> do you mean getting/loosing real power - power over what? poewr to
> do/have/be what? - or getting/loosing an illusion of having a power,
> empowering/disempowering imaginatively?
What is "real" power? Any time you see the phrases "empowering /
disempowering" there is an agenda being defined. You have to look to the
surrounding context to see what the agenda is. What is "illusory" power?
There is only the interplay of our various stakes in a discourse. Maybe
some statements end up having more "effect" than others, but therein you
have to define what an "effect" is. A bigger paycheck? A larger
homestead? More dead bodies? I suppose if you wanted to attach $$$$ to
everything, you could try to advance some kind of economic argument
regarding "real" power. But that would only priveledge "economic" as
equivalent to "real."
> and if some technology helps us to develope a sense of being empowered
> without attaching a corresponding "power" of any sort, where does the
> distance between the two lead?
I think that's a very good question. Not meaning to sound overly evasive
or mysterious, but could you frame a particular technology so that we can
examine it closely? Generally I find it's easier and more productive to
concentrate on something specific. I could try to launch into some idea
here, but there are many places that one could begin. The original context
that brought up this thread was about Home Shopping Network vs. retail
outlets, and whether "de-spatialization" or "spatial/topological
restriction" is a more appropriate description of the control mechanisms.
In this, I don't see a tremendous "technical" component, at least not in
the high-tech sense. The layout of a retail floor space isn't terribly
high-tech, the Romans did it too. And mediation through TV isn't
particularly high-tech to us anymore, even if it once seemed so. I'm just
guessing that you had some more specific technology in mind, that would be
a more fruitful beginning point?
Cheers,
Brandon J. Van Every <vanevery@blarg.net> DEC Commodity Graphics
http://www.blarg.net/~vanevery Windows NT Alpha OpenGL
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seattle! Join the <<<NORTHWEST CYBERARTISTS>>>. Monthly meetings at
the Speakeasy. Check out http://www.nwlink.com/cyberartists