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Speaking at SemTech

Speaking at SemTech

I’ll be speaking at the Semantic Technology Conference in San Jose at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, June 17, 2009!

I'm Speaking at SemTech 2009

Messy Folksonomies: The Uses of Metanoise for Better Organizational Collaboration

This presentation will consider the uses of bottom-up, co-evolving folksonomies for better communication and collaboration across disciplinary lines.

For reasons of efficiency, semantic technologies often focus on terminological control. However, where several types of discourse exist within the same organization, a layer of bottom-up vocabulary provides a space for the change and difference that is always part of language. Language, like life, thrives on the border between order and chaos, and even the noisiest and most undifferentiated meta labels can serve a function.

Update 2-18: Actually, it looks like I’m not actually speaking after all. My proposal was accepted by the conference, but my support funding didn’t come through. Oh, well. Maybe next year.

Buy John’s Book

Buy John’s Book

I have been seriously remiss in my intellectual (and wifely) support! I haven’t even urged you to buy, read, and comment on hubby’s book – The Allure of Machinic Life: Cybernetics, Artificial Life, and the New AI (Bradford Books, MIT Press)!

Preview The Allure of Machinic Life at Google Books.

allurofmachinic

I’m a little annoyed about the title, since I preferred “The Lure of Machinic Life” to “The Allure of Machinic Life.” However, the absolutely wonderful bit on me me me in the acknowledgments almost makes up for it. The book cover is extra-special, too, because it features a suggestive artwork by our friend Joseph Nechvatal.

John Johnston
John Johnston
The book is a philosophically-minded constructive analysis that answers Heidegger’s critique of technology in subtle and completely unexpected ways. It builds on the understandings of such thinkers as Lacan, Foucault, Deleuze, Baudrillard and Kittler, but it’s also a very original tour through areas of research that haven’t been connected or critiqued from this kind of perspective. It’s worth the read if only for the interpretive history of research on (and ideas about) artificial life.

I’m biased, but I’m also a pretty good critical reader – and this book is fantastic. I think it’s been mislabeled by the marketing people, so I’m afraid that it won’t be read – and that would really be a shame.

Review
“John Johnston is to be applauded for his engaging and eminently readable assessment of the new, interdisciplinary sciences aimed at designing and building complex, life-like, intelligent machines. Cybernetics, information theory, chaos theory, artificial life, autopoiesis, connectionism, embodied autonomous agents—it’s all here!”
—Mark Bedau, Professor of Philosophy and Humanities, Reed College, and Editor-in-Chief, Artificial Life

In The Allure of Machinic Life, John Johnston examines new forms of nascent life that emerge through technical interactions within human-constructed environments—”machinic life”—in the sciences of cybernetics, artificial life, and artificial intelligence. With the development of such research initiatives as the evolution of digital organisms, computer immune systems, artificial protocells, evolutionary robotics, and swarm systems, Johnston argues, machinic life has achieved a complexity and autonomy worthy of study in its own right.

Drawing on the publications of scientists as well as a range of work in contemporary philosophy and cultural theory, but always with the primary focus on the “objects at hand”—the machines, programs, and processes that constitute machinic life—Johnston shows how they come about, how they operate, and how they are already changing. This understanding is a necessary first step, he further argues, that must precede speculation about the meaning and cultural implications of these new forms of life.

Developing the concept of the “computational assemblage” (a machine and its associated discourse) as a framework to identify both resemblances and differences in form and function, Johnston offers a conceptual history of each of the three sciences. He considers the new theory of machines proposed by cybernetics from several perspectives, including Lacanian psychoanalysis and “machinic philosophy.” He examines the history of the new science of artificial life and its relation to theories of evolution, emergence, and complex adaptive systems (as illustrated by a series of experiments carried out on various software platforms). He describes the history of artificial intelligence as a series of unfolding conceptual conflicts—decodings and recodings—leading to a “new AI” that is strongly influenced by artificial life. Finally, in examining the role played by neuroscience in several contemporary research initiatives, he shows how further success in the building of intelligent machines will most likely result from progress in our understanding of how the human brain actually works.

