sheets to the Wind, printed by Graham Moss and Kathy Whalen in 1999 to showcase the enormous collection of typefaces at their Incline Press in Oldham, England. The portfolio is part of a set of 150 copies that also includes a letterpress-printed introductory booklet.

Today we present ten more typographic broadsides from this collection. Here is some commentary on each broadside from the booklet, from top to bottom:

Forty Sheets to the WInd: “Focusing on bookwork we have little use for wood type as even the smallest sizes then to be too large for our use. . . . But somehow a few cases have slipped in and stayed, The two colour face is above a line of Cheltenham . . . .”

Beatrice Warde. Verses Written to the Sound of Fire Engines: The line drawing of Beatrice Warde is by Eric Gill, and is printed from a zinc plate. The hair color is produced by pochoir. Gill also designed the Perpetua type that the verses are set in .  

New games of cards: printed in 24 pt. italic and 14 pt. roman Weiss as a keepsake for the International Playing-Card Society Convention.

Hung Out to Dry: chiefly printed in Goudy Old Style, 18 pt. roman and italic with a little 14 pt. bold. The display face is Castellar 30 pt., surrounded by an illustration by Philip Woollard printed from  a zinc plate.

Little Fishes: printed using 36 pt. Centaur roman, with a line of 12 pt at the foot, designed by Bruce Rogers, and Frederic Warde’s Arrighi italic. The wood engraving is by Anna Ravenscroft.

Spirit of Joy: The caption line is set in Fry’s Ornamented from the Stephenson Blake foundry, in 36 and 30 pt.; the rest is in 24 pt Fry’s Baskerville with some Monotype Baskerville italic, printed on Fabriano Rosapina. The drawing is by Claud Lovat Fraser with pochior coloring.

Some Papers Are Not Used: 24 pt Hadriano Stone Cut and 12 pt Hadriano designed by Frederic Goudy printed on Fabriano Ingres paper over a course handmade paper from La Papeterie St-Armand in Montreal.

Sonnet Thirty: 18 pt Monotype Garamond italic with Stephenson Blake borders on handmade paper from Griffin Mill.

The Fist: 18 pt Scotch type printed on Fabriano Ingres. The large manicle or “fist” at the bottom is a wood cut from Delittle of York.

I Like Discipline: 30 pt. Monotype Bembo and 12 pt Monotype Bembo italic on Fabriano Artistico. The circular decorative borders were made of four pieces designed for Monotype by David Bethel, lined with some Linotype fleurons.

Our copy of Forty Sheets to the Wind is a gift from our friend Jerry Buff.

View our other Typography Tuesday posts.

[the-cyberpunk-zeitgeist]

The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist

>>>𝕄𝕜𝕕𝕚𝕣 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"...

>>>ℂ𝕕 "𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪"

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕙𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕞𝕚𝕟𝕕.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝔻𝕠𝕨𝕟𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕣𝕡𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕜𝕝𝕖𝕡𝕥.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>ℝ𝕦𝕟 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖...

>>>𝕄𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪 <𝕝𝕠𝕒𝕕𝕚𝕟𝕘-𝕗𝕒𝕚𝕝𝕖𝕕: 

      "𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕒𝕝𝕚𝕥𝕪.𝕙" 𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕕>

>>>𝔼𝕣𝕣𝕠𝕣 𝕞𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕒𝕘𝕖: "ℂ𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕠𝕥 𝕗𝕚𝕟𝕕 𝕤𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕖𝕥𝕪.𝕖𝕩𝕖. 𝕎𝕖 𝕝𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕟 𝕚𝕥."

>>>...

Flash into the past and look into the future. Recall the early stages of the digital age—the new millennium—and how, at the precipice of a thousand transformations, civilization was defined by its endless climbing innovation. In the 80’s and 90’s, when consumer use of the personal computer was infecting society like a virus, our entire idea of communication changed. The net became a pivotal point in shaping what it meant to be human. Through an ever-expanding web of information, human innovation seemed to spiral until promising “authorship over reality itself”. Those who felt constrained by the world, escaped into a fractal space with infinite possibilities of connecting with others. 

Douglas Rushkoff termed it ‘Cyberia’—a dreamlike place offering “a way to crack open our civilization’s closed-mindedness, and to allow for a millennial transition that offered something a lot better than apocalypse: consciously driven evolution”, but the mesmerizing unity in this newfound cyberscape didn’t last. What followed—what we see around us now—may lead us to believe that all is lost, but perhaps there’s something more than war, corporate politics, espionage. Perhaps, there still exist some humans among us interested in a higher cause: unlocking the mysteries.

While the net was first adopted solely by military personnel and groups of scientists across academia who saw fit to interconnect themselves for research and communication purposes, it soon fell into the hands of the geeks using hypertext forums to discuss niche hobbies or send pictures to one another. The net became a mystic place of interlocking minds, where interconnected collections of data contributed to the neural network of humans that composed a global brain. As this paradise aged, however, the desire of investors to monetize and capitalize from the cyberscape arose alongside it. Advertisements flooded the web; businesses sprung up in every forum, website, and chat client. It wasn’t long into the 21st century that the nature of the web was forever molded by a greed to optimize its use for social credit, capital, and leverage for everything from corporate intelligence, to data harvesting, to control and censorship of media. The symbol of freedom and exploration was thus transformed into a stratified market and a subversive survival game. It’s all so… Cyberpunk.  

In the 80’s and 90’s, alongside the rise of computers and the net, came the rise of Cyberpunk literature—a sci-fi subgenre defined by its retro aesthetics intermixed with contrasting commentary that showed us the wonders of new technology while simultaneously revealing the deep divide that emerged as a result of inequality. Pioneers like William Gibson in Neuromancer, Neal Stephenson in Snow Crash, and Katsuhiro Otomo in Akira revealed the true impact of this divide. In a world where everyone in the streets is chromed up with augmented cybernetic prostheses, but can still hardly afford to eat—a world where cities have been replaced by endlessly sprawling megalopoli—we’re left immersed in the aesthetics of ‘high tech-low life’ people struggling to get by. 

Cyberpunk showed sci-fi fans what it might look like if kleptocratic corporations spiralled further and further into the power vacuum created by advancing technology. If caution and regulation aren’t put in place to protect the people from marvelous creations that humanity could hardly predict outside of science fiction, the people are further exploited and economic classes are further stratified. When this is combined with life-threatening dangers around every corner, the difference between economic class can mean life and death. 

While the additional flourishes of weapons-grade cyborgs, sentient and sentimental artificial intelligence, and laser guns can make Cyberpunk seem like a farfetched reach into a future that will never come, I am here to tell you that this is Society, and we are living in it. Around the world, rising sea levels begin to swallow more of the coastline, and megafires consume any shred of nature or infrastructure in their path. Both of these events are spurred by human-driven climate change which is created in large part by first-world corporations churning out fossil fuels or slicing up rainforests for profit. The global hivemind that is the internet has become the limitless communications apparatus we wanted it to be, but it is covered in adverts and subverts its users attempts to harness its power with misinformation, propaganda, and profit-driven exclusive content. Riots over authoritarian state measures have propped up not only in the United States, but in Hong Kong, Belarus, and all across the globe. Pandemic disease and refugee crises displace hundreds of thousands of humans each year, and the rich keep getting richer by the billions.

In more recent Cyberpunk writing like William Gibson’s The Peripheral, Gibson describes the Jackpot:

And first of all that it was no one thing. That is was multicausal, with no particular beginning and no end. More a climate than an event, so not the way apocalypse stories liked to have a big event, after which everybody ran around with guns… or else were eaten alive by something that caused the big event. Not like that.

It was androgenic… that meant because of people. Not that they’d known what they were doing, had meant to make problems, but they’d caused it anyway. And in fact the actual climate, the weather, caused by there being too much carbon, had been the driver for a lot of other things. How that got worse and never better, and was just expected to, ongoing. Because people in the past, clueless as to how that worked, had fucked it all up, then not been able to get it together to do anything about it, even after they knew, and now it was too late.

...it killed 80 percent of every last person alive, over about forty years.

