What about the Body?

Kalilily, in part spurred by my comments on the Web as Utopia, writes:

And so, while David is right that we are at out best when we are social and connected, we need to remember that passionately connecting minds is only half what we humans need to feel truly alive.

As the inhabitant of a gradually decaying body parked about 14 hours a day in front of a computer — ay caramba, that sounds like a symptom, not a lifestyle — it’s easy for me to ignore the little fact that we are our bodies. And, yes, I do tend towards the intellectual side (although I as a child I once enjoyed the sensual thrill of Vicks VapoRub). So it’s always good to be reminded of this.

FWIW, in my upcoming book (which I’m thinking of re-titling “My Upcoming Book”), I make a weird argument that the Web returns us to the sort of rich, messy, fat knowledge that comes from having a body, as opposed to the anorexic knowledge and bodiless selves that our culture has been favoring.

And I’m sure it’s merely a coincidence — yeah, that’s what it is — that it’s another woman, Halley, who raises the same issue in her blog. Halley, though, sees the disembodiment of the Web as liberating because it removes the threat of bodily harm.

By the way, I found Halley’s plain-spoken account of a day in her life to be oddly moving. Or maybe it’s not odd at all.

Steve Giovannetti blogs about the importance of the Web’s tie to physical space, warning us that the single greatest threat to the Net comes from system administrators with plumber butts. (Ok, so maybe I’m mischaracterizing his comments for comic effect.) And it’s good to be reminded of the material nature of the Web. But there’s also a sense in which the Web “place” (as I think of it) isn’t located anywhere in the real world (while remaining dependent on the real world for its existence). Not all worlds that are spatial are in a specific locality. For example: the past. You can’t show me where the past *is*. (There’s something very screwy about this example. If it tweaks your flame knob, I preemptively withdraw it.) I don’t think there’s any real incompatibility between what Steve is pointing to and what I’ve been on about. Complementarity.

Categories: Uncategorized dw