[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
INFOWAR: Re: Whose Infowar?
---------------------------------------------------------
ARS ELECTRONICA FESTIVAL 98
INFOWAR. information.macht.krieg
Linz, Austria, september 07 - 12
http://www.aec.at/infowar
---------------------------------------------------------
[Ramsey, Shafer] This is an interesting proposition, however,
misguided when ethnographic data is taken into consideration. The idea
that people are able to manipulate information is unfalsifiable. In
essence what we have here is the age old question, who makes the music?
Does the piano make the music? Is it the piano
maker? Is it the artist or the composer? Is it as some musicians feel,
music itself that makes music.
I suggest that human beings are not in total control of
information and as such there must be some areas of each person's life
that is controlled not by the human but by information. As an example of
this idea I suggest looking at Wall Street where lives are built,
reputations destroyed or made, simply on information and has little to do
with aspirations of the human spirit. We are at war but not with each
other. We are at war with Information itself. To control it and
manipulate it and force it to do our will and when we win that war we then
can manifest our unique spirits and humaness but when we are defeated by
information we are reduced to something a little less than human.
If information is a tool then what can it do? How do we use it?
and ultimately, what can we use it for? Any tool that gives you control
over another person is a weapon. If information has tool like qualities
then it also can have weapon like qualities. If this is so then we must
resolve these questions as quickly as possible so that we can regain
control over our lives and use information to manifest our human spirits
and not be used by information.
> But the real information war is not simply an old-style propaganda
> battle
> of bad information against good. It begins with the assertion that
> human
> beings are the mere conduits for information -- be it measured in
> words,
> hours, or dollars. On the contrary, information is simply a conduit
> for
> the thoughts, feelings, and aspirations of the human spirit.
>
> Douglas Rushkoff
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
You are subscribed to the English language version of INFOWAR
To (un)subscribe the English language version send mail to
infowar-en-request@aec.at (message text 'subscribe'/'unsubscribe')
To (un)subscribe the German language version of send mail to
infowar-dt-request@aec.at (message text 'subscribe'/'unsubscribe')
Send contributions to infowar@aec.at
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[INFOWAR] [subscribe]