Silicon Simulacra PostHumans of the Machine Worlds Len Ellis 9781449980863 Books
Download As PDF : Silicon Simulacra PostHumans of the Machine Worlds Len Ellis 9781449980863 Books
The assimilation of humans into machines, once science fiction, is a well advanced reality today. Each of us has virtual versions inside the two great machines of the late modern age. In the datascape, the vast array of databases in which the details of our daily lives are recorded and analyzed, we appear as profiles. In cyberspace, the global network of computers in which everyone can connect with everyone, we appear as personas. Both are part human. We continually update both machines, passively and actively, and, as we do, our simulacra change in tandem. Both are part machine. The profile is a probabilistic portrait, conjured up by others to inform their decision making; it's an informational output. The persona is a pattern of connections, created as we present ourselves to and interact with others; it's a network effect. Drawing upon humans in near real time but manifested inside machines, neither looks like the continuous, whole and bounded self of the modern tradition. Rather, these hybrid entities are contingent, relative and open. Silicon Simulacra describes how these two semblances come to be, how each represents us and what opportunities and challenges each poses and suggests they are the post-human forms of humans assimilated into these machine worlds.
Silicon Simulacra PostHumans of the Machine Worlds Len Ellis 9781449980863 Books
Len Ellis's Silicon Simulacra takes a spelunkingly in-depth look at the two 'virtual versions' of ourselves that each of us has.Say what? TWO other selves?
That premise -- that we exist in some other form(s) -- in and of itself is astonishing and difficult for many of us to come to terms with. Yes, we're flocking on line en masse driving destination and social sites like Facebook to bloat in population beyond the size of many actual countries -- a political and cultural sea change in its own right -- but what many of us fail to realize is that the profiles and data that we post (or are gathered in the wake of our various electronic footprints) don't simply create a privacy challenge for our 'real' selves; they each represent an actual, and equally real, machine-based version. Our desires, needs, activities, interactions, challenges, purchases, emotions and relationships all measured out in zeros and ones with the potential to live on in perpetuity. (Could Maslow have invented a better tool with which to prove his hierarchy? I think not!)
In short, to Ellis's point: Sci fi is hardly fi. While we go about our lives, thinking of the Internet or the other electronic tools we use in our daily life as simply tools, we're actually slowly but surely creating and fostering those two other 'selves' -- the data self and the cyberspace self. And while we're sleeping, they're not.
Since these personas are without actual needs they stand apart from their human selves, but just like 'real life' they are interconnected (networked) to multitudes of others and are influenced by those relationships. The net impact is that our virtual selves can develop a facet or quality that we may not have -- making them both unique to us and separate from us.
As both a marketer and someone who is constantly looking to develop Internet products that are more and more reflective of the human experience, the awakening to the existance of these virtual personas is of great interest to me. No where has has the collective lightbulb gone off more brilliantly than with marketers who are turned on by the real world possibilities represented by these virtual lives. Ellis discusses this in great length in Chapter 4 smartly outlining the (evolutionary) differences between old school Mad Men style marketing (a decidedly masculine approach) and how the advent of social communities require (ironically) a more emotional and relationship-driven (more feminine) approach.
And that's just the tip of the iceburg! For all of you media pros, geeks, gamers, wonks, marketers, techies, Internet types, entrpreneurs, prognosticators, culturalists, intellectuals, generally curious and would be futurists, Ellis gives you a brilliant tour into the technical shadowlands of our own making and suggests where we're going next. No more spoilers, though, if you want to know you'll have to read it for yourself. I highly recommend it.