Language is not only a virus (grin) but also an essential bit of the block of the discourse network that co-evolves with technological change and human action to give rise to the computational assemblage; or, machinic life is always already within you (and without you) but here are some of the details.

Now – go forth and buy many copies, and tell all thine friends (and thine enemies as well) to read and discuss.

Try these too!

Oh, thank you, package from Amazon.com

Oh, thank you, package from Amazon.com

Oh joy! Books! Books I ordered, but that now appear like a comic gift to me from Benevolent Deities Inc.

Happy sigh. Ahhhhh…. two for browsing at leisure, one for candy satisfaction:

Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Rob Brezsny

Diva Lion says:

Pronoia is a philosophy book of a most unusual stripe. It takes a lot of the ideas that Breszny has developed on the Free Will Astrology site and particularly that he included as themes in his amazing novel, The Televisionary Oracle, and expands on them, shaping them into a chaotically coherent philosophy of life. The style is undeniably Breszny– quirky, irreverent, soulful, linguistically athletic, challenging, hopeful.

The Red Book: A Deliciously Unorthodox Approach to Igniting Your Divine Spark
Sera Beak

Synopsis:

The Red Book” is a nothing less than a spiritual fire starter—a combustible cocktail of Hindu Tantra and Zen Buddhism, Rumi and Carl Jung, Mary Magdalene and modern psychics, goddesses and Gnosticism, shaken with cosmic nudges, meaningful subway rides, haircuts, relationships, sex, dreams, humor, and intuition. It’s a book that encourages women to live more consciously so they can start making clearer choices across the board, from careers to relationships, politics to pop culture and everything in between. For smart, gutsy, spiritually curious women whose colorful and complicated lives aren’t reflected in most spirituality books.

Making Money (Discworld Novels)
Terry Pratchett

Publisher’s Weekly review:

Reprieved confidence trickster Moist von Lipwig, who reorganized the Ankh-Morpork Post Office in 2004’s Going Postal, turns his attention to the Royal Mint in this splendid Discworld adventure. It seems that the aristocratic families who run the mint are running it into the ground, and benevolent despot Lord Vetinari thinks Moist can do better. Despite his fondness for money, Moist doesn’t want the job, but since he has recently become the guardian of the mint’s majority shareholder (an elderly terrier) and snubbing Vetinari’s offer would activate an Assassins Guild contract, he reluctantly accepts. Pratchett throws in a mad scientist with a working economic model, disappearing gold reserves and an army of golems, once more using the Disc as an educational and entertaining mirror of human squabbles and flaws.

Gettin Nothin But Static

Gettin Nothin But Static

Livin’ on the edge of Zeee-eee-eeeee….

The B-52s, “Channel Z”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUOYFuMaATg[/youtube]

I am livin’ on Channel Z!

Gettin’ nothing but static (static)
Gettin’ nothing but static (static)
Static in my attic from Channel Z

Getting nothing but static (static)
Getting nothing but static (static)
Static fills my attic from Channel Z

I don’t know, I feel like something’s happening
Something good is happening
I feel love has got to come on, and I want it
Something big and lovely

And I want the world to change for me
Gotta get away, away from Z
Living on the edge of Zeee-eee-eeeee

Space junk
Laser bombs
Ozone holes
Better put up my umbrella

Giant stacks
Blowin’ smoke
Politicrits
Pushin’ dope

All I know, we’ve got to change what’s happening
Something good could happen
I feel light has got to come through, and I need it
Something big and lovely

And I want the world to change for me
Gotta get away, away from Z
Living on the edge of Zeee-eee-eeeee!

Waste dumps
Toxic fog
Irradiate
And keep it fresh forever

Good old boys
Tellin’ lies
‘Bout time
I got wise

Getting nothing but static (static)
Getting nothing but static (static)
Static in my attic from Channel Z

Getting nothing but static (static)
Getting nothing but static (static)
Static fills my attic from Channel Z

Gotta tune in
Pico waves
Gotta tune out
PCB’s
Gotta tune in
Market crash
Gotta tune out
Polar shift
Gotta tune in
Narrow minds
Gotta tune out
Space junk
Gotta tune in
Bombs
Gotta tune out
Electronic lasers falling from the sky
Where’s my umbrella?

