Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.63.0510280144260.22041@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>,
"WRYTING-L : Writing and Theory across Disciplines" <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: slide.rule
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 01:44:40 -0400 (EDT)
slide.rule the slide-rule processes nothing; there are no processes. there are procedures. the calculator processes everything; there are filters. this is a fundamental distinction. an abacus processes nothing. it is not the distinction between analog and digital. it is the distinction between interior and exterior. the keyboard of a calculator or computer mediates processes and protocols. the beads of an abacus remain in situ. a slide-rule remains in situ. observe the abacus or slide-rule. the results are steady-state. the results are gained solely by human labor, i.e. movement of the beads or slide. the calculator uses an energy source, for example battery or solar power. a wind-up calculator stores energy. a calculator regulates its stored energy. the stored energy is controlled much like the escapement of a clock. the stored energy implements the unobserved steps or procedures tending towards a visible solution. even if every step were accounted for, for example listed in real time in a debugging program - the steps are unobserved. only signifiers, mediators, are observed. the ontology of the slide-rule however may be compared to the epistemology of the abacus or calculator. the abacus founders on ontology and the real. the calculator founders on ontology, the slide-rule on epistemology. the real is of the real. the digital must be manifest, within the analogic. the analogic is present. the ruptures of the abacus are problematized by the fuzzy movement of the beads. an electronic abacus, a digital abacus in other words, is internalized. this is the secret of the digital: its internalization is that of the body; its operations are literally neural, and its protocols are the shape-riding of synaptic signals. the digital has a life of its own; the analogic is inert, and in this sense, even the analogic body is inert. life is always the life of others. ii we look at the slide-rule or abacus. we watch the computer screen. we say 'look at this'; however if we are responsible, we say 'watch this.' we see a film, but watch television. however we look at the computer screen. we look at symptoms, 'look what's happening here.' we watched a film last night. did you see that show on television? look, see, watch - however, with the abacus or slide-rule, with the real, we look. why should we watch the slide-rule? it's not doing anything. watch what i can do with it. watch the carry-over of the abacus beads. we wait with expectation. i wait without expectation. the slide-rule waits for nothing, does not wait. the computer may be in standby or hibernation. the computer or calculator is the filtering and mediation of potential energy. the computer and calculator possess kinetic energy in the carrying- out, performance, of their duties. they are assigned duties. the assignments are flexible, flex-work. the slide-rule and abacus do not possess kinetic energy. or rather: they do not possess internal kinetic energy. for example, a stone may fall; a stone is. of course energy may be reassigned, as may waiting, looking, seeing, watching, interior and exterior. there may or may not be an observer. huang-po may have been such an observer. http://www.asondheim.org/hu.mov (nothing, addendum) like all addenda, familiar.