John Hopkins on Thu, 9 Apr 2015 13:34:48 +0200 (CEST)


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<nettime> process


Writing this morning reflection as an slew of F-16C/Ds dog-fight (or joy-ride) in the skies above at a base operational cost of $20K/hour each, completely drowning out the migrating bird sounds ...
Reflecting on the social integration of technology that is 'promoted' by 
corporate players, there seems to be several discrete steps that are repeated 
over and over with each 'wave' of technological 'innovation'. As I glanced 
through http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-32221363 it seemed to go something 
like this:
(military-industrial) exploratory development of a particular root technology

(military-industrial) deployment of derivitaves of the technology within the 'defense' sector
early adopters just outside the military-industrial (academia and related social 
areas in direct contact with the military-industrial)
corporate acquisition or simple corporatization of particular derivatives as 
potential consumer 'goldmines'
hyper-advertising of particular product in targeted trade areas to extend the 
industrial integration/base
early 'professional' adoption

more widespread hyping/advertising to the broader market

'prosumer' adoption

widespread adoption ('you have to have it')

then, on the side, a few smart/attentive/mindful individuals begin to realize that the 'have to have it' paradigm for particular technology is merely a ruse to ensure mass-adoption of what is essentially a technique for keeping the wider popultion attention-enslaved by said technology. (nobody cares about this fringe 'nettime' phenomena)
the technologies comprise detailed methodologies for tapping the life-time and 
life-energies of the widest swath of the population to ensure that there is a 
constant power-base for those in power. they include energy-sapping feedback 
mechanisms for making sure that the system is not compromised by infiltration of 
countervailing ideas and processes.
(and it's possible to substitute, cultural-industrial, pharmaco-industrial, 
bio-tech-industrial, media-entertainment-industrial, and so on, though I 
personally consider that the entire industrial production complex is ultimately 
rooted in a certain level of desperate violence that comes from that particular 
dimension of human nature that demands Darwinian projection of genetic 
information into the future, perhaps ... )
radio, TV, Internet, drones, bio-tech, over-the-counter drugs, cars, ...

rinse, wash, repeat.

we are Devo.

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