Jackpot. The repercussions of humanity’s actions finally catch up, and those bits of humanity that do remain are saved by an extreme surge in innovation that manages to save society’s elites. As Douglas Rushkoff puts it in his recent essay The Privileged Have Entered Their Escape Pods, more and more of those who have the capital to do so have already begun their plans, whether those plans are to escape to Mars or to set themselves up with a cushy work-from-home job while the lower class workers are forced into the public during the pandemic crisis. The need to automate away positions for the safety of our species is becoming even more prevalent than it once was in the minds of corporate conglomerates, but the cancerous overgrowth of our bureaucracy has become so bloated and tripped up in its own processes that we can no longer look to our political systems to keep up with the exploitation of innovation. Lo and behold, the world’s looking pretty CPAF to me.

Where have the visions of Cyberia gone? What happened to the early stages of internet punks, pushed aside in their desire to surf the datasphere purely for the rush of uncovering swathes of data? Where did visions of “authorship over reality itself” twist to become ‘authorship over reality by those with the capital to control’? It may seem that this explosive spiral of technological innovation in the new millennium is driving us towards extinction and only saving those with enough coins in their pockets to buy a ticket on the ark, but perhaps it’s not too late to change course and save ourselves from the ultimate Jackpot.

United by the global nature of the net, every one of us is connected as a single living entity that is the Earth—a Technogaia. Developments in artificial intelligence promises us exponential increase in information processing capabilities across all fields. Breakthroughs in genetic engineering could allow us to delete diseases from our genomes, and have already shown minor success in the de-extinction of species. With the first cyborg part already installed in each of our pockets, every citizen can extend their minds beyond capacity; each one of us becomes a journalist at a moment’s notice when injustice needs to be documented and challenged. Nuclear, hydrogen, solar, and wind energy lead us towards a cleaner and greener future. The rise of urban ecology shows a path to optimize the use of space to lower humanity’s carbon impact while providing more space for habitat rehabilitation and the reintroduction of lost biodiversity.

In the palm of our hands, humanity has taken control of the world. With science and technology, we’ve become the manipulators, but if we do not recognize what our impact is on the Dao of Earth, we may tip the scales too far into the Chaos. I’ll be honest in saying things look grim, but these same innovations that have paved the way for flying killbots and smoke stacks spewing gases into the sky have given us the power to reshape the world in a beneficial image. Futurist politicians call for universal basic income in a world increasingly run by machines. Transhumanists pave the way for the radical extension of the human lifespan. Technogaians design solarpunk arcologies to house a society ready to save their Earth rather than one intent on consuming it. Cyberians fight for our rights to privacy and the freedom of information. Just as the visions of grim dystopias in the 80's and 90’s saw themselves transformed into modern realities, we can use humanity’s greatest tool—this near-deific domain over innovation—to mold this fractal reality into our vision. But is it chaos, order, or some harmonious Dao in between that we seek? 

No matter our choice, it’s going to take a lot of united high tech-low life cyberpunks to get there. This is the Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, and we’re living it.

For more works by The Cyberpunk Zeitgeist, see our Twitter page @CyborgZeitgeist

[lornaslibrary]

Technology

Last week I asked you to recommend books on the subject of technology. Here are all of the books that were recommended!!

Bold = the books I’ve read * = the books I personally would recommend + = want to read/on my TBR

I, Robot (Robot #0.1), by Isaac Asimov

The Lifecycle of Software Objects, by Ted Chiang

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

Artemis Fowl (Artemis Fowl #1), by Eoin Colfer

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner #1), by Philip K. Dick

The Circle, by Dave Eggers +

The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling

Parasite (Parasitology #1), by Mira Grant +

Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku

Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1), by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff *

Binti (Binti #1), by Nnedi Okorafor

Raising Steam (Discworld #40), by Terry Pratchett

Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans At War, by Mary Roach

The Diamond Age: Or A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, by Neal Stephenson

The Mysterious Benedict Society (The Mysterious Benedict Society #1), by Trenton Lee Stewart

Rosewater (The Wormwood Trilogy #1), by Tade Thompson 

The Martian, by Andy Weir *

If you recommended books but don’t see your recommendations here, feel free to message me to let me know I missed your response

Other Chain Recs Masterposts

[connectingbridges]

The Gifts of Athena by Joel Mokyr – Synopsis

Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom and the daughter of Zeus competed for the rights to a piece of land we now call Athens, against Poseidon by offering the first olive tree representing both abundance and harmony. Joel Mokyr, a Dutch-born American-Israeli economic historian belonging to the 1940s-1970s upbringing, takes this symbolism of the first olive tree to explain the roots of knowledge that brought about economic abundance with the first Industrial Revolution. “What people knew, affected what they did”, claims Mokyr.

The interesting thing about England is it sized up to only about 0.16% of the world yet between 1769 and 1850, a portion of it had become one of the biggest powers of the world producing two thirds of the world’s coal output and half of the world’s iron carrying one of the largest defense base and colonial prowess. It was markets and not political power that seems to have driven the exercise of British administration across its colonies as exemplified by the Opium War (1842) and the free-trade structure followed in India. Somehow World War I tipped the growth scales from northern to southern England with a complicated interplay of four distinct but closely timed transformations – textile, agricultural, demography (population and life expectancy) and transport (cost and speed of travel). While textile and mechanization can be traced to specific events, people and inventions; agriculture and transport transformations evidence suggests, were organizational restructures without significant changes in England’s political carpet prior to World War I. It is this seemingly coincidental set of monumental changes by a tiny part of a country that the Industrial Revolution is the subject to scrutiny with varied social and economic theories. Mokyr claims this is “the central event of modern history. Nothing else even comes close”. The book is sub-titled historical origins of the knowledge economy by building a framework for ‘useful knowledge’. Three things are addressed by Mokyr in The Gifts of Athena about the Industrial Revolution – why the time (by 1830), why the place (England) and why the scale (spread to the western world), because none of these defining transformations in productivity could have happened just by trial and error from a bunch of early hobbyists (like John Kay devising the Flying Shuttle in 1733 to weave thread or Wyatt Paul’s spinning machine in 1738) with narrow epistemic bases. Mokyr points out that between 1750 and 1850, three processes changed technological knowledge. Some pure additions to Ω with weak economic needs, density and tightness between Ω and λ due to accessibility and organization and feedback from techniques to the propositional knowledge.

The first chapter runs a dense epistemological and philosophical base of this tenacious argument that knowledge is cumulative and it is “the emergence of belief in the usefulness of progress” that culture and institutions took it upon themselves to cause the first Industrial Revolution, making best use of the technological ideas being developed during its time. In this chapter he differentiates between propositional (Ω) and prescriptive (λ) knowledge. It is claimed that the wider the propositional (theoretical) knowledge, the greater its epistemic base and therefore the easier it is to translate associated prescriptive (actionable) knowledge into more deterministic solutions, thus avoiding a diminishing return on knowledge. However, if only propositional knowledge was sufficient, there would be easy examples of similar economic growth in nations other than England too. Economic progress is tipped on the scales of feedback between Ω knowledge and λ knowledge. Out of this, Mokyr attributes λ knowledge to stem from a favorable set of rules (institutions, universities or professional bodies) and norms. While individual knowledge ranks lower, it diffuses into what is referred to as ‘collective knowledge’ on the pillars of cost (i.e. expenditure of real resources), access (e.g. technology) and social organization (e.g. language, notation, jargon, storage and distribution). Collective knowledge eventually becomes a cultural entity. One exemplification of this is Benjamin Franklin’s inventions published in all majorly accessible languages and his contacts with scientists across the world even though his inventions like bifocal spectacles had no measureable impact on industrial productivity.

