Pynchon and commuters...

[Andrew Dinn]

Gillies, Lindsay writes:


> Commuters use computers...

As do increasingly largenumbers of homeworkers...

> Luddites:
> Luddites were not fearful or irrational about "modern" technology---I think 
> we're into a bit of teleological reasoning on this subject.  Luddites were 
> reacting to the __Social__ reorganization implicit in the factory system. 
>  It was not mechanisation, but centralization of work at the factory site 
> that was a threat.  During the preceding period, weaving was carried on as a 
> cottage trade, with factors travelling around to gather up the goods.  This 
> supported the integrity of the famility household (no commuters!) as well as 
> the need for a variety of other work to be conveniently done, particularly 
> animal husbandry and agriculture.  This lead to an ideal balance of family 
> life, direct sustenance, and cash economy which probably has never been 
> equaled since.  (Economic historians need to forget about the concept of 
> "progress" right away.)

Which is why Jan questioned the use of the term of `irrational fear'.
Luddite fears and their subsequent response sound quite rational. And
another thing. Ascribing `irrational fear' to Pynchon would be equally
misguided. If GR is not enough to convince you of i) the ratiocination
of which Pynchon is capable in comprehending science and technology
both on its own terms and from every possible external, critical
position ii) the rational foundations of Pynchon's neo-Ludditism then
consider what he says in the Luddite essay:

  The knitting machines which provoked the first Luddite disturbances
  had been putting people out of work for well over two centuries.
  Everybody saw this happening - it became part of daily life.  They
  also saw the machines coming more and more to be the property of men
  who did not work, only owned and hired.  It took no German
  philosopher, then or later, to point out what this did, had been
  doing, to wages and jobs.  Public feeling about the machines could
  never have been simple unreasoning horror, but likely something more
  complex: the love/hate that grows up between humans and machinery -
  especially when it's been around for a while - not to mention
  serious resentment toward at least two multiplications of effect
  that were seen as unfair and threatening.  One was the concentration
  of capital that each machine represented, and the other was the
  ability of each machine to put a certain number of humans out of
  work - to be "worth" that many human souls.  What gave King Ludd his
  special Bad charisma, took him from local hero to nationwide public
  enemy, was that he went up against these amplified, multiplied, more
  than human opponents and prevailed.  When times are hard, and we
  feel at the mercy of forces many times more powerful, don't we, in
  seeking some equalizer, turn, if only in imagination, in wish, to
  the Badass -- the djinn, the golem, the hulk, the superhero - who
  will resist what otherwise would overwhelm us? Of course, the real
  or secular frame-bashing was still being done by everyday folks,
  trade unionists ahead of their time, using the night, and their own
  solidarity and discipline, to achieve their multiplications of
  effect.

It's the concentration of capital and the equation trading machines
against souls which Pynchon picks out here as the key themes, not the
fact of social reorganization per se but the element of that social
reorganization which involved throwing people into poverty or on the
scrap heap. Whether this is historically valid it sure is pertinent
today and the role of technology is just as important.

I mentioned in a previous note that the latest Scientific American has
an article on the scarcity of Internet access in the developing world
(figures c/o the CIA world fact book available online via ftp/WWW).
Actually, the article was mostly concerned not with the concentration
of Internet access but rather with publication access both to
scientific journals and entry into to databases which make
publications visible to other researchers.  Not surprisingly, the use
of electronic indexes of titles and abstracts and the automation of
reviews, citation counts etc has constructed a vicious circle which is
squeezing out research and researchers from the developing world. That
old concentration effect again. And the loss of such research does not
just mean that someone else gets the credit and hence the funding to
continue. It also implies that e.g. valuable techniques for combatting
developing world diseases are ignored because they are not hot topics
for developed world publications. Its the rich that gets the pleasure
etc.

You might say `oh the technology is not to blame' or `oh but you can't
stop people doing such things'. Well, actually the technology is in
part to blame. It's been built the wrong way for all the wrong reasons
without taking into account all the relevant concerns in order to do
the wrong jobs. The fact that, as a fringe benefit, you and I can
discuss the sorry state of the world c/o DARPA, MIT, Xerox PARC and in
my case SUN (aka Stanford University/Xerox PARC Alumni Network) in
your case maybe Apple (also part of the SU/X Network) or even the
upstart microbeast MicroSot is hardly cause for celebration given
where the bulk of the funding went (all that *wasted* money trying to
put Lisp machines into every Tomahawk) and given even as we speak how
the proceeds from selling MS-Clone 95 are accumulating in the coffers
of the microbeast.

The computer industry was saddled with crap technology for 30 years
c/o of the big-blue-beast who rapidly learned that marketing made more
money than identifying and responding to real needs. Manufacturers
repeatedly try to push their own standards or pervert those which have
obtained grudging agreement in order to trap their customers into an
expensive buying cycle. Quality technology comes very low on the list.


Andrew Dinn
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O alter Duft aus Maerchenzeit / Berauschest wieder meine Sinne
Ein naerrisch Heer aus Schelmerein / Durchschwirrt die leichte Luft