nonsite

I’m behind in writing this week as I’m getting ready to leave the country for a week. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about writing my project summary and looking forward to the challenge. I have made some good progress this week, I just need time to reflect and write- hopefully, traveling will provide that. I’m now writing from a departure lounge at the Vancouver airport (YVR) having checked in and passes through customs.

I’ve been reading William Mitchell’s book C++ The Cyborg Self and the Networked City. He’s got a good, high level overview of our bodies and how we protect them from the reality of the natural environment- with clothes, automobiles and buildings, but also how porous we are- with a variety of waves, matter and energy passing through us. He then moves on to write about how we are connected through as variety of networks.

His ideas are excellent. I like how consistently he approaches each topic he’s looking at starting from the smallest and nearest and then scales out from there.

He sees humans as wireless bipeds and discusses the logic of wireless coverage starting with the smallest, lowest-powered, shortest-range systems which can only communicate over close distances- like NFC and Bluetooth-enabled devices, up to high-powered global transmission towers for radio and television broadcasting.