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Tags : Silicon Simulacra: Post-Humans of the Machine Worlds [Len Ellis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <span>The assimilation of humans into machines, once science fiction, is a well advanced reality today.<span> </span>Each of us has virtual versions inside the two great machines of the late modern age.<span> </span>In the datascape,Len Ellis,Silicon Simulacra: Post-Humans of the Machine Worlds,Createspace,1449980864,9780865716803,Media Studies,Social Science,Social Science Media Studies,Sociology
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Silicon Simulacra PostHumans of the Machine Worlds Len Ellis 9781449980863 Books Reviews
Silicon Simulacra by Len Ellis may be the most important book of our times. Rich in historical perspective and penned in an engaging and accessible voice, it is as modern and pertinent as any attempt to date to explain what the hell is going on, and what it means to the life and happiness of us all. Most importantly, it primes the canvass from which we each can paint our own predictions of where Internet-induced human behavior and privacy is headed and about what, if anything, we should worry as flesh and blood or as our corresponding persona of data. There is no person with whom I would rather have dinner - or have serve on my board of directors -- than Len Ellis. A must-have Christmas gift for anyone who has ever posted on Facebook, performed a search on Google or even made seemingly innocuous keystrokes on a computer.
Ellis's book is the best kind of history -- grounded in events and meaning. Ellis begins with the creation of the separation of the private sphere and the public sphere more than 400 years ago and describes the evolution of the kind of statistical information gathered by governments and scholars governments for public policy and scholars for understanding of social trends. Enter then the computer and the Internet to enable the empowerment of the individual, businesses and government, an empowerment which threatens each in turn and simultaneously.
Ellis not only traces this evolution, but provides a philosophical and social context which are critical to understanding the meaning of what has happened and what is happening. He wears his enormous erudition lightly, however, and writes to stimulate the reader to further thought. Indeed, this book is something of an antidote to the usual hysteria attending any digital development. It does not forecast the future, but it does enable the reader to think more clearly about the possibilities -- both negative and positive -- of that future.
If you care about the most important transformation we are all in the midst of, Ellis's book is a must.
Len Ellis's Silicon Simulacra takes a spelunkingly in-depth look at the two 'virtual versions' of ourselves that each of us has.
Say what? TWO other selves?
That premise -- that we exist in some other form(s) -- in and of itself is astonishing and difficult for many of us to come to terms with. Yes, we're flocking on line en masse driving destination and social sites like Facebook to bloat in population beyond the size of many actual countries -- a political and cultural sea change in its own right -- but what many of us fail to realize is that the profiles and data that we post (or are gathered in the wake of our various electronic footprints) don't simply create a privacy challenge for our 'real' selves; they each represent an actual, and equally real, machine-based version. Our desires, needs, activities, interactions, challenges, purchases, emotions and relationships all measured out in zeros and ones with the potential to live on in perpetuity. (Could Maslow have invented a better tool with which to prove his hierarchy? I think not!)
In short, to Ellis's point Sci fi is hardly fi. While we go about our lives, thinking of the Internet or the other electronic tools we use in our daily life as simply tools, we're actually slowly but surely creating and fostering those two other 'selves' -- the data self and the cyberspace self. And while we're sleeping, they're not.
Since these personas are without actual needs they stand apart from their human selves, but just like 'real life' they are interconnected (networked) to multitudes of others and are influenced by those relationships. The net impact is that our virtual selves can develop a facet or quality that we may not have -- making them both unique to us and separate from us.
As both a marketer and someone who is constantly looking to develop Internet products that are more and more reflective of the human experience, the awakening to the existance of these virtual personas is of great interest to me. No where has has the collective lightbulb gone off more brilliantly than with marketers who are turned on by the real world possibilities represented by these virtual lives. Ellis discusses this in great length in Chapter 4 smartly outlining the (evolutionary) differences between old school Mad Men style marketing (a decidedly masculine approach) and how the advent of social communities require (ironically) a more emotional and relationship-driven (more feminine) approach.
And that's just the tip of the iceburg! For all of you media pros, geeks, gamers, wonks, marketers, techies, Internet types, entrpreneurs, prognosticators, culturalists, intellectuals, generally curious and would be futurists, Ellis gives you a brilliant tour into the technical shadowlands of our own making and suggests where we're going next. No more spoilers, though, if you want to know you'll have to read it for yourself. I highly recommend it.
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