At this point, Mokyr attempts to prove by elimination that England was a favorable place for all of these transformations to happen together in the first wave of Industrial Revolution. Japan, China and India, despite having bigger cotton industries and some natural resources (hydroelectric power or natural gas reserves) either could not capitalize on them well or found it expensive, painstaking and time taking to develop to scale. This in turn, increased the contribution Western Europe had on the collective propositional knowledge and the wealth it could draw from it using access to markets in its colonies. “England was a society that provided both incentives and opportunities to apply existing useful knowledge to technology”. Mokyr stresses in both chapter 2 and 6 that this was not just an English event but a Western European one. However, as opposed to France and Germany with larger epistemic knowledge bases, other open circumstances like the personal and informal contacts at coffeehouses or scientific societies for specialists and non- specialists alike in England, brought forward the role of organizing useful knowledge in encyclopaediae that sat in libraries, creating conditions for knowledge to trickle down to the middle classes from the elite. In fact, when the realists rebelled against such rapid technological advancement in England using extralegal means, the governance was prepared to demoralize them notwithstanding the fact that England had geographically distributed colonies. Mokyr credits tools of visualization to bring forth the role of mathematics in emergence of new technology and application. Spain, Ireland and Netherlands, the other European possibilities for industrial revolution were ‘late’ to the race and labelled as ‘resistant to innovation’. The dynamics of resistance to innovation as described in chapter 6, then depend on exogenous variables like confidence in the political authorities to maintain law and order, market forces, labour force’s marginalization due to one material/technology getting more traction than the others and so forth. The only thing different about the Industrial Revolution in England is the creation of opportunities that simply did not exist before, compelling the use and diffusion of both Ω and λ knowledge. Mokyr claims that England’s leadership conditions had nothing to do with this great event in this phase.

The 1820s saw the brink of a second wave of the first industrial revolution that Mokyr says, prevented the slow down and wash out of the first wave. This wave was different because Mokyr with limited examples shows that it was not increase in Ω or λ knowledge but the directedness and deterministic style of innovation with less artisanal and more industrialist features that was responsible for the second Industrial Revolution in the 1860s. Some of the examples used here are James Neilson’s hot blast furnaces that reduced fuel costs and leading to the development of locomotive engines by George Stephenson, conversion of soap and candle manufacturing into a scientifically driven industrial process and that of synthetic dyes. The second industrial revolution created conditions for major breakthroughs in metallurgy, energy production and telegraphy. The source of this wave was a deliberate investment of effort and money into experimentation, research and development and a willingness to shed old ideas that did not work anymore. The second wave was therefore a cascading evolution of λ and then Ω knowledge.

The third wave of Industrial Revolution spilling over to the twentieth century is credited in this book to the ‘institutionalization of innovation’ that brought in universities, corporate and government sponsored players in the race therefore making politics the main determinant of the speed and nature of innovation. Contributing to this was the fact that a lot of fearsome technologies were now less objectionable, like quantum physics, simply because its outcomes were more controllable. Most of the breakthroughs in this century were resting on wider λ knowledge owing to accurate and efficient production techniques and process innovation through routinization, modularization, standardization, acceleration and miniaturization. This is the time when Adam Smith’s division of labour idea became more and more useful. Mokyr calls information and communication technologies (ICT) as ‘knowledge technologies’ for the reason that apart from their direct impact on productivity, these technologies have reduced marginal costs of knowledge access and codification dramatically. The credit for this pivotal role of ICT goes not just to innovation but also to the institutional elements, establishment of social conventions acceptability and formalization along with the fact that ICT was general purpose and could impact all other industries. Here is where Mokyr makes a distinction. He says, “The useful knowledge that emerged after 1850 was truly social, but the “society” in question was international – though not global”.

There were several implications of these waves. The rise of the factory, changing picture of a quintessential worker in a household setting to that detached from a household business, the training of a worker moving from traditional styles to active labour training en mass in factories, the change that came with learning to follow orders and hierarchies brought competition between entrepreneurs or enterprises at a level not seen before. Economies of scale started to exist, bringing household business down despite informal networks. The innovations in epidemiology, germ theory and epistemic base of knowledge in sanitation and healthcare resulted in a sharp decline in mortality with the onus of sanitation not just being left to women of the household. Mokyr states that it is easy to undermine statistics that were used not just to convince the masses in middle and lower middle classes but also to influence the people in power responsible for food distribution, drainage systems, water supply, dwelling houses and waste disposal and so forth. Epidemiology, immunology and statistical rhetoric provide an excellent case for diffusion of propositional knowledge. “An apple a day” had radical effects on consumer behavior, so did the knowledge that boiling and cooking techniques changed nutritional composition on raw foods. The onus of wealth creation using these waves of revolutions by entrepreneurs relied on the institutions that have the power to do one of two things. They could either merely provide a mechanism for distribution of knowledge or actively engage in the conception, creation and operation of ‘enterprise’, which has been an undeniable, outcome of these waves of industrial, economic, social and political change.

There is no one single recipe or formula for economic growth but this work creates a path for humans to understand the necessary (not sufficient) conditions of useful knowledge. Whether useful knowledge is the right term to be used for the link between European enlightenment and the subsequent economic in the nineteenth century is of concern, as it seems like a term one would assign to a resultant and not the cause. In conclusion, Joel Mokyr’s work seems to stress on particular events and a set of conditions in economic history giving a reader the perception that these conditions are hard to be replicated because of the domino effect of the original turnkey events. This is unlike the less academic and more popular science reference ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’, by Jared Diamond, a historian with an anthropological background, which attributes geographical endowments for the scale and the time taken for societies to be self-sufficient even in isolation like the aboriginals of Australia or the African savannah as the key reasons for the spread of technology in a latitudinal fashion over large distances. It is also unlike David Landes’ ‘The Unbound Prometheus’ which takes the position that the Industrial Revolution was a part of a larger modernization process. Overall while Mokyr’s work is a useful way of understanding the non-technological factors involved in Industrial Revolution, the evidence embedded between concepts is not always very compelling. For example, Mokyr states that technological innovations increase our effort in household work but the examples provided for that do not seem adequate.

[asfaltics]

unindations

  ane n inon un           1

—

enable unable   unénable enúnable   unúnable           2

at last, however, being ununable

unc. unca, unco           3

—

unck uncked ununcked           4

uncome uncomes come

uncomes           5

—

unda undula           6

inúndula uníndula uníndulata inúndulata           7

inundate unindate           8

vast mazy, unindating flood liable to unindation, and cut sometimes the unindation is so sudden the Unindation; or by unindation from           8a-e

indelible undelable unindelable           9

—

undern           10

undone undones           11

undex           12

—

undern days undones done quyk erthe among undure as lie is made

undure           13 unjure           14

—

unscape on the wish

nunscape anunscape ununskup           15

únsula únsular unwater           16

—

unwatered           17 unthing

unthis unthat unthis that thut thing

unsome unwhat

—

unsum unsong           18

eene verkorting von perhaps unsong is the name of the new art. unsong there were very few

