This moment is brought to you in part by Sony Ericsson.

Earlier this week I read through an unpublished dissertation on Childs, one which is cited surprisingly often cited in the literature on Childs. Our library didn't have it, so I had to get it through Inter Library Loans. It came as microfiche.

Technology Moment 1: This bit of analog technology permits a person to store large amounts of information—in this case 250 odd sheets of double spaced typing paper—on small, transportable bits of plastic. Thus, after waiting a few weeks for processing, a post-card sized letter shows up which, when combined in the right way with an apparatus that is only slightly larger than six or so bound dissertations stacked one on top of another, allows the interested party to read the material in question.

It's very convenient, except that the blotches and imperfections in the film are magnified along with the words you want to read. The lighting mechanism is uneven and fairly noisy (fan), too—imagine sitting next to an old overhead projector if you've never had this technology experience before—though the fan helps drown out distractions, and the whole machine can keep you slightly warmer in a cold corner of some library. I also appreciated the fact that it was impossible for me to stick post-it notes anywhere in the text, which is now an obsessive habit.

Technology Moment 2: I took a few notes as I went along, but I didn't really feel like copying down a paragraph that conveniently summarized a (simplistic) thesis. So I whipped out my phone—a recent upgrade which takes low-grade photos—and snapped this (bottom half of page 197, you can just make out):



The audio equivalent would be, I suppose, using your phone to record a 78 on a turntable. The analog feels pure, somehow. Seems to offer something salutary, as nostalgia does. (I felt like an old-school researcher!) In this case, the blotches help redeem the content.

PS, Now that I've resized the thing for the blog, and written about it, it would actually have been faster to copy down the paragraph by hand.

PPS, On the other hand, if you multiply the extra time taken by the physical space I've taken (not counting the physical space that was already being taken up by camera phone or computer), you multiply by 0. The negation of time by space is one of the broadest appeals of the digital revolution. It is also its menace. Blogging is the attempt to counteract the felt diminishment in size by running the other term as close to infinity as possible. Almost zero times almost infinity is still something, right?

On a metaphorical note, if you wonder why I'm not in the blogosphere much lately it's because I'm reviewing my multiplication tables, working with whole numbers that do not exceed the sum of my (very physical and library-chilled) digits.

Tags: PhD, Humor