{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","id":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","uuid":"8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age The Spirit of Networks","normalized_title":"mediaandnewcapitalisminthedigitalagethespiritofnetworks","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9781349379743","isbns":["9781349379743","9780230106062"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":258,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Media%20and%20New%20Capitalism%20in%20the%20Digital%20Age%20The%20Spirit%20of%20Networks","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/8a3d8546-8fbb-485e-b423-37bc08c3284a/search"},"page":{"printed_page":161,"pdf_page":163,"physical_index":163,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"a71105cee346c3268d19766ccf0bd5ef678ae4860a2d59daf46d9f7374473c12"},"chapter":"Media and New Capitalism in the Digital Age","content":"But these encounters were as much about training the computer as they were about training Nagle; the computer had to be acquainted with Nagle. The reporter describes the following: “I watched [as the researcher] takes Nagle through a typical training session. He tracked Nagle’s mental activity on two large monitors, one of which displayed a graph of red and green spiking lines. Each spike represented the firing of clusters of neurons. As Nagle performed specific actions in his mind’s eye . . . the electrodes picked up the patterns of nearby neuron groups. Then BrainGate amplified and recorded the corresponding electrical activity. Over dozens of trials the computer built a filter that associated specific neural patterns with certain movements . . . The machine was memorizing Nagle’s characteristic neural firing patterns” (Martin 2005). This mutual training and learning cannot be underestimated. Since as the machine and the human form mutual recognition and become acquainted with each other they become, according to the digital discourse, indistinguishable, they merge into a singular, posthuman entity, a cyborg.\n\nDISTRIB<sub>U</sub>TED SE<sub>L</sub>F\n\nFor the cyborg Matt Nagle, being entails a close interaction with information technology. The author captures this narrative succinctly after a short conversation with Nagle: “What are you thinking about when you move the cursor? I asked. ‘For a while I was thinking about moving the mouse with my hand,’ Nagle replied. ‘Now I just imagine moving the cursor from place to place.’ In other words, Nagle’s brain has assimilated the system. The cursor is as much a part of his self as his arms and legs were” (Martin 2005, emphasis mine). Together with the computer, Nagle forms a network, and so he, too, becomes networked and distributed among various computational devises: his brain, BrainGate, and so forth. That is true both in functional terms and in terms of his sense of self and identity.\n\nThe digital discourse on the network human mimics some of the postmodern sensibilities regarding identity, particularly ideas regarding the constructed and nonessentialized character of identity. But paradoxically, perhaps, the digital discourse also carries strong essentialist assumptions that are closely linked with network technology. According to the digital discourse, network technology resonates with the essence of humanness. Only this essence is now presumed to reside in the human hardware (i.e., the brain) rather than the software (i.e., personality, character, and so forth). This anchoring of human ontology in the brain is manifested, for example, in a story about skills of the informational elite, “Revenge of the Right Brain” (Pink 2005).\n\nNetwork Human\n\n161","previous_page":160,"next_page":162}