undersome unsion unsions           19

unstruct unward

unhere unwhere

unward unwards           20

unword unwords these           21 unders

—

ununder   únununder unúnunder           22

un o n inen an           23

un  

sources and asides

1 "la ordenación silábica," ex Enrique de Vedia, El Arte de Leer Buenos Aires, 1905) : 31 as for an en in on un, numerous instances in grammars, shorthand and phonographic texts, and in Alexander Melville Bell, his Letters and sounds: an intr. to English reading, on an entirely new plan (London, 1855) : 77 2 ˈɛnable (initial emphasis, short "e") at last, however, being ununable from "Analyse de Bayle" in The Monthly Review (December 1756), and from James Lynd his The First Book of Etymology 1853 and — enénable — from Francis O. J. Smith his The Secret Corresponding Vocabulary 1845 3 unknown, strange, foreign Wright, English Dialect Dictionary previously encountered 4 ex Latin, lock, locked 5 an ulcerous swelling; unarrived (as of yet) uncomes come here, before 1999 6 Latin, wave. Ian Hamilton Finlay, UNDA (1987) undula, diminutive of unda 7 Bertholdia inundulata Rawlins (species of butterfly) * (Field Museum, Zoological Collections) 8 forms of unindate — typographical errors all — 8a vast mazy, unindating flood from A. Sanderson ("daughter of the late Robert Stephenson, Esq., Captain of the Northumberland Regiment of Militia"), "On the absence of friendship," in her Poems, on various subjects (North Shields, 1819) : 33 8b liable to unindation, and cut from T. Fraser, "Some Notes on Military Engineering Incidents, in the War of 1877-8," in Professional Papers of the Corps of Royal Engineers (Occasional Papers, v. 4, 1880; London, 1881) : 69-70 8c sometimes the unindation is so sudden, from "Hollanders' Care for their Cattle," The Farmers' Review (May 10, 1893) : 293 8d "The Unindation; or, Peace and Pardon," title of an illustration listed in an auction sales catalogue, The Anderson Galleries (1917) : 30 8e "by unindation by the Feather, but" in Thomas R. Jones, comp., "California, A Half-Century Back" in The Grizzly Bear (November 1915) : 2 9 his undelable due ex Walter Scott, his Anne of Geierstein (1829; an 1868 printing) here 10 O.E. undern, third hour, nine in the morning; morning; also, the forenoon; the period between noon and sunset; the evening. (in OE, ME, dialect.) undern days and, obs., OE ca 1225, "not hidden, open" (all OED) 11 "dones" and "undones," John Ruskin's discussion of, in letter of 1872 included in Arrows of the Chase (1880) : 208 — "...they will find it well, throughout life, never to trouble themselves about what they ought not to do, but about what they ought to do..." and "...the Undones are now the greatest Family in England, (thank this blessed Parliament...) I know no honest Man but is a Kin to the Undones; no Trade but is undone, no City but is undone; none but the knavish Committee-Men, Parliament-Men, Excise-Men, and their Vermin, the Soldiers, thrive in these days; they get, and grow rich, whosoever looses..." ex The Parliament Arraigned, Convicted; Wants nothing but Execution... Written in the Year of Wonders, being the Eighth Year of the Lords and Commons dissembled at Westminster; by Tom Tyranno-Mastix; alias, Mercurius Melancholicus... Printed for the Public View of all His Majesty's faithful Subjects; and are to be sold at the old Sign of You may go Look (1648) : 23 12 undexical index, pointing unwhere; and und ex und 1895, and elsewhere. to unsay, to make unknown 13 undure : unhard, i.e., soft, crumbled "quyk erth" ex Palladius on husbandrie (Barton Lodge, ed., 1879) to impart artificial flavours, ca. 1420 14 from Latin iniūria (“injustice; wrong; offense”), from in- (“not”) + iūs, iūris (“right, law”) unjure, what, to de-legalize? to un-law something? unright it? 15 to be anunscape is to be in a fidgety, uneasy state... Lit., it means "on the wish," i.e., very eager or desirous about a thing; cf. Dan önske, to wish. ex C. Clough Robinson, A Glossary of Words Pertaining to the Dialect of Mid-Yorkshire; with others peculiar to Lower Nidderdale... (London, 1876) : 93. 16 sular water, waters, of waters, to waters ex J. Dyneley Prince, "Tatar Materials in Old Russian," in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1919) unwater : to free a mine of water, to drain of water, to carry off water from OED that reports the word to have appeared as a mistranslation in a1300 E.E. Psalter — and watres outran, and scaldand and unwatred... 17 unwatered : not so watered OED, see water, vb. 9 to produce a moiré or wavy lustrous finish on (silk or other textile fabrics) by sprinkling them with water and passing them through a calendar. 1708 No two pieces were ever water'd alike OED the term came up (25 October 2018) in Jennifer Roberts her talk on "The Moiré Effect: Robert Rauschenberg, Print, and Interference" 18 unsum, an OCR misread here and there, among them a passage in what appears (from imperfect scan) to be "Aanmerkingen op de Javaansche spraakkunst" in Tijdschrift voor Nederlands Indië 6 (Batavia, 1844) : 22 unsong : Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964 *) on opera soprano Mary Garden (1874-1967 *), in The Merry-go-round (1918) : 115 (there's a Gertrude Stein connection to Garden and Van Vechten) unsong there were very few ex B. C. De Lissa, "British North Borneo" in Proceedings of the Geographical Society of Australasia (1884) here 19 unsion an OCR misread for unction that I would pass over in silence (or delete entirely), save that it occurs in Joseph Bellamy, his True Religion Delineated; Or, Experimental Religion, Distinguished from Formality on the one hand, and Enthusiasm on the other, set in a Scriptural and Rational Light, in Two Discourses. With a preface by Mr. [Jonathan] Edwards (Second Edition, London, 1788) : 73 why? a detour into experimental reading led to experimental preaching and religion, and — for the latter — a brief intersection with experimental science. a long-ago asfaltics post — comfortlesse, swimming notions — provides a hint of (and entrance point to) some diversions on experimental religion and experimental reading. 20 unwards most frequently found as OCR misread for "upwards" 21 unwordy, a dialect form of unworthy (Wright, English Dialect Dictionary; unword, obs., rare, to make speechless (OED) 22 ...the un—un—under, no, the un—under—un—no... ex "Harry’s Secret." Two Scenes. Four Characters: One Boy and Three Girls. in Robert St. John Corbet, his Uncle Grumpy : And Other plays for juvenile actors and actresses (London, 1880) : 26 23 un on in en on is several-wheres, including Bastiaan Cramer, his De geheel vernieuwde en verbeterde Trap der jeugd... Spel-Lees-Schrift en Taal-Kunst... (1804; 1862) :5

—

method — initially, extrapolate from existing forms, to others; without euphony, nothing; no attempt at completion; started with sound, in fact... but got waylaid (by sourcings); sound remains.

among sources or, more often, looks to see if a particular form existed, were — the OED, the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, and — most importantly — Joseph Wright his English Dialect Dictionary Volume VI. T-Z (1905), where the prefixed un doesn't always mean "back" or to "undo" a thing or action.

—

...a bad linguist, tangling my words at will. — Jessica J. Lee, turning, a swimming memoir (2017) : 212

—

all tagged un all tagged excess  

[corbie]

Words I Have Enjoyed, 2018

Books

J.G. Ballard, The Day of Creation

Jodorowsky, The Incal

Charles Stross, Toast and Other Stories

Richard Feynman, QED: the strange theory of light and matter

Bertrand Russell, The Problems of Philosophy

Douglas Adams, Dirk Gentry’s Holistic Detective Agency

Iain M. Banks, The State of The Art

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness

Iain M. Banks, Excession

Italo Calvino, If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller

Roland Barthes, Mythologies

Frank Herbert, Dune

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception

Aldous Huxley, Heaven and Hell

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion

Daniel C. Dennett, Consciousness Explained

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus

Longer Reads

Assorted Alan Kay Emails

“After more than 50 years of doing edge of art research, my conclusion is that "it is delicate". An important part of any art is for the artists to escape the "part of the present that is the past", and for most artists, this is delicate because the present is so everywhere and loud and interruptive. For individual contributors, a good ploy is to disappear for a while. What was wonderful about the big creative projects of the golden age was that they had to be conducted out in the open by lots of people, but the processes and pressures were such that the delicate parts were not done in.”

Are We Awake Under Anesthesia?

What happens to the mind and consciousness under anesthesia?

Fifty psychological and psychiatric terms to avoid

“A gene for…“, “Brain region X lights up”, “Chemical imbalance”, “Closure”, “Fetish”, and friends.

The Female Price Of Male Pleasure

“Once you've absorbed how horrifying this is, you might reasonably conclude that our "reckoning" over sexual assault and harassment has suffered because men and women have entirely different rating scales. An 8 on a man's Bad Sex scale is like a 1 on a woman's. This tendency for men and women to use the same term — bad sex — to describe experiences an objective observer would characterize as vastly different is the flip side of a known psychological phenomenon called "relative deprivation," by which disenfranchised groups, having been trained to expect little, tend paradoxically to report the same levels of satisfaction as their better-treated, more privileged peers.”

DNA Through The Eyes Of A Coder

“DNA is not like C source but more like byte-compiled code for a virtual machine called 'the nucleus'. It is very doubtful that there is a source to this byte compilation - what you see is all you get.”

