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September 24, 2007
In thinking about the different ways in which people exist I began to think about the notion of how we document our existence. i dont know how relevant this and maybe it is a bit of a stretch. I read an anthropological study that had to do with the power of writing and archiving and how it holds a sort of mystical power over people. because the practice of writing is so deeply linked to government documentation (i.e. birth certificates, land deeds, marriage certificates ect.), different ways that our physical existence is recorded by some sort of larger system the act of writing takes on a certain power over the people who have access to it. If a citizen of the United States were to be with out a social security number and without any legal government documentation that person according to the country would not exist. If he or she were to die there would be no way other than peoples personal doc. and memory that he or she is preserved. So in thinking about this notion of writing and the power of documentation i began to think about how the use of technology especially the internet plays a role in all this thinking. what does it mean for a person to exist as a blogger or chatter on line? And what does it mean that these things remain after a person dies or leaves to be altered and manipulated after that person is gone? Furthermore what does it mean that our documentation of things is now so deeply rooted in technology something that could potentially fail us? I dont even know if this makes sense but it seemed somewhat relevant in thinking about the ways we exist that we think about our physical lives as well as the lives we cultivate through technology.
Posted by elihazle at September 24, 2007 11:47 PM