15 Mar
2013
15 Mar
'13
11:29 a.m.
To the Sudo Kopimist congregation -
This week fort Friday Filosophy we will be having something from the Athenian Deli on
Franklin off of Sudo Square. (http://www.atheniandeli.com/). Since last week's email
got lost in the abyss of the mail server switch, I am also including last week's email
as well below.
Following up on last week's discussion of manufacturing and consumer culture, we will
be picking up the thread focusing on Planned Obsolescence. The excerpt below is from Giles
Slade, Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America (2006) pgs. 23-24.
http://books.google.com/books?isbn=0674022033.
A bit of context for the quote - Slade describes the break-through in shifting cultural
norms about disposable products with the popularity of sanitary napkins for women, in the
inter-war period when women were exercising more control over family budgets. Slade digs
up fascinating research on the explicit Anti-Thrift campaigns after World War I, when
American advertisers linked together conspicuous consumption for social status and
disposable products as patriotic support of the American economy.
Anti-Thrift Campaigns
Encouraged by the repetitive consumption of disposable paper products for both men and
women, paper manufacturers developed toilet paper, paper cups, paper towels, and paper
straws (rendering rye stalks obsolete). Gradually, the popularity of disposable personal
products, purchased and used in the name of hygiene and health, caused Americans to
generalize their throwaway habits to other goods. This was a significant development in
the history of product obsolesence. As a throwaway culture emerged, an ethic of
durability, of thrift, of what the consumer historian Susan Strasser calls "the
stewardship of objects," was slowly modified. At first, people just threw their
paper products into the fire. But as the disposable trend continued, it became culturally
permissible to throw away objects that could not simply and conveniently be consumed by
flames.
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Friday Filosophy 3/8: Stuxnet & the Problem of Evil
Dear Sudo folk.
The spanakopita are just about ready to take out of the oven - ricotta & cheese
(sorry, vegans). My daughter, Eva, will be coming today (home with a bit of a fever), but
likely not participating in the discussion. She wants to be an epidemiologist, like her
mom, and may chime in about viruses - which apparently kind of look like nasty little
monsters and have crooked teeth.
We will be picking up the subject left off last time of the communicative value of
executable virus software with a real-life example about which to ruminate. Stuxnet (see
http://www.stuxnet.net/) will be the focus, with an emphasis on the implications for the
techno-social role of programmers, and the future of cyberwarfare.
sent from eddan.com