Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Digital materiality? How artifacts without matter, matter

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
First Monday this month has an issue devoted to digital objects and experience. This is a subject of interest to me - not because of the digital, as you may think, but because of the intersection with epistemology and ontology. Though honestly I think I'm far less concerned about the state and nature of digital being and experience than most commentators, because, from where I sit, if we experience it. it doesn't matter whether it's digital or non-digital, it's real, and that's enough for me. On the other hand, the existence of abstracts - like, say, organizations - is to me much more tenuous. While I'm comfortable assigning causality, say, to digital entities, I am much less comfortable assigning causality to organizations. What do I conclude from that? Digital entities are not non-physical in the way organizations are non-physical. Contra, I would say, the author of this article.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Nov 04, 2024 5:59 p.m.

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