Re: <nettime> Evgeny Morozov and the Perils of "Highbrow

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

Hei John -

> There is a correlation between the rise of publicity (public relations and
> advertising) and diminution of quality standards and enforcement. So
> much that quality control, like privacy policy, is a publicity gambit not
> the actual performance.

...snip...

> But do watch for falling buildings and infrastructure
> (World Trade Center), terrorists, disease, backstabbing,
> rep bashing, tenure dying on the vine, and treachery of
> pulp intellectualism (as if there were any other).

But all of this may be framed as being (merely!) the effects of entropy that 
flies in the face of our illusions that we really *do* control our world!

In the present process of restoring a 50+ year old house, I find shoddy 
workmanship is nothing new, while down the street a neighbor, an extremely 
skilled fabricator -- a Russian immigrant who started work on Soviet ICBM 
installations, worked on Boston's "Big Dig", and is now retired -- he re-built 
his entire house to a standard rarely seen except in the very highest-end custom 
construction trades. You can be damn sure he expended significantly more 
resources on the work (both in embodied labor and materials) than is typical. 
Without both those imputs, something remains shoddy. And shoddy becomes the 
standard. (And this happening through the inability of the local government to 
enforce standards -- they appear to, they 'try', but they don't have the 
resources to do it.) All this evidence of a system that has reached a peak some 
time ago where it had 'higher' standards, and is now in the throes of a psychic 
crisis where it no longer has the (energy) resources to maintain those standards.

A simple example was a number I ran across when researching the US Interstate 
(aka, the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense 
Highways) system -- that right now it would take the energy equivalent of all 
remaining declared Suadi oil reserves to re-build that system. THe absolute 
lifetime, in engineering standards, of such a highway is a maximum of 40 years, 
and much of this system has reached 50 years. The US no longer has free access 
to the energy resources necessary to project this system into the future, and if 
you want to directly experience entropy, simply drive around the US on that 
system. Better have an SUV with a good suspension, perhaps a Hummer, as you will 
need it!

JH


--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


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