A Generation Lost in the Bazaar

“That is the sorry reality of the bazaar Raymond praised in his book: a pile of old festering hacks, endlessly copied and pasted by a clueless generation of IT "professionals" who wouldn't recognize sound IT architecture if you hit them over the head with it. It is hard to believe today, but under this embarrassing mess lies the ruins of the beautiful cathedral of Unix, deservedly famous for its simplicity of design, its economy of features, and its elegance of execution.”

The Recurse Center User’s Manual

I wish every technical working group I’ve been on for the past fifteen years had something one-tenth as thoughtful as this.

The White Darkness: A Journey Across Antarctica

The trial of crossing the Southern continent on foot, alone.

Why the Culture Wins: An Appreciation of Iain M. Banks

“One interesting consequence of this process is that the competition between cultures is becoming defunctionalized. The institutions of modern bureaucratic capitalism solve many of the traditional problems of social integration in an almost mechanical way. As a result, when considering the modern “hypercultures” – e.g. American, Japanese, European – there is little to choose from a functional point of view. None are particularly better or worse, from the standpoint of constructing a successful society. And so what is there left to compete on? All that is left are the memetic properties of the culture, which is to say, the pure capacity to reproduce itself.”

Programmer as wizard, programmer as engineer

“I think one of the overarching goals of compute science is to make more programming like wizarding. We want our computers to be human-amplifiers.”

The Ambiguous Utopia of Iain M. Banks

“Philosophically, the Culture accepts, generally, that questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” are themselves meaningless....In summary, we make our own meanings, whether we like it or not.”

Computing is Everywhere: A conversation with Bret Victor, Creator of Dynamicland

“That was the plan, yeah. I had um I just built up a . . . a set of things I wanted to think about that could not be thought at Apple. It was kind of this — um I had a bulletin board in my room and had like all these little pieces of paper that I had stuck to that board. And so when I went on my trip, I kind of scooped all those papers into like three little plastic baggies, and then at some random public library somewhere in the middle of the country, I spread out those papers on a big desk and tried to figure out what — what is it? Like what — what is the abstraction here? What — what does all these little ideas add — What are the categories here? What does it add up to?”

Lessons from Optics, The Other Deep Learning

“If anything, I wanted to reply that maybe her engineers should be scared.”

How To Be A Systems Thinker: A Conversation With Mary Catherine Bateson

“The tragedy of the cybernetic revolution, which had two phases, the computer science side and the systems theory side, has been the neglect of the systems theory side of it. We chose marketable gadgets in preference to a deeper understanding of the world we live in.”

Deconstructing the Unix Philosophy

Lots of good bits here.

A Basic Lack of Understanding

“This article is about what AI is, but it’s also about why learning what AI is is important in the first place. It’s about how AI is marketed as a commodity today, and what impact that has on people whose work and social lives are touched and shaped by AI on a daily basis. And it’s about how the future of resistance against AI-backed exploitation may not just be technological in nature, but social and cultural.”

One day I'm going to do a survey of the early-21st century AI skepticist essay landscape.

Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power

“To protest that some fairly improbable people, some people who could not possibly respect themselves, seem to sleep easily enough is to miss the point entirely, as surely as those people miss it who think that self-respect has necessarily to do with not having safety pins in one's underwear. There is a common superstition that "self-respect" is a kind of charm against snakes, something that keeps those who have it locked in some unblighted Eden, out of strange beds, ambivalent conversations, and trouble in general. It does not at all. It has nothing to do with the face of things, but concerns instead a separate peace, a private reconciliation.”

Carbon Ironies

“Most likely, you are a hard, angry person. . . . Beset by floods, droughts, diseases and insect plagues . . . fearing for your children in the face of multiplying perils, how can you feel anything better than impatient contempt for my daughter and me, who lived so wastefully for our own pleasure?”

Utopia and Work

“The utopianism of full employment is so entrenched, as a seemingly uncontested common sense, it’s difficult to imagine a different utopian horizon.”

Disposable America

“As it turns out, all three companies’ histories intersect with each other, as well as with structural changes to the American economy. But first, we have to talk about McDonald’s.”

What can a technologist do about climate change?

No clear answers, but thoughtful and insightful.

Survival of the Richest

Slowly but surely, however, they edged into their real topics of concern. Which region will be less impacted by the coming climate crisis: New Zealand or Alaska? Is Google really building Ray Kurzweil a home for his brain, and will his consciousness live through the transition, or will it die and be reborn as a whole new one? Finally, the CEO of a brokerage house explained that he had nearly completed building his own underground bunker system and asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”

Bourdain Confidential

“As much as I look at houses sometimes and think wow, that would be really nice, if that were my house, I know that I would be miserable. It would be… cleaning out the… the gutters, and you know, what about the pipes freezing, and if you own a home it means you have to vacation in the same place every year. I’m a renter by nature. I like the freedom to change my mind about where I want to be in six months, or a year. Because I’ve also found you might have to make that decision… you can’t always make that decision for yourself, you know… shit happens.”

How to write a good software design document

“A design doc is the most useful tool for making sure the right work gets done.”

The Bullshit Web

“There is a cumulative effect of bullshit; its depth and breadth is especially profound. In isolation, the few seconds that it takes to load some extra piece of surveillance JavaScript isn’t much. Neither is the time it takes for a user to hide an email subscription box, or pause an autoplaying video. But these actions compound on a single webpage, and then again across multiple websites, and those seemingly-small time increments become a swirling miasma of frustration and pain.”

On Production Minimalism

“Do more and more with less and less until eventually you can do everything with nothing.”

“Omakase”

Just read it.

See No Evil

“What if we take these companies at their word? What if it is truly impossible to get a handle on the entirety of a supply chain?”

Estrangement and Cognition

“SF is, then, a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment.”

Layering

“This is good advice, and with a bit of adaptation it can apply to many things in life. Any sort of improvisation must arise from a basic technique. And just as important, the advice understands that there’s nothing more intimidating than a pristine kitchen, a blank canvas, an empty screen.”

The Heart of the Problem

“But consider this for a moment. Perhaps once we are adequately fed, diet becomes far less significant in determining how healthy we are. Maybe almost insignificant. Could it be that when our bodies have enough macro and micro nutrients available most of the time, other determinants of health kick in. The houses we live in. The stress we are under. The pressure of financial and social inequalities. Stigma, abuse and mental illness. Social isolation. And a million other factors with the capacity to make us sick.”

Mass Authentic

“Authenticity seems to stand for the truth behind the curtain, but it is really just the curtain. The presumption that only some feelings in some situations are real, and other feelings, though felt, are somehow false, is authenticity’s main ruse.”

Stickeen: The Story of a Dog

“However great his troubles he never asked help or made any complaint, as if, like a philosopher, he had learned that without hard work and suffering there could be no pleasure worth having.”

The Early History of Smalltalk

Far more here than I could find suitable excerpts for.

The Radical Implications of Luck in Human Life

“The less credit/responsibility you believe we are due, the more you believe our trajectories are shaped by forces outside our control (and sheer chance), the more compassionate you will be toward failure and the more you will expect back from the fortunate. When luck is recognized, softening its harsh effects becomes the basic moral project.”

It’s Harder Than It Looks To Write Clearly

“Everything we write is, in a sense, translated from another language, from the chatter we hear inside our head, translated from that interior babble (more or less comprehensible to us) into (what we hope will be) the clearer, more articulate language on the page. But during the process of that translation, basic clarity often suffers—sometimes fatally!—when, for whatever reason, we feel that we are translating our natural speech into a foreign language: in other words, when we are writing.”

It Isn’t About The Technology

“Yet the decentralized Web advocates persist in believing that the answer is new technologies, which suffer from the same economic problems as the existing decentralized technologies underlying the "centralized" Web we have. A decentralized technology infrastructure is necessary for a decentralized Web but it isn't sufficient. Absent an understanding of how the rest of the solution is going to work, designing the infrastructure is an academic exercise.”

E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction

“For 360 minutes per diem, we receive unconscious reinforcement of the deep thesis that the most significant feature of truly alive persons is watchableness, and that genuine human worth is not just identical but rooted in the phenomenon of watching.”

