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 \chapter{}
 
-How did this development come to be?
-Surely more forces were at work than \enquote{Progress?} 
-This essay is not a history of the
-information
-revolution, but some
-mention
-must be made in passing. At some point
-during the Second
-World
-War, a series of
-decisions to computerize were reached. The
-overriding concerns were military and intelligence applications. It should be noted that
-private industry would never have invested
-in this, or any other development. Without
-government investment, bankers are paragons of timidity.
+How did this development come to be? Surely more forces were at work than \enquote{Progress?} This
+essay is not a history of the information revolution, but some mention must be made in passing. At
+some point during the Second World War, a series of decisions to computerize were reached. The
+overriding concerns were military and intelligence applications. It should be noted that private
+industry would never have invested in this, or any other development. Without government investment,
+bankers are paragons of timidity. 
 
-The founders of the information, or cybernetic age, were Alan Turing, John Von
-Neuman, Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon
-and later, Noam Chomsky. Hordes of electrical engineers --- whether they understood
-what they were doing or not --- reworked almost every philosophical problem known to
-humans in terms of circuitry and programming languages. These problems began, of
-course, centuries ago. For instance the epistimological question: what is knowledge,
-how do we know, how do we know we
-know, how does it relate to the world outside, who controls knowledge, who has it
-and who does not, what is it worth, how do
-we talk about it (which is the question of
-what language we shall use and how shall
-we talk), and what instrumentalities we perceive through.
+The founders of the information, or cybernetic age, were Alan Turing, John Von Neuman, Norbert
+Wiener, Claude Shannon and later, Noam Chomsky. Hordes of electrical engineers---whether they
+understood what they were doing or not---reworked almost every philosophical problem known to
+humans in terms of circuitry and programming languages. These problems began, of course, centuries
+ago. For instance the epistimological question: what is knowledge, how do we know, how do we know we
+know, how does it relate to the world outside, who controls knowledge, who has it and who does not,
+what is it worth, how do we talk about it (which is the question of what language we shall use and
+how shall we talk), and what instrumentalities we perceive through. 
 
-Questions of the technology of knowing
-must be interwoven with political and economic
-considerations (within the confines
-of what is scientifically and technologically
-possible), which is to say knowledge systems are structured like intelligence and
-counter-intelligence systems. There is to be
-written a whole history of secret and coded
-knowledges... priestly systems, rites, hierarchies and ceremonies of learning and
-passage, memory systems, networks of initiates. . . In addition, one should ask: why did
-one set of systems triumph—that is to say,
-why were they preserved, and rrmembered—
-and others fail? There is room for a history of
-the politics of the promotion, funding and
-triumph of intellectual knowledge systems
-and this includes the rememberance of the
-major streams of philosophy. Philosophy is
-one of the atmospheric backgrounds which
-provides for a general and unified state of
-perception against which day to day knowledge is learned.
+Questions of the technology of knowing must be interwoven with political and economic considerations
+(within the confines of what is scientifically and technologically possible), which is to say
+knowledge systems are structured like intelligence and counter-intelligence systems. There is to be
+written a whole history of secret and coded knowledges\ldots\ priestly systems, rites, hierarchies and
+ceremonies of learning and passage, memory systems, networks of initiates\ldots\ In addition, one should
+ask: why did one set of systems triumph---that is to say, why were they preserved, and
+remembered---and others fail? There is room for a history of the politics of the promotion, funding
+and triumph of intellectual knowledge systems and this includes the rememberance of the major
+streams of philosophy. Philosophy is one of the atmospheric backgrounds which provides for a general
+and unified state of perception against which day to day knowledge is learned. 
 
-The original choices for computers, binary, Boolean (Leibnizian, as Wiener would
-have it) logic, reflected a dialectical, even a
-Manichean approach and was an unfortunate decision. Why these choices? It was
-easier to design electrical circuits that could
-carry out the logic operations.
+The original choices for computers, binary, Boolean (Leibnizian, as Wiener would have it) logic,
+reflected a dialectical, even a Manichean approach and was an unfortunate decision. Why these
+choices? It was easier to design electrical circuits that could carry out the logic operations. 
 
