A Computational Xmas

Below is a xmas greeting my dad wrote in 1969 on a teletype terminal while he was an anthro professor at Dartmouth College. The photo depicts a scrap of teletype paper. The poem, using words like "GOTO" and "Run" presents itself as a working program written in BASIC which John Kemeny was popularizing at Dartmouth at the time. The program doesn't actually run I don't think. But it's an artifact of the times illustrating how humanists and social scientists were also peripherally getting involved with the use of BASIC.  Here is the poem transcribed in a more readable format:

READY
10 ANOTHER CHRISTMAS COMPUTATION
15 REPROCESSING OUR LIST OF FRIENDS
20 CAN WE AGAIN GET OUT THOSE CARDS
30 BEFORE THE SEASON ENDS?
40
50 IN FACT THE TASK THOUGH ONEROUS
60 IS FILLED WITH JOY AND LOVE
70 DOES IT SEEM MECHANICAL?
80 GO TO LINE 60 ABOVE
90
100 WITH EACH OF YOU WITH WHOM WE SHARE
110 SOME WHERE, SOME PLEASURE AND FUN
130 READ 'MERRY CHRISTMAS'
140 READ 'NEW YEAR'S JOYS'
150 MAY THEY NEVER
END
160 BUT INFINITELY
RUN

And here is the actual poem:

DHQ Review // Silicon Valley and Silicon Slopes

My review of Alice Marwick's Status Update is now available on Digital Humanities Quarterly.  Marwick's book is in many ways an ethnography of Silicon Valley entrepreneurial culture as it's lived through social media and it's an illuminating description of life lived in a distinct time and in a distinct place.  Living here in Utah in 2015 I keep asking: do her descriptions have applicability here and now as well?

Apropos of the above question long term I would like the Weber State Center For Technology Outreach to invite in a few speakers who can talk about Silicon Valley culture and compare it to Utah's own indigenous entrepreneurial culture (which is sometimes called Silicon Slopes).  A couple of years ago Vauhini Vara at the New Yorker ran a piece called How Utah Became The Next Silicon Valley.  It's time for some followup reflections.

Wasting Time

 In today’s busy, technology-driven world, time is of the essence. An award-winning scholar and author will explore how previous generations have grappled with wasted time at Weber State University, Oct. 21 at 1:30 p.m. in the Stewart Library Hetzel-Hoellein Room. More...

The Challenger Disaster

Energy Growth In America: No Longer An Unquestioned Good

All Is Vanity - Denigration of Selfies as a Form of Social Regulation (or: "iphone, iphone in my hand, who is the fairest in the land?)

In Ann Burns' Self(ie)-Discipline: Social Regulation as Enacted Through the Discussion of Photographic Practice (discussed also in Nathan Jurgenson' s What is a Selfie?)  Burns argues that commentary about selfies has "a regulatory function" that not only " acts as a cloaked expression of sexist attitudes but also defines and stigmatizes a specific group of subjects."  Whether this is true or not it reminds me a bit of Charles Allen Gilbert's 1892 drawing titled "All Is Vanity:"

I came across the above in Claire Tanner's Vanity, 21st Century Selves ( MacMillan, 2013).

Toward the end of "What Is A Selfie?"  Jurgenson suggests that the term "selfie" is somewhat fluid and that we should study those changing meanings since the "fluid meaning of selfie tracks the fluid meaning of the self."  As we continue our own research on "whether the internet makes people narcissistic" (and other present day anxieties about the internet) this seems like a worthy investigation.  And one that could also be complimented by investigating the fluid significance of words like vanity, humility, narcissism and self-promotion.

Wealth Inequality in America

A Dangerous Wandering Presentation at Weber State

Matt Richtel's very engaging presentation at Weber State University on March 19th sponsored by the Technology Outreach Center, the Provost's Office, the College of Arts and Humanities, the Psychology Department and the Neuroscience Program.

Matt Richtel to Talk About the Challenge of Attention in the Digital Age

Here's the accompanying publicity announcement for the below:

Radia Perlman To Visit Weber State

Here's the press announcement.

Here's the newspaper coverage in the Standard Examiner