If the Point of Capitalism is to Escape Capitalism, Then What’s the Point of Capitalism?

“Freedom from exploitation. Freedom from control and domination. Freedom to find, develop, and realize ourselves. The freedom to live lives which really sear us with meaning, purpose, and fulfillment — instead of being crushed with anxiety, bruised by competitiveness, and suffused with fear. So here is the real question. If these are things we are really after — why don’t we just give them to one another?”

The Lax Habits of the Free Imagination

“The lax habits of the free imagination exhibit an appealing open-door policy. But to counterbalance this extreme permissiveness, the celestial process had better employ some sort of disciplinarian, an enforcer, to maintain order. Where else does the famous restraint and brevity of the short story come from? In other words, there must be a plan, an outline. Mustn't there?“

Superintelligence: The Idea That Eats Smart People

“It's fun to think about, interesting, and completely inaccessible to experiment given our current technology. You can build crystal palaces of thought, working from first principles, then climb up inside them and pull the ladder up behind you. People who can reach preposterous conclusions from a long chain of abstract reasoning, and feel confident in their truth, are the wrong people to be running a culture.”

I’m Broke and Friendless and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life

“When you’re curious about your shame instead of afraid of it, you can see the true texture of the day and the richness of the moment, with all of its flaws. You can run your hands along your own self-defeating edges until you get a splinter, and you can pull the splinter out and stare at it and consider it.”

Mistakes About The Meaning Of Life

“Noting this close relationship between meaningfulness and value is important, since it allows us to draw many implications that can be helpful for people who consider their lives insufficiently meaningful.”

[airmanisr]

Southall London 28th April 1963 by loose_grip_99 Via Flickr: Photo by Neil Smedley posted with permission. More of Neil's 60s photos here www.flickr.com/groups/14774027@N21/ After all the Great Western King Class 4-6-0s were withdrawn at the end of 1962, 6018 King Henry VI was resurrected from store and prepared at Tyseley (see GWR-style TYS painted on the front of the frames!) to work the Stephenson Locomotive Society, "Farewell to the Kings Tour" to Swindon, out via the Greenford loop and Southall, where a stop was made, returning via Oxford. Note that the special was stopped on the main line here at Southall and the railtour participants were allowed to climb down onto the ballast to get their photos and to visit the engine shed. Neil was one and took this shot of 6018 from the footbridge that accessed the shed.

[porlockstompf]

READING DE NACHT READING 2017

                                                            my favourite books of the year

my overall favourite book of the year:

     david keenan “this is memorial device” [faber & faber] (2017)

POST-CYBERPUNKSTOMPF:

01 nick harkaway "gnomon" (2017) 02 kim stanley robinson "new york 2140" (2017) 03 m john harrison "you should come with me" (2017) 04 gardner dozois (ed) "the year's best science fiction: thirty-fourth annual collection" (2017) 05 james morrow "the asylum of dr. caligari" (2017)

06 annalee newitz "autonomous" (2017) 07 cory doctorow "walkaway" (2017) 08 dave hutchinson "acadia" (2017)   + dave hutchinson "slow companions" (2017) 09 ed finn (ed) visions, ventures, escape velocities: a collection of space futures" (2017) 10 bryan thomas schmidt (ed) "infinite stars" (2017)

11 allan kaster "the year's top hard science fiction stories" (2017) 12 nina allen "the rift" (2017) 13 charles stross "the delirium brief" (2017) 14 simon morden "at the speed of light" (2017) 15 ada palmer "seven surrenders" (2017) & "the will to battle" (2017)

16 yoon ha lee "raven stratagem" (2017) 17 john joseph adams (ed) "cosmic powers" (2017) 18 mur lafferty "six wakes" (2017) 19 taiyo fujii "orbital cloud" (2017) 20 andrew bannister "creation machine" (2016)     + andrew bannister "iron gods" (2017)

21 gareth l powell "entropic angel & other stories" (2017) 22 ann leckie "provenance" (2017) 23 monica louzon (ed) "catalysts, explorers & secret keepers: women of sf" 24 ian mconald "wolf moon" (2017) 25 neal stephenson & nicole galland "the rise & fall of d.o.d.o." (2017)

26 adam roberts "the real-town murders" (2017) 27 tim pratt "the wrong stars" (2017) 28 jim c. hines "terminal alliance" (2017) 29 charles stross "the empire games" (2017) 30 james s.a. corey "persepolis rising" (2017)     + james s.a. corey "strange dogs" (2017)

31 allen steele "avengers of the moon (captain future)" (2017) 32 neal asher "infinity engine [transformation III]" (2017) 33 jason m. hough "injection burn" (2017)   + jason m. hough "escape velocity" (2017) 34 donna scott (ed) "best of british science fiction 2016"/una mccormack "star of the sea" (2016) 35 david marusek "upon this rock"/john scalzi "collapsing empire" (2017)

& a couple of re-readings: richard k. morgan "takeshi kovacs trilogy" in view of the coming netflix series and colin harvey "damage time" (2010) ... no further reason needed!

STOMPF KLASSIK:

01 matthew mcintosh "the mystery.doc" (2017)

02 sébastien roger "les désordres du monde. walter benjamin à port-bou" (2017) 03 laurent binet "hhhh" (2012) 04 + laurent binet "the 7th function of language" (2017) 05 jean echenoz "special envoy" (2017)

06 paul stanbridge "forbidden line" (2016) 07 ryu murakami "tokyo decadence (2016) 08 aifric campbell "the semantics of murder" (2008) 09 mark vernon "darker with the day" (2017) 10 magnus mills "the forensic records society" (2017)

GEDÄCHTNISSTOMPF:

01 mckenzie wark "general intellects: 25 thinkers for the 21st century" (2017) 02 claude lefort "wat is politiek?" (2016) 03 ger groot & sam ijsseling "dankbaar en aandachtig" (2013) 04 martin heidegger "beiträge zur philosophie (vom ereignis)" (2003) 05 hannah arendt "totalitarisme" (2014)

06 daniel birnbaum & kim west "life on sirius: the situationist international & the exhibition of art" (2016) 07 ger groot "de geest is uit de fles" (2017) 08 sean gaston "the impossible mourning of jacques derrida" (2006) 09 bas heijne "onbehagen: nieuw licht op de beschaafde mens" (2016) 10 giorgio colli "ecrits sur nietzsche" (2017)

11 frédéric neyrat "échapper à l'horreur" (2017) 12 slavoj zizek "against the double blackmail, refugees, terror & other troubles with the neighbours" (2017) 13 henning mankell "quicksand" (2016) 14 jacques rancière "en quel temps vivons-nous? conversations avec eric hazan" (2017) 15 alain badiou "je vous sais si nombreux... " (2017)

16 alain badou & jean-luc nancy "la tradition allemande dans la philosophie" (2017) 17 tom mccarthy "typewriters bombs jellyfish [essays]" (2017) 18 valeria luiselli "tell me how it ends: an essay in 40 questions" (2017) 19 fredric jameson "raymond chandler: the detections of totality" (2016) 20 umberto eco "chronicles of a liquid society" (2017)

POLARSTOMPF:

01 chris petit "pale horse riding" (2017)   + chris petit "the butchers of berlin" (2016)   + chris petit "the human pool" (2002)   + chris petit "the psalm killer" (1996)

02 john le carré "a legacy of spies" (2017) 03 david hewson "sleep baby sleep" (2017) 04 mick herron "slow horses" (2010)   + mick herron "dead lions" (2013)   + mick herron "the list" (2015)   + mick herron "real tigers" (2016)   + mick herron "spook street" (2017) 05 jussi adler-olsen "the scarred woman" (2017)

06 jo nesbo "the thirst" (2017) 07 ben fergusson "the spring of kasper meier" (2014) 08 e.o. chirovici "the book of mirrors" (2017) 09 toni coppers "de zaak magritte" (2017) 10 james r. tuck "mama tried (crime fiction inspired by outlaw country music)" (2016)

YOUNGADULTSTOMPF:

