by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 10 Dec 2010 |
Dear American Anthropological Association:According to recent reports, you are considering dropping the term "science" from your long-range planning document. You propose replacing it with the phrase "public understanding," and also including a long litany of the variety of things that fit under this umbrella:This includes, but is not limited to, archaeological, biological, social, cultural, economic, political, historical, medical, visual, and...
by Dan Nexon | 10 Dec 2010 |
From the comments thread on the A/V Club's review of Voyage of the Dawn Treader (NSFC):
by Dan Nexon | 10 Dec 2010 |
Massively cool.And here's the earlier Lego Difference Engine:Anyway, the juxtaposition of these two computers intersects (oddly enough) with one of the themes in the Steampunk debates I alluded to earlier. Steampunk extrapolates from the real (and imaginary) technology of the Victorian era. Cosma Shalizi identifies that period (i.e., the Industrial Revolution) as the true "singularity," prompting Patrick Nielson Hayden to remark:I hope Shalizi...
by Dan Nexon | 10 Dec 2010 |
I'm teaching a seminar on science fiction and politics next semester, which I am really, really looking forward to. PTJ's been teaching a similar course for years, but this is the first time I've had the opportunity offer it. Given the discussions of the SF genre in general, and steampunk in particular (e.g.), that have been making the rounds, I thought it might be interesting to see get feedback on the syllabus from our readers. I've designed...
by Charli Carpenter | 8 Dec 2010 |
I hope most of you following the Wikileaks story read Aaron Bady's essay at zunguzungu last week, in which he examines two early essays attributed to Julian Assange and provides his explanation of Assange's broader theory. It's a sophisticated read with at last glance 567 comments - the sort of blog post political theorists will (or should) assign to their graduate classes.I also think Bady makes some mistakes in his interpretation of Assange's...
by Charli Carpenter | 6 Dec 2010 |
Thoughts, please.
by Cliff Bob | 5 Dec 2010 |
The Wikileaks releases are political dynamite not just because of the specific issues they discuss. Also, and more importantly, they challenge a dominant mode of foreign policymaking in the U.S. and many other countries: government secrecy dumps—routinely stamping vast amounts of information “top secret,” thereby placing it beyond the eyes of all us "untrustworthy" citizens. For this reason alone, the Wikileaks releases are important—and...
by Laura Sjoberg | 4 Dec 2010 |
So I've been accused elsewhere in the blogosphere (not linked here because of profane language) of just posting a lot of overlong (language cleaned up) definitions in service of a poststructuralist cause which is "irrelevant (insert choice words here)." I could get all defensive or argumentative (insert sarcastic comment about feminists here), but I think that I'll those comments as proof that perhaps the explaining needs to continue. I posted...
by Dan Nexon | 3 Dec 2010 |
We're pleased to introduce a new guest blogger, PM, whose first post -- on the contemporary field of International Political Economy (IPE) and the continuing financial crisis -- appears just below. He should do an excellent job of improving our coverage of multiple facets of international politics, and we're looking forward to his future contributions.
Recent developments in Europe, and especially the ongoing meltdown in Ireland, should force political economists to reevaluate how well their theories can explain the perpetuation of current international regimes. The past twenty years of IPE theorizing has been exceptionally exciting and productive, but as Kathleen McNamara and others have argued the tendency toward intellectual monoculture may have left the discipline without a toolkit for...
by Charli Carpenter | 3 Dec 2010 |
I've been asked over the past week to comment on Wikileaks in the press, primarily to answer the question "is Wikileaks good or bad?" It may seem like a silly way to frame the debate (and I'm grateful to Vikash especially for trying to move the debate forward) but that's where the media cycle remains. And it's a fair question for the media to be trying to sort out: the Wikileaks site (currently down) claims that “publishing improves...
by Jon Western | 3 Dec 2010 |
I really like the posts from Vikash and from Chris and at the risk of a bit of overkill on the topic (and upsetting Bill's stomach further), I'll add one more angle. This is from my monthly column at Current Intelligence:...aside from a small cadre of foreign policy scholars, a few foreign national intelligence services, and Jon Stewart, I’m not sure who benefits from this release. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s stated intent for the...