{"product_id":"the-digital-and-its-discontents-paperback-softback-9781517916329","title":"The Digital and Its Discontents (Paperback \/ softback) 9781517916329","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eThe Digital and Its Discontents\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAden Evens (Author), Alexander R. Galloway (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781517916329\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003ePaperback \/ softback, published 27 February 2024\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e264 pages, 1 table\u003cbr\u003e21.6 x 14 x 1.3 cm, 0.34 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e \"This book argues that the digital’s decisive discreteness is actually an intensification of a dominant predigital ideology. Such a perspective supposes a parsable world that blinds us to an actuality of elusive contingency. Drawing on deep understandings of digital technology and philosophy, Aden Evens demystifies crucial arcane features with startlingly lucid and accessible explanations, all while summoning a world that defies explanation.\"-Katherine Behar, Baruch College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eThe Digital and Its Discontents\u003c\/i\u003e will be illuminating for anyone who has ever twisted their speech into discrete, mechanical sounds to please a voice-recognition system. Determined to resist the digital imperative to speak, write, think, and ultimately be like a machine, Aden Evens reaches for contingency as the ontological spice that distinguishes actuality from virtuality. And he flavors his formalist approach with vignettes that compare human and digital relationality in scenes that range from playing a video game or a cello to hitting a baseball or squishing a lemon.\"-Marcel O’Gorman, founding director, Critical Media Lab, University of Waterloo \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \"Anyone interested in digital studies will undoubtedly find [\u003ci\u003eThe Digital and Its Discontents\u003c\/i\u003e] informative and useful.\"-\u003ci\u003eCHOICE\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA groundbreaking critique of the digital world that analyzes its universal technological foundations\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e   \u003cp\u003e Whence that nagging sense that something in the digital is amiss-that, as wonderful as our devices are, time spent on smartphones and computers leaves us sour, enervated, alienated? \u003ci\u003eThe Digital and Its Discontents\u003c\/i\u003e uniquely explains that worry and points us toward a more satisfying relationship between our digital lives and our nondigital selves, one that requires a radical change in the way we incorporate technology into our lives. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Aden Evens analyzes universal technological principles-in particular, the binary logic-to show that they encourage certain ways of thinking while making others more challenging or impossible. What is out of reach for any digital machine is \u003ci\u003econtingency,\u003c\/i\u003e the ontological principle that refuses every rule. As humans engage ourselves and our world ever more through digital machines, we are losing touch with contingency and so banishing from our lives the accidental and unexpected that fuel our most creative and novel possibilities for living. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Taking cues from philosophy rather than cultural or media theory, Evens argues that the consequences of this erosion of contingency are significant yet often overlooked because the same values that make the digital seem so desirable also make contingency seem unimportant-without contingency the digital is confined to what has already been thought, and yet the digital’s ubiquity has allowed it to disguise this inherent sterility. Responsive only to desires that meet the demands of its narrow logic, the digital requires its users to practice those same ideological dictates, instituting a hegemony of thought and value sustained by the pervasive presence of digital mechanisms. Interweaving technical and philosophical concepts, \u003ci\u003eThe Digital and Its Discontents\u003c\/i\u003e advances a powerful and urgent argument about the digital and its impact on our lives. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e   \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRetail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e Contents \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Foreword \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Alexander R. Galloway \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Introduction \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 1. Approaching the Digital \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 2. What Does the Digital Do? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 3. Ontology and Contingency \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 4. Ontology of the Digital \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 5. From Bits to the Interface \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 6. What Does the Digital Do to Us? \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e 7. But . . . \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Acknowledgments \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Notes \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Bibliography \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e Index \u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"Univ Of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52681229107480,"sku":"9781517916329","price":20.86,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-digital-and-its-discontents-paperback-softback-9781517916329","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}