Memo23+--+Hegemonic+Backdrop

Thomas Solley STSH 4980-01 Senior Thesis Costelloe-Kuehn 10/5/2014 10/8/2014

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__ Memo 23 -- Hegemonic __ Backdrop " For this memo, you should write a few hundred words describing conventional or hegemonic ideas about your object of concern. See Bruce Pfaffenberger's description of hegemonic ideas about technology in "The Social Anthropology of Technology, "Annual Review of Anthropology. Volume 21, Page 491-516, Oct 1992 (available through Folsom Library)."

Conventions on "hive minds" in literature seem to draw heavily on the systems of uploaded-consciousness described and espoused by Ray Kurzwheil...

However (as described in Memo24 -- Shifts in Sign Systems), cultural views of the Internet &communication are constantly evolving... What "people" want from their phones -- and how that relates to maintaining "respect" and "personality" in modern-day communications -- is under a shift as communication becomes faster and less "removed" from access.

- What is "humanity"? - how close are we coming to the end of life as we know it? - what are the chances that our tech will cause cataclysm?

- "ethical scientists now control what tech is released" - "people with money have power and control technology" - "industry is afraid to innovate destructively or big" - humans do not want to die... - humans want a "life after death" - humans do not want to be limited by their physical world!!!!! - humans avoid limitations -

- fear of death - fear of public image - fear of judgement

__Concerns __ ... Still having problems with the format of this website, eh? Have to manually add underlining, italics, underscores...

Not entirely sure yet what this involves -- what is a "hegemony" in the context of social-scientific literature? I'm going to guess the professor is asking us for "what are the institutions that exist? WHat is the System?"

-- .... In-class discusision, did not execute this one correctly... "What is the dominant story," "often in the background to whatever object you are looking-at." "assumptions/questions that are invisible," "stories -- stakeholder interactions, what are they doing, taking actions and describing it, descriptive process of the story"....