<nettime> phenomenology

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

-


phenomenology


intranet net internet: the middle term as an intersecting node, mobile
within the latter, and the phenomenological horizon within the former.

model the internet on a sphere; there are no end-points, no dead-ends, 
no terminals. or rather, the terminals, dead-ends, end-points are thick
like the irrationals on the continuum - everywhere across the globe.

who, why, when, where, what, how: interrogatives which traditionally
appear in relation to events within classical space time: where / when 
for example presuppose a discrete occurrence located within a cartesian
grid. 

now _where_ is moot: everywhere and nowhere, tied to the ontology of
data. _when_ is a stuttering legacy of routers which may or may not 
possess a discrete origin on the emission spread, dissemination.

_who_ likewise, referencing one or many or a spread across individuals,
often remains indeterminate; think of _doxa_ or the _they._ but think 
as well of _which,_ choosing among an already predetermined collectiv-
ity, and the problematic of _which_ online.

_what_ likewise presupposes a discrete _phenomenon,_ which may be class-
ically described; _what_ on the net references, instead, a _weather_
with immersed observers, participants, or unknowns.

_how_ stutters, like when, through microworlds, microprotocols and pro-
grams. _how_ is a also a collectivity, based on heuristics, prompt-line
and other commands, pathways through wires and atmospheres.

_why_ is dependent in the first place, on first places, causes and ef-
fects, interrogatives and answers fulfilling the gap left by the uplift
of the question. _why_ works autonomically in the small, loses its 
reason in the large.

how, what, why, when, where, who, lose their _face_ among the implicate
order of the networked worldings. with the loss of the _face,_ language
adjusts poorly to the real, physical, virtual, problematic, alter.

think of the autonomic world or anorectic world, the symbolic cast as
centrifugal residue against intermachinations of kernels, world into
worlds, ontological identities transformed into epistemological equival-
ences. 

think of intranet [ net [ internet, the series without beginning or end-
ing at either end of these spectral disturbances. think of organization
or articulation traveling the wires, mutually-adjusting protocols or
agents. think of multiply-connected riemannian spheres.


(as a concrete example - look at the _emission_ in relation to what has
been traditionally a classical _election_ or _voting procedure_ in the
united states - as if there were a clean and proper resolution at the 
end of what is, increasingly, a _mess._)


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