Junkware

Description

Are we made of junk? Thierry Bardini believes we are. Examining an array of cybernetic structures from genetic codes to communication networks, he explores the idea that most of culture and nature, including humans, is composed primarily of useless, but always potentially recyclable, material otherwise known as "junk." He draws on a wide variety of sources, including the writings of Philip K. Dick and William S. Burroughs, interviews with scientists as well as "crackpots," and work in genetics, cybernetics, and physics to support his contention that junk DNA represents a blind spot in our understanding of life.

Thierry Bardini is professor of communication at the University of Montreal.

"This book is thrilling. No other book takes the problem of junk (and especially junk DNA) so seriously; no other book takes the question of what molecular biology has done to us so thoroughly. Thierry Bardini's answer is that we have literally become junk-Homo Nexus. In the age of genetic capitalism, we've moved beyond Deleuze's societies of control and into an age of infinite repurposing. At the very moment that many are celebrating 'remix culture' Bardini's book provides a wild and weird wake-up call. We are junk, junk is us. Junkware will help us sort it out." -Christopher Kelty, author of Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software "Awakening us to the awe-ful splendor of an informatic planet crawling with self replicating 'junkware,' Professor Bardini joins a global cadre of interdisciplinary ecologists engaging with the digital evolution and development of living systems: Techno-Evo-Devo. Bardini's inquiry owes as much to Woody Allen as it does to Gilbert Simondon, asking: Are we made of junk? In the tradition of Darwin's contemplation of an 'entangled bank' of interconnected life, Junkware beholds a planet transduced by the self replicating infoquake and a Dionysian festival of junk. Long may it replicate." -Richard Doyle, Penn State University