1. Summarize key points.
I guess I'll have to keep reading to find out... I can't wait :)
***
To tie into Bataille (I also added this to my Bataille reading):
I found a Serres reference on another passing over of the text, in the section on man's extension through technology: "In actual fact the quantitative relations of population and toolmaking -and, in general, the conditions of economic development in history -are subject to so many interferences that it is always difficult to determine their exact distribution." (my emphasis). This is static, which is actually scattered all throughout this piece, and I'm noticing it particularly in this portion. There are a lot of little interruptions. Man is parasitized by his tools (at first the economy grows, but the parasite sucks out enough energy to drop demographic curves after a while) and he also parasitizes the resources to make his tools (or rather consumes them and turns them into growth, which I think might be different...). Man parasitizes his tools for new tools and new energy, until the surplus energy and tools parasitize the system and there is no more room for growth... I might be grasping at straws here, I'm really tired, but it sounded cool in my head.
My burgeoning idea is that Bataille's Excess and Serres' The Parasite are very closely related to one another. The parasite feeds on excess of any sort, and is present at the beginning of the process of extension, in any system, eating another's waste if it's edible or licking the organism or process itself. The parasite, in turn, can either interrupt the system, or catalyze the generation of something novel (such as nicotine in plants to ward of herbivores and other curious insects...).
3. Words I learned!
epistemology: a philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.
polyphony: a diversity of independent but harmonizing melodies.
information theory: A branch of mathematics that mathematically defines and analyzes the concept of information. Information theory involves statistics and probability theory, and applications include the design of systems that have to do with data transmission, encryption, compression, and other information processing.
I have yet to finish this reading. My summary will only cover material up until page 17, Diminishing Returns (it’s seriously an awesome reading, but I seem to only comprehend it at about 3am, so my reading times are very limited).
An immediate pull into this reading came from the Translator’s Preface, and his mention of French words that contain multiple meanings. Throughout the piece, multiplicity of meaning is the basis for dichotomies (like black and white) engaging in a circular game of chase (black chases white chases black = grey). For example we have the parasite, which eats next to (or eats of) another, or interrupts through noise the processes of an individual. As his piece continues, we come to recognize that a curiosity of these nuanced words like parasite is probably one of the foundations of Serres’ insight and philosophical engagement. A guest is a host and vice versa. The parasite has the capacity to evoke change. To invite Bataille into the conversation (playing both the guest and the host), we could hypothesize that the parasite exists because there is excess. When there is enough luxury to feed yourself and others, whether you will it or not, the potential for change and novelty increases.
Finally, one of the initial curiosities that seems to drive Serres’ investigation is the same as the premise for this course (and I wonder if this book was perhaps Thurtle’s initial inspiration); how do so many human endeavors tie together? How much can we really know; how do these fields of investigation influence our perception of the world and our undertakings for new knowledge in society? In Serres’ opinion,
“such a parasite is responsible for the growth of the system's complexity, such a parasite stops it. The other question is still there: are we in the pathology of systems or in their emergence and evolution?”
I guess I'll have to keep reading to find out... I can't wait :)
***
To tie into Bataille (I also added this to my Bataille reading):
I found a Serres reference on another passing over of the text, in the section on man's extension through technology: "In actual fact the quantitative relations of population and toolmaking -and, in general, the conditions of economic development in history -are subject to so many interferences that it is always difficult to determine their exact distribution." (my emphasis). This is static, which is actually scattered all throughout this piece, and I'm noticing it particularly in this portion. There are a lot of little interruptions. Man is parasitized by his tools (at first the economy grows, but the parasite sucks out enough energy to drop demographic curves after a while) and he also parasitizes the resources to make his tools (or rather consumes them and turns them into growth, which I think might be different...). Man parasitizes his tools for new tools and new energy, until the surplus energy and tools parasitize the system and there is no more room for growth... I might be grasping at straws here, I'm really tired, but it sounded cool in my head.
My burgeoning idea is that Bataille's Excess and Serres' The Parasite are very closely related to one another. The parasite feeds on excess of any sort, and is present at the beginning of the process of extension, in any system, eating another's waste if it's edible or licking the organism or process itself. The parasite, in turn, can either interrupt the system, or catalyze the generation of something novel (such as nicotine in plants to ward of herbivores and other curious insects...).
3. Words I learned!
epistemology: a philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity.
polyphony: a diversity of independent but harmonizing melodies.
information theory: A branch of mathematics that mathematically defines and analyzes the concept of information. Information theory involves statistics and probability theory, and applications include the design of systems that have to do with data transmission, encryption, compression, and other information processing.
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