01 philip pullman "la belle sauvage" (2017)

PLATTERSTOMPF:

01 cosey fanni tutti "art sex music" (2017) 02 david keenan "this is memorial device" (2017) 03 joanne demers "drone and apocalypse" (2015) 04 + joanne demers "listening through the noise" (2010) 05 robert barry "the music of the future" (2017)

06 richard cabut & andrew gallix (eds) "punk is dead: modernity killed every night" (2017) 07 butt gavin, kodwo eshun, & mark fisher (eds) "post punk then and now" (2016)" 08 sandra garrido "why are we attracted to sad music" (2016) 09 tomas serrien "klank: een filsofie van de muzikale ervaring" (2017) 10 marlies de munck "waarom chopin de regen niet wilde horen" (2017)

11 daniel warner "live wires" (2017) 12 will carruthers "playing the bass with three left hands" (2016) 13 steve hanley "the big midweek-life inside the fall (2016) 14 tex perkins "tex" (2017) 15 mark lanegan "i am the wolf" (2017)

17 simon reynolds "shock & awe" (2016) 18 andrew o'neill "a history of heavy metal" (2017) 19 bryan ray turcotte "the fucked up reader" (2007) 10 bob batchelor (ed) "literary cash" (2017) 20 simon webb "a 1970s teenager. from bell-bottoms to disco dancing" (2013)

         both bell-bottoms and disco dancing can be had @ muntpunt !

POESISSTOMPF:

01 jonty tiplady "zam bonk dip" (2010) 02 murray lachlan young "how freakin' zeitgeist are you?" (2017)

BILDERSTOMPF:

01 peter-andré bloch "sils-maria - "l'île bienheureuse" pour nietzsche" (2017)

02 willem vanhuyse "atlas van de imaginaire verklaringen: het complete handboek vor de 'patafysicus'" (2017) 03 reinhard kleist "nick cave: mercy on me" (2017) 04 william gibson "archangel (a graphic novel)" (2017) 05 a. uderzo, didier conrad & jean-yves ferri "astérix et la transitalique" (2017)

WISSENSCHAFTSTOMPF:

01 thibault damour & mathieu burniat "mysteries of the quantum universe" (2017) 02 brian cox & jeff forshaw "universal: a journey through the cosmos" (2017)

HUMOURSTOMPF:

01 james acaster "james acaster's classic scrapes" (2017)

02 chris wade “the story of derek and clive” (2017)

CYCLOSTOMPF:

01 frederik bakelandt "grinta! de bergen: 10 legendarsche wielercols" (2017)

02 lucien van impe & filip osselaer "de dag dat ik de tour verloor" (2017) 03 jonas heyerick & jelle vermeersch "bahamontes #17-#20" (2017) 04 frank strack "the hardmen: legends of the cycling gods" (2017) 05 matthias m. r. declercq "de val" (2017)

… tsundoku !

may your home be safe from tigers, leroy, x HNY!

the TBR pile grew with...

lászló krasznahorkai "the world goes on" (2017) samanta schweblin "fever dream" (2017)

peter mark, peter helman & penny snyder (eds) "the mountains in art history" (2017)

alvin lucier (ed) "eight lectures on experimental music" (2017) rhian e jones & eli davies "under my thumb: songs that hate women and the women who love them" (2017)

arne dahl "watching you" (2017) philip kerr "prussian blue" (2017) antti tuomainen "the man who died" (2017) jon michelet "the frozen women" (2017) nicolás obregón "blue light yokohama" (2017)

alex lamb "exodus" (2017) c robert cargill "sea of rust" (2017) chris brookmyre "places in the darkness" (2017) d nolan clark "forgotten worlds" & "forbidden suns" (2017) dan moren "the caledonian gambit" (2017) elizabeth moon "cold welcome" (2017) ferrett steinmetz "the uploaded" (2017) greg egan "dichronauts" (2017) ian whates "the ion raider" (2017) jaine fenn "the martian job" (2017) jamie sawyer "pariah" (2017)

jeff noon "a man of shadows" (2017) joe m mcdermott "the fortress at the end of time" (2017) joe zieja "communication failure" (2017) john kessel "the moon and the other" (2017) john meaney "destructor function" (2017) jonathan strahan (ed) "best sf &f of the year vol 11" & "infinity wars" (2017) kameron hurley "the stars are legion" (2017) kay kenyon "at the table of wolves" (2017) malka older "null states" (2017) marina j. lostetter "noumenon" (2017)

martha wells "all systems red" (2017) neil clark (ed) "galactic empires" & "more human than human" (2017) paul mcauley "austral" (2017) r.e. stearns "barbary station" (2017) robert kroese "last iota" (2017) sage walker "the man in a tree" (2017) stephen baxter "obelisk" (2017) + stephen baxter "the massacre of mankind" (2017) sulari gentill "crossing the lines" (2017) the justified ancients of mu mu “2023 a trilogy” (2017) wendy n. wagner "an oath of dogs" (2017)

[cerebralcentari]

Chapters 9-10

Hi Tumblr,

While reading chapter 9, I quickly started to understand that this chapter would be the evolution of printing during the industrial revolution. This period was important because the advancement of technology throughout the world and in graphic design. 

The text accredit James Watt as an impactful person to graphic design because of his invention. This invention was the steam engine. Before this, the primary energy source were animals and human power. With this  came a shift in politics, desires to integrate with the urban population, the workforce, and a change dominion over nature and faith to science. The investment in technology during this time created new jobs and opportunities for graphic designers as the demand for services increased. the change into the Industrial Revolution  required a need to communication large amount of people at a faster pace. The demand for posters, large advertisements, new tactile and expressive characters increased. 

The Industrial Revolution impact on Graphic Design is as follows:

the invention of photography (I found this topic to be most interesting)

The methods of lithographic coloring

More evolution of typography including typographic sizes and letterform styles.

This chapter also touch on topics such as the importance of San Serifs text in the twentieth century. Some of the designers and the types of text they design is as follows:

Caslon-Doric (There goes one of his contributions but it may be different William Caslon)

Blake and Stephenson-Sans-surryphs

US-Boston type and Stereotype Foundry.

In 1828, the American wood-type had taken over. As all things in life, we are always on a search to improve. This improvement resulted in the use of lithographic printing. Though lithographic printing is considered an improvement, wood types continued to be produced until the 1900′s.

There was also a revolution in printing. The handpress became the printing press (see Stanhope below) and later a steam powered printing press (see Koenig below) (James Watt impact.). Koenig was hired by times in London to build two double cylinder steam powered presses. He successfully build the machines and November 29, 1814, it was announced that the Times were printed by steam. William Cowper improved printing again by using a curved stereotypes that are wrapped around the cylinder. Then Cowper and Ambrose Applegath said, “By their powers combined” they made the four-cylinder steam-powered press using curved stereotyped plates.

The advances of printing made it cheaper and efficient. The problem then became the need for paper to print. Nicolas Louis Robert, developed a papermaking machine 1798.

Typography

In 1886 typography had a change. The creation of the Linotype  arrived this year and take over. This impacted peoples lives because technology now alleviate the business of the need to pay for human power thus resulting in strikes and violence. This also reduced the cost of printing. Following the Linotype is the Monotype which allows kerning.

Photography

This is the best topic in this chapter. According to the text, the camera was known in the ancient world as early as the time of Aristotle. In 1665, a camera was developed but they were missing a light sensitive material (we know it as film). There was a “wet plate process” for obtain images that was developed by Frederick Archer. Archers process later have an impact on the world as we know it in graphic design.

THE INTRODUCTION TO THE KODAK CAMERA 

(I just wanted it to stand out.) Photography is absolutely perfect for documenting history (well it depends on who is telling the story). It was even useful for documenting the Civil War in the US. The development of motion picture photography came from Leland Stanford. This happened because Stanford became interested in photographing a horse’s stride to see if there’s a point of time where the horse’s feet aren’t on the ground. In 1877 and 1878, Stanford was able to develop motion picture photography and captured the image he was searching for with 24 cameras. 