-The system began slowly, went on line
-massively with mainframes and minis in the
-fifties, mostly
-in defense
-and intelligence
-applications, followed closely by banking
-and business.
+The system began slowly, went on line massively with mainframes and minis in the fifties, mostly in
+defense and intelligence applications, followed closely by banking and business. 
 
-In the seventies, a massive campaign was
-mounted to \enquote{democratize} the computer.
-The micro was developed by small, innovative businessmen-technicians.
-Sales propaganda was disseminated
-in the name of enlightenment, efficiency, transcendance
-and power. Every possible sales technique
-known to public relations, advertising and
-mythology was employed to sell the computer.
-Not only were ancient and modern
-symbols deployed, but also fear. It became
-possible, we were told, to have a computer in
-the home that was once as large as a building
-... and did the same work.
+In the seventies, a massive campaign was mounted to \enquote{democratize} the computer. The micro
+was developed by small, innovative businessmen-technicians. Sales propaganda was disseminated in the
+name of enlightenment, efficiency, transcendance and power. Every possible sales technique known to
+public relations, advertising and mythology was employed to sell the computer. Not only were ancient
+and modern symbols deployed, but also fear. It became possible, we were told, to have a computer in
+the home that was once as large as a building\ldots\ and did the same work. 
 
-One notes the parallel developments and
-\enquote{needs}: The committment to the Great
-Theater of perpetual war as the pressure
-system out of which innovation and invention and progress came. This generated a
-need for a vast corps of mind-workers. Cheap
-education produced intellectuals. This led
-not only to the further proliferation of mindworkers, but of mediators and mediational
-systems. Intelligence and police (and their
-surveillance systems); psychologists and
-their theories; many schools of psychotherapy; sociologists; anthropologists; analysts;
-coders and decoders; cryptographers and decryption experts; 
-disinformation-propagating operatives; advertisers; public-relations
-flacks; consultants; historians in fifty modes;
-economists, both practical and theoretical;
-financial manipulators, and the buyers of
-their services (bankers, securities dealers,
-brokers, currency dialecticians); new critics;
-hermeneuticists; structuralists; semioticians;
-deconstructionists; quantifiers; metricians;
-statisticians; propagandists; accountants and
-auditors; lawyers and proliferators of law;
-interactivists (and their connecting machineries); cosmic and microcosmic theoreticians;
-agronomists; doctors; philosophical logicians
-and inventors of yet newer and newer mathematics; salesmen; priests and ministers and
-inventors of yet-new religions; logical and
-scientific astrologers... And now, in the
-present age, all this to be machined.
+One notes the parallel developments and \enquote{needs}: The committment to the Great Theater of
+perpetual war as the pressure system out of which innovation and invention and progress came. This
+generated a need for a vast corps of mind-workers. Cheap education produced intellectuals. This led
+not only to the further proliferation of mindworkers, but of mediators and mediational systems.
+Intelligence and police (and their surveillance systems); psychologists and their theories; many
+schools of psychotherapy; sociologists; anthropologists; analysts; coders and decoders;
+cryptographers and decryption experts; disinformation-propagating operatives; advertisers;
+public-relations flacks; consultants; historians in fifty modes; economists, both practical and
+theoretical; financial manipulators, and the buyers of their services (bankers, securities dealers,
+brokers, currency dialecticians); new critics; hermeneuticists; structuralists; semioticians;
+deconstructionists; quantifiers; metricians; statisticians; propagandists; accountants and auditors;
+lawyers and proliferators of law; interactivists (and their connecting machineries); cosmic and
+microcosmic theoreticians; agronomists; doctors; philosophical logicians and inventors of yet newer
+and newer mathematics; salesmen; priests and ministers and inventors of yet-new religions; logical
+and scientific astrologers\ldots\ And now, in the present age, all this to be machined. 
 
