[Reader-list] software-google/ism

[Are Flagan]

On 11/5/02 10:23, "Tripta" <tripta at sarai.net> wrote:

> dear all,
> 
> the result of Googlism for: software. may lead to interesting insights and
> conversations about the same.
> 
> cheers
> tripta

In some respects, perhaps the way the answers were derived here is more to
the point than the resulting aphorisms themselves. Natalie Bookchin did a
net art piece a few years back that searched for _truth_ on all the main
search engines at the time and compiled them, in a list, on a website as the
vast numbers of the returned results. (These respectively linked to the
searches for truth.) The serious effect was like some of the more absurd
conclusions drawn by "software" on Googlism quite humorous, but it does
indicate how we may conduct our existential quests these days -- through
algorithmic processing with finite, programmed answers, that is to say
software. How does, for instance, the omnipresent contact and calendar
applications coupled with their handy accessory, the PDA, fit into how life
itself organizes around data and specific software clusters?

-af