Your Mother Was a WHAT?

While I still believe that condensing N. Katherine Hayles’ “The Dream of Information” (the third chapter in My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts) into a “concise and comprehensive” (as stated by Kim) blog post is about as simple as decapitating live swine with a toothpick, here goes nothing:

One day the “Regime of Scarcity” (62) is strolling through the park. He functions on a conservative law wherein energy lost is equivalent to matter lost; that is, when he throws a penny into the fountain, neither he nor anybody else will be able to throw that exact penny into the fountain again, thus both the coin and the opportunity to throw the coin into the fountain are gone forever. Accompanying him in the park is the “Dream of Information” (63), who, unlike her acquaintance, functions on a law of costless sharing; that is, she may counterfeit the exact same penny and throw its currencied clones into many water fountains and still retain the original penny, thus she has shared the coin without losing the coin or the possibility to share the coin again.

Metaphors aside for a moment, the latter character is a key component to what Hayles titles the “Economy of Information” (63), where possession has no reason to exist: when information is widely shared and seems infinite, there’s no need to hoard any of it. She states that in a world run by the Economy of Information, there would be no need for “social position” or “economic class,” (63) since these resources would be available to everybody: surely an ultimate Equal Rights Movement. She also applies this to a loss of possession of the self, when all human beings are interconnected not as individuals, but as a combined, identity-less information system: sort of a Nirvana-like state for the masses. In this world, the personified “Dream of Information” is not a single being throwing a penny into the fountain, but all beings in one, sharing coins endlessly.

Remember this, however: the Regime of Scarcity and the Economy of Information coexist peacefully (somewhat) by the water fountain in the middle of the park. How? According to Hayles, there are three specific “feedback cycles” (64) connecting the two (communication between human bodies and technological mediums, changes of perspective in a pendulum-like motion between both, and a shift from printed language to typed code), which are emphasized in the remainder of the chapter through three fiction pieces spanning the last century. Let’s sum up some lessons learned briefly:

Henry James’ “In the Cage.” The imagination is a perfect escape from reality and will most likely become a desired reality eventually. Changes in code may be more significant than the meaning of content.

Philip K. Dick’s The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The “self” need not be constrained within the body, if there is a “self” at all. Always question what reality truly is.

James Triptree’s “The Girl Who Was Plugged In.” Never associate identity only with the body. Always be in control of the machine before the machine controls you.

While I realize it is not a text, the work that kept reeling through my mind as I was reading this chapter was the movie Being John Malkovich (particularly the section of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch when the concept of subjectivity from the doll is introduced), where John Cusack plays a puppeteer who discovers a porthole to John Malkovich’s mind. There is an incredible amount of speculation of the “self” throughout this movie: if you enter another person’s medium, are you yourself, are you that person, are you some combination of the two? Here is the scene that occurs after John Malkovich has physically entered the porthole to his own mind and his sense of self is heightened.

Is this to say that when the physical self meets the mental self, the surrounding “reality” becomes the complete self only? Does this support the belief that the physical self and mental self aren’t one and the same? Or does it imply that that our current “reality” is only an illusion and the only thing that’s “real” in the world is only the self? If you haven’t seen it, rent the movie. You’ll enjoy it, trust me.

There are an abundant number of points that Hayles is hitting in this chapter (which is why this post may seem a little chaotic: think of Jell-O thrown into a ceiling fan) in regards to “The Economy of Information.” However, keep this one in mind: THE “DREAM OF INFORMATION” OPENS THE DOOR TO A WORLD OF COMMUNICATION AND SHARING VOID OF POSSESSIVE RESTRICTIONS AND COSTS. I believe this concept helps contemporary literature significantly: it offers an endless amount of publication possibilities for current writers, allowing for them to spread their works to an untold number of masses with less of a possibility of an “Out-of-Print” notice. This is the main reason I endorse online literary journals. Haven’t seen any yet? Try Holy Cuspidor. Joe will appreciate it.

And here: Have a review of My Mother Was A Computer by Neil Easterbrook. (Science Fiction Studies, 2006) See how revered N. Katherine Hayles is in the field of science fiction!

Hope this was at least a little bit helpful. This imbecile posing as a Master’s student appreciates you taking the time to read this post. See you all on Tuesday!