Slipping through our Grasp

Dave says it's all coming together. But is that a good thing? Not necessarily, argues writer Michael Joyce. Academic Commons prints the text of a talk Joyce gave at U of Wash in which he argues that our lives are actually lived in the spaces between things. (If you want to listen to a stream of the talk, go here.) You thought you were wasting your time driving to attend the city council meetings in person? Nope. You were just exercising your consciousness in the interspace. Turns out, the instant-on, google-powered internet - for all its apparent utility - may actually be a form of false consciousness perpetuated by the international corporations who would like us to imagine ourselves existing in a space minus distance, where everything we want (to buy) is no farther from us than the ends of our fingers. By the way, what's a false consciousness? I don't know. I was hoping you would. Or at least that you wouldn't ask about it. Give me some interspace, please.

And this relates locally because...

It relates locally because I've been trumpeting the benefits of bringing the community together online as a way of breaking down barriers, increasing knowledge and understanding, of forging those mysterious habits of the heart that make us so dependent upon each other. And soon peace and love reigned throughout the land.

I guess I feel that online apps and tools that make us feel less alone in our offline space -- and educate us about the outlines of the larger space we all share -- are good (for lack of a better word). The part of the nets that encourages us to forget about our realspace or encourages us to be alone, but with our consumer toys is - at best - a mixed blessing.

So Carbondale's streaming of council meetings is a net good (and is part of the good net), while Walmart.com's fun and easy-to-use tool for uploading your photos for having them printed cheaply at their stores is a wash, netishly speaking. And anyway, where at Walmart.com will you learn that Mayor Cole needs a new credenza or that Counselwoman (Counselperson?) Simon likes to buy her furniture at flea markets and yard sales? Seriously, you cannot buy that kind of local insight.