Comments on What Happens Before Game Design?: The Modern Mind

To be fair, he was writing in response to people c...

2010-02-12T13:20:46.252-08:00

To be fair, he was writing in response to people claiming that we were all now post-modern. His contention is that we haven't moved past modernity for we have never actually managed to be modern, or even be close to it. All of his stuff is "about" why we are not modern not so much "what we have to do." Bogost's stuff approaches that idea but I am not as familiar with it.

Ah, that clarifies it at least! Yes, we could figh...

2010-02-12T13:17:31.889-08:00

Ah, that clarifies it at least! Yes, we could fight endlessly, as I don't believe that the Enlightenment did that; I think that like several historical moments, including the Age of Pericles, it pretends to have done that. I think Latour, very much like Plato, is either writing ironically, or writing foolishly. His modernity seems to me a new version of the world outside the cave: very important to think about; very important to recognize as meta-physical and thus without the possibility of realization for physical beings.

I'm sure that you and I would fight for foreve...

2010-02-12T13:07:00.126-08:00

I'm sure that you and I would fight for forever considering my thought processes start in the enlightenment whereas yours start far before then. It's not that I believe all thought beforehand was wrong, simply that a revolution in thought occurred, fencing off ideas into distinct, procedural roles as opposed to a general mode (of course, this is most likely wrong and a sign of the further distinction between our disciplines).

The thing about combining these modes is that it would effectively be internalized. To view it as a further external process is indicative of the problem that is keeping everything separate currently. That everything is outside ourselves is the very thing that Latour criticizes. To become modern is to internalize the idea of a modern people to readily remove all dichotomy between nature, human culture, and the process of translation.

There is even more confusion.

Interesting post, Nick. Question: am I missing the...

2010-02-12T12:01:38.207-08:00

Interesting post, Nick. Question: am I missing the point, but if we were to model the more complex process computationally, wouldn't that new, more complex, model, be equally "outside" us? My initial reaction to your post is my usual knee-jerk classicist one of "Plato saw the same thing; that's what the cave is about, with the shadow-puppets playing the role of the oven and the video game/practomime." But I have a feeling I'm missing a central step.