Journalism, Writing Technologies - Essay Example

?Writing Technologies Speaking about writing technologies, Katherine Hayles declared that “language alone is no longer the distinctive characteristicof technologically developed societies; rather, it is language plus code’ (Hayles, 2005, p16).1 This conclusion came in her discourse about the interdependence of texts and technologies that characterize the contemporary language trend. The dynamics of the relationship between language and code were the basis of this theory. The question now is whether such claim is true. This paper will attempt to find this out and for this purpose, Hayles’ essay, Speech, Writing, Code: Three Worldviews, will be examined. Her arguments, especially those that suggest how language evolved out of mathematical algorithms, will also be compared with other theoretical models such as the remediation concept as posited by Bolter and Grusin (2000). Language and Code Codes refer to the advanced writing techniques that translate natural languages to executable programs through a structured process of gradual refinement. The argument about how codes are increasingly becoming part of society is anchored on the logical evolution of language. Hayles pointed out that it has always changed across different periods of human history, adapting and changing according to the social triggers that disrupt the language systems. According to Aitchison (2001), such social triggers accelerate deeper causes and hidden tendencies that lie dormant within a language (Aitchison, p153)2. The explanation of this phenomenon can be quite complex and could assume scientific, psychological and cultural perspectives. Nonetheless, they reveal the agreement that languages are bound to be affected by the speakers’ environment. This is the raison d’etat behind the conventional claims about the impact of the code in modern society. Technology has dominated much of human activities with the way computers and other information and communication machines have increasingly become integrated in man’s way of life. There are, for instance, those who will argue that life will be difficult without a mobile phone or work cannot be performed without the Internet or computers. What happened was that technology became indispensable and machines have influenced human faculties and activities. Technological codes have been integrated in several aspects of human lifestyle such as how codes are embedded in commercial product cycles and into the wider capitalist system itself. These reasons, however, belong to a school that conventionally explains how technology impacts language and writing. Hayles has suggested a different perspective in interpreting the role of codes in language and its development. She invoked a growing school of thought that argues how the universe is fundamentally computational, elevating code as some lingua franca not only of machines but of all physical reality (Hayles, p15).3 In the context of writing, for instance, there is the claim that its earliest precursor is mathematics and not pictures that many believe led to syllabic writing and phonetics (Liu, 2010, p315).4 This position made writing a complex set of semiotic situations rather than mere recording of what is spoken. This theory has enabled Hayles to explain a deeper relationship between code, language, society and technology. She was able to develop a paradigm that is based on the concept of computation. Code, Writing and Speech As has been stated previously, code is a writing technique that translates language into a form understood by machines. Therefore, if Hayle’s theory is to be believed, it resembles other forms of language such as writing and speech. The outcome of the process is similar to those used in human processing of visual information, including perspective and stereoscopy (Hayles, 1999, p275).5 This nature, including Hayles invocation of Derridean metaphysics, demonstrate how code assume a certain degree of materiality as has been supported as well in how codes have penetrated the represented world. This is the basis for further points raised by Hayles on the relations of code to language. The most important of these is depicted in the relationship between writing and speech. The difference between writing and speech, explained Dyson (2009), can be summarized by its infinite deferment (mnemonically contained in the fusion of “difference” with “defer”) such that writing is not confined to the event of its making (p160).”6 Here, writing exceeds speech. This is explained in detail by Ong (2002) in his discourse of orality and literacy wherein he identified an encoded visible marking characteristic if writing, one that engages words. This, Ong explained, led to an exquisitely intricate structure and references evolving from the spoken words, enabling the language to be “visibly recorded exactly in their specific complexity and, because visibly recorded, can implement production of still more exquisite structures and references, far surpassing the potential of oral utterance” (p83-84).7 The way writing surpasses speech also characterizes digital codes since it exceeds both writing and speech. This is based on the fact that code is consisted of merely two symbols but it can function as efficiently as either the oral and written languages and it can be read by both humans and machine. What Hayles was trying to say is that digital computing has elevated language into a more sophisticated form in the same way writing has elevated language from the level of mere oral utterances. This point is explained clearly in the context of Derrida and Saussure’s theories. In Derrida’s view, wrote Hayles, Saussure’s definition of the sign, wherein signifier and signified are separated, undercuts the metaphysics of presence in one sense and reinforces it in another (Hayles, p46-47).8 However, with the case of the code, “it makes no sense to talk about signifiers without signifieds,” and that “every voltage change must have a precise meaning in order to affect the behavior of the machine” (p47).9 So, all in all, for Hayles, digital code became as important as natural languages because it causes things to happen. It is pivotal in causing the most important things in our lives to happen. It is a language that many people use in their every day life. It is a language that people use to communicate with others through the use of machines. Additionally, code also surpasses writing and speech because it is efficient, functional, precise and can be understood by machines as well as humans. Code, Derrida and Computation Hayles used a number of Jacques Derrida’s theories to explain her position. Particularly, she cited the philosopher’s metaphysical discourse on the so-called “transcendental signified,” which was referred to as “the manifestation of Being so potent it needs no signifier to verify its authenticity (p17).10 On the surface, the metaphysical appears to explain truths on the basis of faith and religiosity, and other related concepts. However, Hayles took a fresh look at this phenomenon and resolved how metaphysics was able to recognize the “state of being” and “presence” that, in the philosopher’s time, would certainly be difficult to understand and deconstruct. Hence, metaphysics thrived and survived years of the evolution of Western thought. It was the discipline that took in the phenomena that cannot be explained by the available and recognized theories and principles. This is until computing technology emerged. According to