Technology & Society

Did you know that 80-90% of all scientific discovery has been accomplished in the last 100 years? Apparently if we calculate the percentage of scientists who are still alive from the total number of scientists that have ever lived, we will get just about the same number: 80-90% (Sismondo, 2004).

These two numbers popped out of my readings this week for my Science and Technology Studies course taught by Dr. Ribes. This semester we have already produced a variety of answers to the question I posed several weeks ago: "How does one produce truth?" The production of knowledge deserves lifetimes of attention, for sure, but today I am perplexed with a different question: What if we've got it all wrong? Or more importantly, how would we even know?

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Telenovelas, first dates, and fertile ground -- everyone has their own relationship with this defined, yet far from settled, medium. Justin Hall, often considered the first blogger, probably had no clue what he was on to when he first started coding his diary into HTML. The personal journal remains one of the most popular forms of individual blogging, but political, technical, l and news aggregate blogs have entirely reshaped the boundaries and potentials of self-publishing.

So what then is an academic blog? And what does it mean to be an "academic blogger"? Definitions are problematic. When I look through my blog subscriptions in Google Reader for some model to follow, the topics and purposes are as divergent as the titles.  Read More »

How does one produce truth? This summer I have put the finishing touches on a chapter about anonymity, identity and craigslist Missed Connections. I have now spent about a year studying how people use and abuse this potentially unintended social space (you can see the beginning of this journey here on gnovis), and (if I do say so myself) have some good ideas. In just a matter of days I will have completed my grand theory. But it's just a theory, and according to Chris Anderson's recent Wired article, despite my supporting data, it's just as passe.  Read More »

A few days ago I was asked about the new full-body scanners that are being used at several airports, including BWI (Baltimore-Washington International). I'm a little embarrased to admit that, though I knew the scanners were being used, I didn't know the details. After all, one of the core readings in the CCT program (during my 1st year here, at least), was Jeffrey Rosen's "The Naked Crowd," and these new scanners are exactly what Rosen referred to as The Naked Machine.  Read More »

I've been pretty absent from this forum for the past few months.  This has nothing to do with my feelings for gnovis or its awesome new issue.  It has been because, well...

I am an Internet addict.  In the past year or so my Internet use has gone from a nice distraction in an office job to something that has stopped my own creativity.  Read More »