Re: <nettime> The secret financial market only robots can see

[Newmedia@aol.com]

Felix:
 
> OK. It's the machines. You convinced me. Now, what?

HA!! Now you (and the rest of us) will have to *understand* the impact
on *us* of our own inventions -- particularly the communications
technologies that make up our social environment.
 
This environment is man-made.  Our behaviors and attitudes are  shaped (not 
"determined," which is a different sort of causality) by our social  
environment, which, in turn, is based on how we communicate with each  other.
 
Yes, the "machines" have a kind of "agency," which results in an imperative 
 and a collection of prerogatives and claims on us.  We all live in a "wind 
 tunnel" that bends and shapes our thoughts and actions and that we cannot 
avoid  unless we deliberately dropout of human society.  Few wish for that 
sort of  "autonomy."
 
None of this is beyond "human comprehension" but, obviously,  sorting it 
out isn't easy.  As previously discussed on nettime,  Castels tried to make 
this point among sociologists (in the late 90s) but he  failed.
 
Fifteen years later, we need to do better, much better . . . 
 
Mark Stahlman
Brooklyn NY
 
 


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