"today, networked connection replaces abstraction. information is less the product of discrete processing units than the outcome of the networked relations between them, links between people, between machines, and between machines and people. contrasting the physical sites in which the digital and the network operate illuminates the difference between the two. the site for the former is the desktop microcomputer, displaying information through a heavy crt monitor, connected to the network via dial-up modem or perhaps through a high latency first generation broadband connection. in our own day, there is no such dominant site. to be sure, the wi-fi enabled laptop is now the most popular computing platform, but the mobile phone, keitai, and smart phone compete with and complement it. what unites these machines is their mobility and interconnectivity, making them more ubiquitous companions in our lives, key interfaces to global telecommunicational networks. in a prosaic sense, the turing machine is already a reality. a supercomputer, smart phone, laptop, ipod, wireless router, xbox game platform, mars rover, video surveillance camera, television set-top box, and automobile computer are essentially the same device, running—or capable of running—operating systems derived from unix such as linux or vxworks and becoming specific only in terms of scale and their mechanisms for input and output, for sensing and acting upon the world. instead, the new technological grail for industry is a universal, converged network, capable of distributing audio, video, internet transmissions, voice, text chat and any other conceivable networking task."
go read the rise of the network culture @ varnelis.net
* cute little painting by milos manetas
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