re: Novelty of Internet and activity theory (Yvonne Waern)
Yvonne Waern <waern@dsv.su.se wrote:
I forgot the most important argument: Internet is of course NOTHING without human beings USING it. Internet is an artefact that mediates between the human subject and our objects (that may be various things).
The all too human aspect of the Internet might exactly be point where the whole story becomes boring and predictable. An Internet which no longer interests human beings could as well be an interesting point of departure. Many believe the Internet would be a better place without users. Just machines talkin' to each other; a dream come true for many programmers (and theorists...). The attempts to 'humanize' have so far not really been succesful, despite a decade of human-machine interface research and immense discoursive power of gurus such as Jakob Nielsen. After such failures it might really be interesting if computer science would FINALLY become post modern and shake off its poor humanism. Geert