Sherry Turkle - Simulation and its Discontents

To follow up on the conversation at the end of our class meeting today, some of you may want to take a look at Sherry Turkle's Simulation and its Discontents. Turkle looks at simulation - how we adopt technologies that create virtual environments, allow researchers to model and visualize processes, and practice in digital spaces - and how we question (or continually immerse ourselves in) new ways of thinking. She presents studies she did at MIT in the 1980s and in the 2000s to provide a context for discussion about adoption, worry, and critiques of simulation in the sciences, engineering, and design. Four essays by other authors illustrate uses of simulations in space and sea explorations, architectural design, and molecular biologists.

It raises questions about the ability to be critical of technologies and their output, the function of creativity in computer-aided design, and connections vs. distance in simulated and/or virtual environments. I thought of this work particularly when we were talking about cyborgs in terms of where human ends and machine/technology begins.