Hayles, technology and computation can deconstruct and identify the truths that many in Derrida’s time accepted but cannot explain. For this proposition, she used “computation” as her primary evidence. The computation Hayles referred to was taken after the concept suggested by the Alan Turing, the scientist famous for the Universal Turing machine. She explained that in the tradition of Turing’s work, computation has instantiated into some kind of platform, with components that can be structured in such a way that they build up increasing levels of complexity, which could reach the degree that resembles the most complex phenomena on earth such as social systems and thought processes (Hayles, p18).11 Liu was able to confirm this in the discourse on how English has been translated into numerical symbols in the computing technology or the digital media. The English language was successfully translated into a mathematical thinking of 1/0 binary oppositions (Liu, p322).12 Hayles was able to articulate, therefore, in her “worldviews” how through computation the phenomena that have been confined to the realm of possibilities and metaphysics can be studied as “knowable and quantifiable phenomena, freed from mysteries of the logos and the complexities of discursive explanations dense with ambiguities” (p41).13 Hayles also successfully presented another insight to Derrida’s metaphysics when she explained the concept of cell automata (see Hayles, p18).14 Cell automata are used in technological systems but the interesting aspect about this concept is that they are not real machines. According to Delorme and Mazoyer (1999), they are such in the sense that they don’t exist physically but have to be simulated instead (p11).15 John Conway in his famous Game of Life also talked about this when he demonstrated how these cell automata could give the impression of living systems (Hayles, p18).16 The cell automata are one of the closest empirical evidence that one can ask for in ontological questions about existence. Then there is also the concept of genetic code, discovered by the molecular biology in the 1960s and widely recognized today as that containing the information about life. As scientists study and eventually crack the mystery of the DNA, they found that, like language, genetic code led to consideration of syntax and grammar, wherein concepts like semantics are also applicable. According to Mitchell and Hansen (2010), there are diverse opinions about how DNA is a code but most agree that it is a code and that it is the beginning of understanding (p120).17 Scientists are now working on how and in what way the genetic code acts like a code. Finally, one can also connect the discourse on codes with Stephen Wolfram’s principle of Computational Equivalence. The principle proposes that all physical processes are forms of computation and, hence, are governed by underlying logic. For example, all complex behavior can be simulated computationally; and, computation does not merely simulate the behavior of complex system but rather, it can generate behavior in everything (Wolfram 2010).18 The above variables substantiated Hayles claim that: 1) language is rooted on mathematics and, hence, can be computed or subject to computation; 2) language can be translated into algorithms; and, 3) everything, including the physical realities, can be computed and composed and governed by codes. Together, these three variables, for Hayles, should already underscore how the code emerged as a distinctive characteristic of society either as a component of the English language and as a language by itself. Hayles concept of the Regime of Computation is markedly different from the “remediation” concept developed by Bolter and Grusin (2000). Hayles focused on the code as separate phenomenon. When she invoked the Derridean principles of metaphysics, for instance, she underscored how the code is a truth in the wider discourse of existence. It is a “presence” or a “being” whose existence is independent of other variables. Bolter and Grusin pursued a different approach. Their model is founded on synergy, wherein events such as language or codes are not taken as separate occurrences or truths. Rather, they are seen as products of cooperation and relationship of several variables and operate within the same convergent framework. This was demonstrated in the media analogy. It was explained how new media never emerge out of nothing and, instead, were created from the older media (Bolter and Grusin, p15).19 In applying the remediation theory in the context of digital codes, it would appear that there maybe several causalities responsible for its existence besides the purely ontological explanation. Conclusion Hayles work on the interdependence of text and technology and the importance of code as either a component of language or an autonomous form of language is valid on several grounds. The most important of these is how she was able to explain how language and other realities are governed by codes and could, hence, be subjected to computation. Through the concept of Regime of Computation, the discourse on Derrida and Saussure’s works, Alan Turing’s computational principles, among other factors, Hayles was able to present credible arguments that support how language no longer dominates technologically-developed societies. A flaw, however, in the entire discourse is the manner by which Hayles has focused on print and electronic relationship exclusively. She was not able to discuss the issue within the wider media ecology. And so while she effectively outlined the characteristics of the code, its importance and relationship with language, writing and speech, she failed to deal with the issues about overlap and synergy. This aspect in her work undermined her arguments. This is unlike what Bolter and Grusin were able to achieve in their theory about Remediation. Instead of arguing that the code is emerging as dominant or surpassing other forms of language, they argue in favor of convergence, wherein the old and the new are seen as complementary to one another. In a way, this flaw, as highlighted in the remediation principle, has made Hayles theory rigid and one-dimensional. While the claim that code has become a characteristic of modern society is valid, the arguments lack a degree of depth that left a cloud of uncertainty with regards to how the claim was substantiated. References Aitchison, J 2001, Language change: progress or decay? Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Bolter, JD and Grusin, R 2000, Remediation: Understanding New Media. MIT Press, Cambridge. Delorme, M and Mazoyer, J 1999, Cellular automata: a parallel model. Springer, London. Dyson, F 2009, Sounding new media: immersion and embodiment in the arts and culture. University of California Press, Berkeley. Hayles, K 1999, How we became posthuman: virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Hayles, K 2005, "Speech, Writing, Code: Three Worldviews" in Hayles, K. My Mother Was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Liu, L 2010, ‘Writing’ in WJT. Mitchell and Mark BN. Hansen (eds.) Critical Terms for Media Studies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. Mitchell, WJT and Hansen, MBN 2010, Critical terms for media studies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Ong, W 2002, Orality and literacy: the technologizing of the word. Routledge, London. Wolfram, S 2010, "Stephen Wolfram: Computing a theory of everything" Youtube, Available from: [12 December 2011]. Read More