Great thread indeed! I hold the now very old view (first articulated by Robert Cathcart and Gary Gumpert, "The Person-Computer Interaction: A Unique Source," in Information and Behavior, vol. 1, ed. Brent D. Ruben (New Brunswick: NJ: Transaction Books, 1985) that social robots are media and communication devices, and hence deserve attention from the perspectives of media and communication studies, as well as religious and philosophical studies. In these directions - what has not been mentioned yet are the movies Metropolis (Lang 1927) and Bladerunner (1982). Metropolis literally sets the stage for the theme of the robot who cannot be distinguished from a human - and more directly, what our colleague Mia Consalvo has identified as the trope of the "techno-femme fatale" (2004) - "Maria" in Metropolis (who is explicitly set up to play the Whore of Babylon, among other types), and Priss in Bladerunner - and in these ways serve as direct ancestors of Eva in Ex Machina. Broadly, these new devices are generally represented as mechanical versions of the Frankenstein monster, whose introduction into society leads to disasters of one form or another - e.g., the revolt of the workers and the erotically induced madness of the ruling class in Metropolis, the various threats of replicants turning on their makers in Bladerunner, and ditto for Ex Machina. More specifically, they literally embody the demonization of women, body, and sexuality that follows from Augustine's teachings on "Original Sin" - (i.e., a late interpretation of the 2nd Genesis creation story that faults the woman for primal disobedience and thus primary responsibility for "the Fall" - in contrast with more orthodox Jewish, early Christian, and American Deist readings that foreground the woman as choosing agency, rationality, and adult-like responsibility as part of the earthlings' growing up, thus helping to argue for both democratic polity broadly [we are creatures capable of self-rule] and gender equality more specifically) - hence the "techno-femme fatale" who will likewise turn on and destroy its / "her" creator(s). What is striking to me is how far this Augustinian reading continues to undergird even more contemporary and ostensibly more secular approaches to emerging technologies - including Gibson's construction of a body-less cyberspace that explicitly invokes Augustinian language of "the Fall", and certainly the Eva (Eve/Adam) of Ex Machina. New technologies and social change? Yes, certainly - but insofar as I have all of this more or less correctly, what is striking is how much the Augustinian framework - often carried through a more secular Cartesianism - still shapes foundational and thereby largely negative assumptions about women, body, and sexuality. Or, as the French would say, plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (the more things change, the more they remain the same, approximately). Enjoy! - charles ess Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Editor, The Journal of Media Innovations <https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no On Wed, Jul 13, 2016 at 12:58 PM, Michael T Zimmer <zimmerm@uwm.edu> wrote:
Yes! Other pre-digital reflections on information technology & society would be Radio Days, and perhaps even The Name of the Rose.
-- Michael Zimmer, PhD Associate Professor, School of Information Studies Director, Center for Information Policy Research University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee e: zimmerm@uwm.edu w: www.michaelzimmer.org
On Jul 13, 2016, at 3:39 AM, Joshua Braun <jabraun@journ.umass.edu> wrote:
Since your request includes broadcast-era media, I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned Network (1976). Such a brilliant satirical and hilarious take on the commercialization of media that also speaks to the current obsession with analytics.
Josh
On 2016-07-12 22:33, Paul Henman wrote:
Dear colleagues I am teaching a course on media, culture and society, and am introducing a new assessment piece - a movie review. I am going to give students a selection of movies to choose from that have as a key element the role of communications technologies (including social media) on social change, social relations and identify. I have already identified the following: * Her - on operating systems and the self * The Truman Show - on reality tv and public/private nexus * The Enemy of the State - on surveillance technologies * You've got mail (maybe) - on email and relationships * Good morning Vietnam (maybe) - on radio and community building I welcome any other suggestions and commendations. They can be old technologies, current or predicted new ones (ie sci fi). Paul Paul Henman Associate Professor of Social Policy and Sociology Head of Sociology Program Director, BSocSci School of Social Science University of Queensland QLD 4072 T: +61 7 3365 2765 | E: P.Henman@uq.edu.au<mailto:P.Henman@uq.edu.au> | W: www.digitalsocialpolicy.com<http://www.digitalsocialpolicy.com/> Recent publications: 'Population health performance as primary healthcare governance<http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/J7ntAVEWvxBzbChMzv4e/full ' Policy and Society (2016, with M. Foster et al) '"Schooling" performance measurement<https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:354448>', Policy and Society(2015, with A. Gable) 'Networks of Communities and Communities of Networks in Online Government<http://www.ejeg.com/issue/download.html?idArticle=347>' Electronic Journal of e-Government (2014, with R Ackland, T Graham) Government and the Internet, in W. Dutton (ed) The Oxford Handbook of Internet Studies< http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199589074.do#.USJX6Og7i_E> (2014) UQ ALLY - Supporting the diversity of sexuality and gender identity at UQ. CRICOS Provider Number: 00025B _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org Join the Association of Internet Researchers: http://www.aoir.org/
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