[Reader-list] software-google/ism

[Siva Arumugam]

On Wednesday 06 November 2002 14:10, Are Flagan wrote:
> 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
>
> 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

Life does indeed appear to organize around particular programs and particular 
computational devices.  Or that's what most technology advertising would like 
us to believe.  I suppose I'd like to emphasize that the interplay between 
any commodity and production/consumption is difficult to the say the least, 
as the discussion on residue shows clearly (isn't "interplay" ridiculous 
here? could there be a marxist theory of the prosumer?).

Where software is decidedly different is that it can be _changed_.  That after 
all is meant to be the point of differentiating between soft and hard wares 
-- an always arbitrary division, of course.

Siva.