-They sought both unity and fragmentation. Now one must admit that there is a
-propensity in some humans to generate new
-unifying theories and technologies while
-at the same time inventing and proliferating new explanatory systems and new subtheories . . . all of which promise to explain
-everything. This seems to be a function of
-the density of intellectuals, in terms of availability of jobs and competition, both relative
-and absolute, to a general and non-theorizing
-population. This insures that a fair percentage of those theories will be nonsensical, if
-not fraudulent... which is no impediment to
-their triumph.
+They sought both unity and fragmentation. Now one must admit that there is a propensity in some
+humans to generate new unifying theories and technologies while at the same time inventing and
+proliferating new explanatory systems and new subtheories\ldots\ all of which promise to explain
+everything. This seems to be a function of the density of intellectuals, in terms of availability of
+jobs and competition, both relative and absolute, to a general and non-theorizing population. This
+insures that a fair percentage of those theories will be nonsensical, if not fraudulent\ldots\ which is
+no impediment to their triumph. 
 
-In addition, general systems theory took
-hold, and every aspect of the universe was
-designated a sub-system of some larger system and the largest --- and unknown --- system
-of all was a function of these bureaucratically
-minded spinners of holisms.
+In addition, general systems theory took hold, and every aspect of the universe was designated a
+sub-system of some larger system and the largest---and unknown---system of all was a function of
+these bureaucratically minded spinners of holisms. 
 
-The early cyberneticians thought that this
-development would add to—if not exponentially, then at least incrementally—the sum of
-human knowledge. Accompanying this development was an ancient agenda: the compulsion to impose order, predictability, to
-eliminate risk and uncertainty. But as far as
-this ancient agenda was concerned, the commitment should be shared, paid for by some
-part of the public. New processes would in
-turn create still newer knowledge. And, as all
-things happen in this modern society, the
-\enquote{system,}
-with
-all of its attendant
-confusions, complexities and corruptions, with its
-intense conflicts among the different programs, systems and equipment 
-manufacturers, with its political and business battles, has
-been laid on in the most haphazard, ridiculous, expensive, inefficient and disorganized
-way (repeating our earlier history of canals,
-railroads, highways, transit systems, communications and technology in general). We
-now have a conflict of computer, communicating and language-conversion systems
-with many fundamental problems still unsolved.
+The early cyberneticians thought that this development would add to---if not exponentially, then at
+least incrementally---the sum of human knowledge. Accompanying this development was an ancient
+agenda: the compulsion to impose order, predictability, to eliminate risk and uncertainty. But as
+far as this ancient agenda was concerned, the commitment should be shared, paid for by some part of
+the public. New processes would in turn create still newer knowledge. And, as all things happen in
+this modern society, the \enquote{system,} with all of its attendant confusions, complexities and
+corruptions, with its intense conflicts among the different programs, systems and equipment
+manufacturers, with its political and business battles, has been laid on in the most haphazard,
+ridiculous, expensive, inefficient and disorganized way (repeating our earlier history of canals,
+railroads, highways, transit systems, communications and technology in general). We now have a
+conflict of computer, communicating and language-conversion systems with many fundamental problems
+still unsolved. 
 
 
-(And here, lest we forget that the problem
-is not merely \enquote{intellectual,} we must remember concrete institutions with which
-intellectuals are connected,
-and who provide their funding. How, and to whom, ideas
-are sold: we must think about AT\&T, Sperry-Rand, IT\&T, IBM, Citicorp and Chase... We
-must also not forget that there are unwritten
-and true histories to be done of the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the CIA, all intelligence agencies of the
-world, and how the intellectual thought of
-these agencies permeates every aspect of
-everyday life. We must think about the politics of international and national communications policy and how these issues are
-fought out in corporations, legislative bodies
-and regulatory agencies. We must think of
-pricing, advertising, marketing, promotion,
-generations of faulty computers, paper computers, imbecilic
-competiton, suppression of innovation, influence-peddling, lobbying,
-bribes, kickbacks and the rest of the common
-paraphenalia of business ... especially at a
-time when business becomes ever-more
-\enquote{intellectualized.})
+(And here, lest we forget that the problem is not merely \enquote{intellectual,} we must remember
+concrete institutions with which intellectuals are connected, and who provide their funding. How,
+and to whom, ideas are sold: we must think about AT\&T, Sperry-Rand, IT\&T, IBM, Citicorp and
+Chase\ldots\ We must also not forget that there are unwritten and true histories to be done of the
+Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, the CIA, all intelligence agencies of the
+world, and how the intellectual thought of these agencies permeates every aspect of everyday life.
+We must think about the politics of international and national communications policy and how these
+issues are fought out in corporations, legislative bodies and regulatory agencies. We must think of
+pricing, advertising, marketing, promotion, generations of faulty computers, paper computers,
+imbecilic competiton, suppression of innovation, influence-peddling, lobbying, bribes, kickbacks and
+the rest of the common paraphenalia of business\ldots\ especially at a time when business becomes
+ever-more \enquote{intellectualized.}) 
 
