Disqus - Latest Comments for jeffmilam

Re: Corporeal and Incorporeal Machines

Jeff — Fri, 03 Jul 2015 12:20:09 -0000

Solid review, thanks! I've been following the work LB and other OOO or Speculative Realist (or whatever they are calling themselves) for some time. It is deeply fascinating stuff. I recommend Hyperobjects by Timothy Morton for further reading, and of course LB's Democracy of Objects.

Re: Who are the new Superheroes?

Jeff — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:55:35 -0000

Sounds like my dream power ;).

Re: coincidence or god

Jeff — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:47:50 -0000

"The VMS operating system has a lot of tuning parameters that you can set with the SYSGEN utility, and one of these is TIMEPROMPTWAIT, the time the system will wait for an operator to set the correct date and time at boot if it realises that the current value is bogus. This time is specified in microfortnights!" die.net

God is hilarious.

Re: the anti-shazzzam - My college alumni association called for...

Jeff — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:22:43 -0000

Criminal case?

Re: A Cosmic Question of Identity

Jeff — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 10:54:06 -0000

I am glad you brought up Geography. As Virilio points out in "The Information Bomb," Geography is being redefined by communications. We now have "windows" into the entire world connecting us to simulations of the entire world. However, Virilio doesn't draw as positive a conclusion as it seems you may. I believe that the Internet provides (at least for now) a fair and uncensored medium upon which we can transmit our voices to large audience but this is not to say we are achieving a greater sense of individualism but quite the opposite. It is extremely difficult to define a person FROM the internet. For instance, because I did not recognize your name I almost dismissed your comment as spam. The internet is a challenge to horizons, including the horizons that define individuals. It is a very interesting phenomenon!

Re: A Cosmic Question of Identity

Jeff — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:22:37 -0000

Well, since you had to bring up Nietzsche... Doesn't moving towards a more "objective" and "rational" view of reality contradict your point about developing "our own sense[s] of right and wrong?" This post certainly does relate to N. in that it suggests that an expanding notion of the cosmos has largely undermined the importance of metaphysics but my curiosity is the implications of such an undermining. Metaphysics, as N. so vehemently points out, are self-serving and, in my opinion, therefore are self creating. As we move to a more macroscopic sense of self less emphasis is put on metaphysics (as a matter of fact they are often times considered downright ignorant) and more emphasis is put on relationships between data. We find ourselves increasingly reserved from creating definitions, the lines grow fuzzier, and things get grayer. We depend on our interactions to define us rather than our beliefs as the line between conviction and ignorance becomes thinner. I think you are correct in observing a tendency towards the rational, but that is the rational in etymological sense - an observation of relationships. Borders are breaking down.

Re: the anti-shazzzam - Yay Obama won! I would have ultimately preferred...

Jeff — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 15:57:11 -0000

You know... these are my first blog props! Thanks! I really agree with your last sentence and, to me, it all boils down to how you act in your local community. Our votes don't count for much in the presidential election (how can we compete with mindless mega-church masses? - the zombie wars are all too real) but what we do and say directly influences the people around us, our vote put city council members in office, and on up the ladder. If we put the pressure on from the ground up (the soil being our own hearts) any president will have to bend. This is the empowerment I hope Obama-fervor becomes.