Gonna shoot that static down the drain
Gonna put that static out of my brain
Gonna put up my antennae
FREE-eee-eeee-eeee-eee-eeee-eee-eee!

Hamburger ads!
Pop up in my head
On the edge of Aquarius
I’m living on the edge
Secret wars (woooo) – take my money away!

I know I feel a change is happening
Something good will happen
I feel love is coming on strong, and I want it
We can make it happen

And I want the world to change for me
Gotta get away, away from Z
Living on the edge of Zeee-eee-eeeee

Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oah!
Channel Z all static, all day, forever
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oaah!
Time to open your window,
Let in better weather
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oah!
Channel Z all static, all day, forever
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oaah!
Time to take this information
And shove it in the shredder!

Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oah!
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oaah!
Market crash
Polar shift
Space junk
Narrow minds
Ahhh!
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oah!
Whoa-oa-oa-oa-oa-oaah!

The Multi-faceted Goddess Prayer

The Multi-faceted Goddess Prayer

This most astounding of Goddess prayers is from Rob Brezsny’s book Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings– the latest addition to my wishlist. You may know Rob Brezsny if you follow his witty syndicated column Free Will Astrology. Thanks to sweet Nessa for suggesting it – I found it posted at Killing the Buddha.

Prayer for You

How do you get God’s attention? Try sweet talking his girlfriend.
by Rob Breznsy

This is a perfect moment. It’s a perfect moment because I have been inspired to say a gigantic prayer. I’ve been roused to unleash a divinely greedy, apocalyptically healing prayer for each and every one of you — even those of you who don’t believe in the power of prayer.

And so I am starting to pray right now to the God of Gods… the God beyond all Gods… the Girlfriend of God… the Teacher of God… the Goddess who invented God.

Dear Goddess, you who never kill but only change:

I pray that my exuberant, suave, and accidental words will move you to shower ferocious blessings down on everyone who reads this benediction.

I pray that you will give them what they don’t even know they need — not just the boons they think they want but everything they’ve always been afraid to even imagine or ask for.

Dear Goddess, you wealthy anarchist burning heaven to the ground:

Many of the divine chameleons out there don’t even know that their souls will live forever. So please use your brash magic to help them see that they are all wildly creative geniuses too big for their own personalities.

Guide them to realize that they are all completely different from what they’ve been led to believe about themselves, and more exciting than they can possibly imagine.

Make it illegal, immoral, irrelevant, unpatriotic, and totally tasteless for them to be in love with anyone or anything that’s no good for them.

O Goddess, you who give us so much love and pain mixed together that our morality is always on the verge of collapsing:

I beg you to cast a boisterous love spell that will nullify all the dumb ideas, bad decisions, and nasty conditioning that have ever cursed the wise and sexy virtuosos out there.

Remove, banish, annihilate, and laugh into oblivion any jinx that has clung to them, no matter how long they’ve suffered from it, and even if they’ve become accustomed or addicted to its ugly companionship.

Please conjure an aura of protection around them so that they will receive an early warning if they are ever about to act in such a way as to bring another hex or plague into their lives in the future.

Dear Goddess, sweet Goddess, you sly universal virus with no f*cking opinion:

Please help all the personal growth addicts out there to become disciplined enough to go crazy in the name of creation, not destruction.

Teach them the difference between oppressive self-control and liberating self-control.

Awaken in them the power to do the half-right thing when it is impossible to do the totally right thing.

Arouse the Wild Woman within them — even if they’re men.

Dear Goddess, you pregnant sl*t who scorns all mediocre longing:

I pray that you will inspire all the compassionate rascals communing with this prayer to kick their own asses and wash their own brains.

Provoke them to throw away or give away all the things they own that encourage them to believe that they are better than anyone else.

Show them how much fun it is to brag about what they cannot do and do not have.

Give them bigger, better, more original sins and wilder, wetter, more interesting problems.

Most of all, Goddess, brainwash them with your freedom so that they never love their own pain more than anyone else’s pain.

Oh Goddess, you wildly disciplined, radically curious, shockingly friendly, fanatically balanced, mysteriously truthful, teasingly healing, lyrically logical master of rowdy bliss:

I ask you to give your unconventionally unconditional love to all the budding messiahs who read this prayer; love them with all of your ocean and sky and fire and earth.

