
Bits of Time
Thinking Temporally in a Digital World
Nigel Raab(Author)
University of Toronto Press
Will be published approx. on 2. February 2027
Book
Hardback
216 pages
978-1-4875-4880-3 (ISBN)
Description
Bits of Time explores how the digital age reshapes our understanding of time. Tracing the long and complex history of temporal thought, the book situates today's digital timekeeping within centuries of evolving social, cultural, and scientific practices - from Galileo's separation of time from its social context to the regimented use of schedules to the repetitive rhythms of the digital timekeeper.
In the digital world, time becomes fragmented, recorded, and endlessly reordered. Each timestamp, archive, or captured webpage reflects an obsessive impulse to measure and preserve the fleeting present. Drawing on examples from Einstein's relativity and Walter Benjamin's reflections on mechanical reproduction to the longue duree of the Annales School, Bits of Time shows how digital temporality transforms foundational humanist concepts.
Challenging the dominance of spatial frameworks in digital humanities, historian Nigel Raab restores time to the center of critical inquiry. The book reveals how digital technology's discrete, flexible, and repetitive treatment of time reshapes not only how we record the world but how we think within it.
In the digital world, time becomes fragmented, recorded, and endlessly reordered. Each timestamp, archive, or captured webpage reflects an obsessive impulse to measure and preserve the fleeting present. Drawing on examples from Einstein's relativity and Walter Benjamin's reflections on mechanical reproduction to the longue duree of the Annales School, Bits of Time shows how digital temporality transforms foundational humanist concepts.
Challenging the dominance of spatial frameworks in digital humanities, historian Nigel Raab restores time to the center of critical inquiry. The book reveals how digital technology's discrete, flexible, and repetitive treatment of time reshapes not only how we record the world but how we think within it.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
10 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
1 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4875-4880-3 (9781487548803)
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
Person
Nigel Raab is professor of history at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Content
1: Humanistic Reflections on Digital Time
2: Digital Time and Elements of Social Construction
3: Digital Time as an Indexed and Ordered Phenomenon
4: Digital Time and its Intersection with Scientific Ideas
5: Digital Time and its Intersection with Digital Visualizations
6: Digital Repetition and its Impact on Benjamin's Concept of Technical Reproduction
7: Living in Digital Time
8: Digital Time and Historians
9: Digital Time and Philosophical Speculation
10: Conclusion
2: Digital Time and Elements of Social Construction
3: Digital Time as an Indexed and Ordered Phenomenon
4: Digital Time and its Intersection with Scientific Ideas
5: Digital Time and its Intersection with Digital Visualizations
6: Digital Repetition and its Impact on Benjamin's Concept of Technical Reproduction
7: Living in Digital Time
8: Digital Time and Historians
9: Digital Time and Philosophical Speculation
10: Conclusion