Color

Color was an interesting topic primarily because highlights the Moorish culture. The introduction to Moorish ornaments came with the book Plans, Elevations, Sections, and Details of Alhambra as well as “The Grammar of Ornament”.

Lithography

This occurs when a stone can be used for printing with the use of oils. The first lithographic printing was done with the lithographic flatbed press and was later changed to the rotary lithographic press. Lithographic printing on tin became popular once it was developed. It became the standard for packages on food and tobacco products.

Continuing on to Chapter 10. I found it to be bad time for graphic design or a shift. We all know how painful change can be to a body of people. During the 19th century, there was a decline in book design and production. The book design resulted in the book design renaissance. This became a movement called “Art and Craft”. The most important person of this chapter seems to be William Morris. John Ruskin saw that there was a separation of Art and society after the Renaissance and this was because of industrialization and technology which would result in declines in creativity and designs being produced without a concern for appearance. With Ruskin idea in mind, Morris set out to combine industrialization with Art and Craft. 

****************************************************************************************************

**First thoughts: 

It’ll be interesting to see how the Industrial Revolution impacted graphic design. 

Will I see more of an impact from women during this period? 

Why is William Caslon important to graphic design? (maybe I will find out later in reading)

Fat Face Typestyle (FFT): According to the text FFT is a Roman face whose contrast and weight have been increased by expanding the thickness of heavy strokes.

Why is William Morris important here?

*****************************************************************************************************

**Favorite people and contributions

Robert Thorne: Give a person their flowers while they’re here. Unfortunately the world was not able to do that  for Thorne because his work did not receive recognition until after he passed. William Thorowgood published Thorne’s 132 pg book of specimens that had been typeset. He was responsible for the fat face typestyle. 

William Thorowgood: At first I didn’t believe he deserved a mention because I thought his claim to fame was publishing Thornes work. He also copyright Clarendon, a similar version of Egyptian typography. 

Darius Wells: Invented wood types for display printing. The text states that these are durable, light, and less than half as expensive as large metal types. Durable, light, and cheap everything that most (co{crooked}ugh) cooperations love to hear. 

Charles Stanhope & Friedrich Koenig: These two are positioned together because one persons (Koenig) claim to fame is riding off of the others (Stanhope) work. (JK) Koenig just made Stanhope idea better. The following is a list of contributions to printing from Koenig:

Steam Press: Prints 400 sheets per hour;

Double Cylinder Steam Powered Press: 1,100 impressions per hour;

William Cowper: created printing press using curved stereotyped plates wrapped around the cylinder. According to the text, it produced 2,400 impressions per hour and 1,200 sheets on both sides. He also worked with Ambrose Applegath to combine Cowpers idea with  the ideas of Stanhope and Koenig. This resulted in the four-cylinder steam-powered press using curved stereotyped plates. It prints 4,000 shets per hour, on both sides.

Joseph Niepce: Produced the first photographic image. He discovered a way to capture images using a light sensitive asphalt (researched silver coated copper later).

Louis Jacques Daguerre: developed the daguerreotype prints and impressed others with ability to accurately capture an image. According to the text he used a silver plated copper sheet that was placed silver side down, and over a container of iodine crystals. The only limitations it had was that every image would be a one of a kind. It had a predetermined size and could glare after polishing. 

William Henry Fox Talbot: Published “The Pencil of Nature”, the first  book of 24 photographs. This book was illustrated completely with pictures. 

John Herschel named negatives and positives.

George Eastman: The man. responsible for creating the Kodak cameras we all used to love before camera phones arrived. He gave citizens the opportunity to capture moments and record of their own lives.

Freedmen on the Canal Bank at Richmond: The comparison of the two pictures from Mathew Brady and John Macdonald is absolutely stunning. The shadows and highlights. The details of facial expressions. the drawing looks as good as the photograph from an artist perspective. 

Mathew Brady: Was instrumental in the documentation of the Civil War. He was paid to capture images so the stories of war can be told by the authors of world history, the US Government. He was later hired by the government to document expeditions out west. 

Eadweard Muybridge’s The Horse in Motion, 1883: I love this because it I learned of the origins of motion picture.

Owen Jones the Grammar of Ornament color plate. I love looking at this. Looking at each color pattern creates a different feeling and the colors are perfectly balanced. The spaces between give your eyes the break it needs before moving on to the next pattern.

Louis Prang: Is known for a number of his works including scraps (album cards), Civil War Maps, and art repoduction. His work with Christmas cards is what I’m most impressed with. (even though I do not subscribe to the holiday.) The Valentine Card, 1883 was absolutely stunning. I would just want for him to have incorporated a more diverse group of cupids. 

Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway: Both are designers that design for children or with children in mind. Caldecott had a way of creating worlds where faces are on plates and spoon like in the “Hey Diddle Diddle”. Greenaway created an experience use Victorian styling. She used soft colors, silhouettes, and white space creating a fantasy world.

Nast: was an artist that worked with Harpers Weekly. He was declared as the “best recruiting sergeant” by Ab Lincoln and have been said to have done as much as anyone to bring the conflict to a close by General Ulysses Grant. The reason he received this mention is because he took on corruption in the government with a political cartoon in Harpers Weekly in 1871 and 1872. The cartoon from 1871 shows a tiger attacking in the Roman Colosseum while the Roman emperor and his elected official witness the attack. In the political cartoon in 1872, you see a crowd of citizens hanging posters against corruption. He was later appointed as consul general to Ecuador and died six months later. (Call me a conspiracy theorist, but one doesn’t take on the government with that much traction and live much longer after.) 

William Morris- is a leader in the Arts and Crafts movement. Hes worked on designs for wallpapers, textiles, carpet, created typeface(s), and tapestries. He has collaborated on with influential designers and outstanding projects. He also inspired many of the designer within this chapter such as Arthur Mackmurdo, He has a ton of work that earns a mention in this blog. He has a mention however the reader will not learn of his work here. He earned his mention because of his influence. Morris taught that design could be presented to the working class but contradicts himself due to the fact that neither of the businesses he operate with produce anything for the working class.

John Ruskin believe that beautiful things are valuable and useful just because they are beautiful.

Detail of a Peacock Design and Wren’s City Churches. I love these two pieces of work. The color selection is perfect and it keeps my attention. The use of design to feel the page helped the title of Wren’s City Church stand out.  Both designs are trippy. 

Arthur Mackmurdo: designed the two pieces that I love above. He also had an interest in politics. He was the leader of Century Guild. The members of the guild included Selwyn Image and Herbert Horne. The group incorporated Renaissance and Japanese designs in their work. 

Hobby Horse: Designed in a collaborative effort between Horne and Image. It was the first work that introduced British Arts and Crafts to European audiences.

Selwyn Image: Worked on the Hoby Horse and also argues that every form of visual expression is art. Some of Image work includes designing typeface, illustrations, stained glass, and embroidery. 

Charles Ashbee: Architect, graphic designer, jeweler, and silversmith are some of the professions that Ashbee has. He was part of a guild called “Guild of Handicraft” (GOH). GOH developed a plan for the “School of Handicraft”. This school was an attempt to restore experience of apprenticeships. The problem is that the school was not able to secure funding from the state and eventually closed. the GOH leased Essex House and Ashbee wanted to transfer Morris’s estate over to Essex House after Morris death. The negotiation ended up with the equipment for purchase, hiring of key personnel, and the formation of Essex House Press. Ashbee was a follower of Ruskins and knew Ruskins beliefs. He later became a voice for integrating art and industry.

Altar Book: Not really a fan of the image that is displayed in the book but I love that the borders are really busy thus creating direction and emphasis on the text and picture. 

Edward Johnston: Master Calligrapher as well as a teacher and inspired by William Morris. He worked in medical (like me) and left that life to become a scribe.

Sjoerd H de Roos, Jav van Krimpen, and Charles Nypels: They too were impacted by the industrial revolution and did not think of it as a blessing because mass production. 

De Roos: Designed the book Kunst en maatschappij, which according to the text is a translation of a collection of essays by William Morris. He also designed the De Roos’s Hollandsche Mediaeval typeface.