Cultivate in yourself a fervent yearning for their companionship. Play with them every day. Answer their questions. Listen to their stories.

Inspire them not just to nag you for what they want, but also to thank you for the uncanny gifts you flood them with.

And if there are any pockets of ignorance or hatred these insanely poised creators might be harboring, any inadvertent idiocies that keep them blind to your blessings, please flush them out as soon as possible.

Dear Goddess, You psychedelic mushroom cloud at the center of all our brains:

Bless all the inscrutable creators out there with lucid dreams while they are wide awake, and their very own spin doctors, and solar-powered sex toys that work even in the dark, and vacuum cleaners for their magic carpets, and a knack for avoiding other people’s hells, and a thousand masks that all represent their true feelings, and secret admirers who are not psychotic stalkers.

Arrange for a racehorse to be named after them, or an underground river, or a boulevard in an exotic vacationland, or a thousand-year-old storm on Saturn or Jupiter.

Teach them to push their own buttons and unbreak their own hearts and right their own wrongs and sing their own songs and be their own wives and save their own lives.

Dear Goddess, You fiercely tender, hauntingly reassuring, orgiastically sacred feeling that is even now running through all of our soft, warm animal bodies:

I pray that you provide all the original sinners out there with a license to bend and even break all rules, laws, and traditions that keep them apart from the things they love.

Show them how to purge the wishy-washy wishes that distract them from their daring, dramatic, divine desires.

And teach them that they can have anything they want if they’ll only ask for it in an unselfish way.

And now dear God of Gods, God beyond all Gods, Girlfriend of God, Teacher of God, Goddess who invented God, I bring this prayer to a close, trusting that in these mysterious moments you have begun to change everyone out there in the exact way they’ve needed to change in order to become the gorgeous geniuses they were born to be.

Amen. Awomen.

Wow. That really charges my battery – how about you?

Quiddity

Quiddity

I’m amazed by the way one word can fire off a whole line of thought.

This is a good one: quiddity.

The word “quiddity” (Latin quidditas) is one way to denote the idea of the real nature or essence of a thing, the very thing that makes it what it is. Literally, it translates as “whatness” or “what it is.”

That sounds very individualistic to an American ear, and “what is it” sounds like it might be referring to the truth about something. But it refers to what something has in common with other somethings of its type. It is the opposite of haecceity – the “thisness” of someone or something that makes it an individual being, separate from any other.

But quiddity has another meaning, and it is a strange one. How could a word that means the very essence of something, the very thing that sets it off from other types of beings – while still holding it in commonality with its own group – also be a quibble, a trivial objection, an academic point?

Maybe it’s a comment on itself. A quibble is also a narrative device that uses the precise literal conditions of an agreement in order to avoid the intended meaning.

Maybe all the searches for the essences of things, all the groupings – say, for example, stereotypes – are a kind of quibble. The labels and words that we use when we try to describe a unique thing tends to fall from haecceity to quiddity because individual words for individual beings would have no meaning between people. They cannot communicate anything more than some sort of group identity, even in the case of names (that signal species or nationality or history or paternity, etc.). Even names, unless they are very unique names, don’t communicate what is essential about a person or an animal. They are only signs.

And so they cannot carry the meaning of the “thisness” – only the “whatness.” We try to describe something essential – say, in a eulogy, or in trying to tell someone what makes them so special and unique – but we can only point to traits of commonality with others, and most of those are clichés anyway.

If you want to do statistical analysis – or a very literal biblical interpretation – or a phylogenetic diagram of the tree of life – then quiddity will serve to slice and dice your world. But in some circumstances, that’s a limited form of insight. That’s why I think stories and poetry do more for us, ultimately, than naming and organized sets.

Narrative and imaginative vision (music, painting, and so on) pull us together in a more essential way through our individual selves, whereas listing the commonalities (and assuming stable differences) sets us apart from one another – by group as well as by person.

So, lesson one for Adam was naming the animals, setting the categories based on… what?
I wonder what the upper lessons are (or would have been) in that story.

Cute cat