There is no place like ether

NASA – NASA’s LRO Team Helps Track Laser Signals to Russian Rover Mirror.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the logistic curve of the hypervirus (the “virus” virus) passed its first critical point (i.e. second order inflexion). Materializing the cybernetic convergence of carbon and silicon, it infected computers and humans alike at unprecedented levels. From this point on, an explosive diffusion in “postmodern culture” emerged, eventually it plateaued near saturation, redefining culture as a viral ecology. Room for one more inside, Sir.

TRUE/FALSE but REMARKABLE IDENTITIES: “Virus” is a virus: virus is a reflexive name. The virus is the quintessential Kantian thing-in-itself. The hypervirus is the quintessential Dawkinsian meme. (Your clone is the idealized expression of your viral self).

The postmodern master equation: LANGUAGE = VIRUS = INFORMATIONAL PARASITE Baudrillard adds the corollary proposition: Anathematic Illimited / Transfatal Express Viral Incorporated / International Epidemics

via Thierry Bardini ‘Hypervirus: A Clinical Report’ (VX heavens).

via Cours familier de littérature: une … – Google Books.

All early writing machines printed slowly, and none was produced in large numbers or had an impact on the way work was done in offices. Nonetheless, the Writing Ball introduced in 1869 or 1870 by the Rev. Malling Hansen of Denmark was a commercial success on the European continent, where it won several awards during the 1870s.  The Writing Ball to the left may date from 1869 (MBHT).  The Writing Ball pictured to the right was sold by Auction Team Köln. For marvelous photographs of a second Writing Ball, click here.

A larger model of the Writing Ball powered by electricity was described in the January 15, 1876, issue of Harper’s Weekly. (See image lower left)  In 1909, Mares reported that Writing  Balls were still found in many offices on the European continent. (G. C. Mares, The History of the Typewriter, London, 1909, p. 230.) A number of original Writing Balls survive, although it appears that they have been reproduced as well.

via Typewriters.

“You are right,” Nietzsche replied, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” Under the sway of the machine, writes the German media scholar Friedrich A. Kittler , Nietzsche’s prose “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.”

via Is Google Making Us Stupid? – Nicolas Carr- The Atlantic.