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INFOWAR: The Trouble with Tribbles
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ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 98
INFOWAR. information.macht.krieg
Linz, Austria, september 07 - 12
http://www.aec.at/infowar
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These first few posts make me think about some possible IW issues (not
necessarily of great relevance to any infowarrior):
1. the difference between ideological struggles in computer environments
and ideological struggles in non-computer environments - Is IW (gosh, we
are already at the acronym stage, a sure sign of institutionalization, of
brand-name recognition) any different as an ideological control phenomenon
than other methods used in the past 10,000 years? Is it just the same old
battle? What's the difference between Consumer Reports magazine and the
Consumer Reports homepage?
2. the difference between the structure of a computer environment and the
structure of the exterior (non-computer) environment. Is the computer
environment (as one sort of natural environment for the display and
distribution of information) more or less structured (in material and
ideological senses) than non-computer environments? Is a participant in
information display, distribution and consumption in a computer
environment freer, or more constrained by the structure of a computer
environment than by the structure of non-computer environments? What's the
difference between a real bloody nose and an ideological one?
3. the applicability of militaristic strategies (conceived for
conventional warfare) to ideological environments. Can the military
mentality (a highly structured, non-distributed system, in which
individualism is repressed and no-one has knowledge of the whole) actually
function successfully in a computer world (with its highly structured
material environment and distributed and relatively unstructured
ideological environment)? How did Luke Skywalker and the rest defeat Darth
Vader and the death star? Is IW just a modern attempt at Churchill's jaw,
jaw, is better than war, war? Are military strategists aware of "The
Trouble with Tribbles?".
4. the relation between IW, ideological struggle, and marketing. Are they
different in any substantive way? Does it matter?
5. the relation between ideological war and ideological peace. Have more
people been killed in the name of God or Satan? Have more people been
killed in the name of War or Peace? Which is better: spying for the good
of the State or spying for the good of the People? How do you tell the
difference?
6. the relation between data and information. What is the nature of the
context that makes IW an 'information war' as opposed to a 'data war'? Is
the 1883 hits I got searching the web for 'infowar' (lots of duplicates,
no doubt) a lot of data, a lot of information, a lot of conversation, or a
lot of words?
7. the problem of dualisms and Darwinisms versus other isms and anti-isms.
Since all language about things is highly structured (time, space,
situation, physiology, experience etc.), would it just be better to shut
up?
Done!
Brian Leigh Molyneaux,
April 24, 1998
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