-There was a nescessity to translate all
-living and non-living forms, to simulate
-events and natural processes, to chart their
-interactions and simulate thse interrelations
-and to begin to fill the memory and data
-banks. This growing assemblage gradually
-becomes the total environment ... at least
-for a few. These developments are new but
-are also, at the same time, the fulfillment of
-an ancient desire: to control the material
-world by the manipulation of secret know]ledge (secret, in modern times, by being
-priced, being made into intellectual property, being classified). How does this differ
-from the practices of ancient priests, shamans, magicians?
+There was a nescessity to translate all living and non-living forms, to simulate events and natural
+processes, to chart their interactions and simulate thse interrelations and to begin to fill the
+memory and data banks. This growing assemblage gradually becomes the total environment\ldots\ at least
+for a few. These developments are new but are also, at the same time, the fulfillment of an ancient
+desire: to control the material world by the manipulation of secret know]ledge (secret, in modern
+times, by being priced, being made into intellectual property, being classified). How does this
+differ from the practices of ancient priests, shamans, magicians? 
 
-Ancient magicians thought they could
-control the environment. How did information 
-control the material world in the past?
-By assuming a connection between the 
-internal system of intellectual order and the 
-\emph{external} system of \emph{material} order. One 
-controlled the cosmos by the uses of resonances
-and dissonances, rhythms compatible with
-the true natural rhythm of the spheres, by the
-use of a chant, an incantation, a dance, a 
-ritual; or one could apply sacred geometry,
-controlling shapes that were analogous to
-the shape of the worlds one wanted to dominate\ldots\ magic. Magic embodies a primitive
-theory of electromagnetism and telecommunication. 
-Magic desires to achieve telepathy
-and teleportation. Voodoo, for instance, contains 
-the notion of a communicating medium
-and the communicants who believe in it.
-The Catholic Church is a communicating
-organism with an apparatus of switches and
-relays and a communicating language for
-the input of prayers through a churchly
-switchboard up to Heaven, and outputs returned 
-to the supplicant. And above all, all
-ancient and primitive systems implicitly
-propose the notion of an ordered, coherant
-universe, expressible in a certain set of languages,
-the manipulation of which manipulates 
-the universe. The question is: do these
-systems manipulate the universe or a simulation 
-of the universe? What certain intellectuals 
-in modern society propose is electromagic.
+Ancient magicians thought they could control the environment. How did information control the
+material world in the past? By assuming a connection between the internal system of intellectual
+order and the \emph{external} system of \emph{material} order. One controlled the cosmos by the uses
+of resonances and dissonances, rhythms compatible with the true natural rhythm of the spheres, by
+the use of a chant, an incantation, a dance, a ritual; or one could apply sacred geometry,
+controlling shapes that were analogous to the shape of the worlds one wanted to dominate\ldots\
+magic. Magic embodies a primitive theory of electromagnetism and telecommunication. Magic desires to
+achieve telepathy and teleportation. Voodoo, for instance, contains the notion of a communicating
+medium and the communicants who believe in it. The Catholic Church is a communicating organism with
+an apparatus of switches and relays and a communicating language for the input of prayers through a
+churchly switchboard up to Heaven, and outputs returned to the supplicant. And above all, all
+ancient and primitive systems implicitly propose the notion of an ordered, coherant universe,
+expressible in a certain set of languages, the manipulation of which manipulates the universe. The
+question is: do these systems manipulate the universe or a simulation of the universe? What certain
+intellectuals in modern society propose is electromagic.