
Anti-Computing
Dissent and the Machine
Caroline Bassett(Author)
Manchester University Press
Published on 22. February 2022
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-7190-8378-5 (ISBN)
Description
We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation. Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its operations.
Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. -- .
Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital humanities and associated fields at all levels.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence. -- .
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Manchester
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
3 tables
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
454 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7190-8378-5 (9780719083785)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2022
Manchester University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Caroline Bassett is Professor of Digital Humanities at the University of Cambridge -- .
Content
1 Anti computing: A provisional taxonomy
2 Discontinuous continuity: How anti-computing time travels
3 A most political performance: Treachery, the archive and the database
4 Arendt, automation, and the cybercultural revolution
5 Polemical acts of rare extremism: Two cultures and (Another) Hat
6 Apostacy in the temple of technology: ELIZA the more than mechanical therapist
7 Those in love with quantum filth: Science Fiction, singularity and the flesh
Conclusion: A distant reading of the contemporary moment
Index -- .
2 Discontinuous continuity: How anti-computing time travels
3 A most political performance: Treachery, the archive and the database
4 Arendt, automation, and the cybercultural revolution
5 Polemical acts of rare extremism: Two cultures and (Another) Hat
6 Apostacy in the temple of technology: ELIZA the more than mechanical therapist
7 Those in love with quantum filth: Science Fiction, singularity and the flesh
Conclusion: A distant reading of the contemporary moment
Index -- .