Communication and Control
Tools, Systems, and New Dimensions
Contributions by R.E. Burnett, Kevin Cummings, Vincenzo DeFlorio, Ryan Eanes, Robert Gehl, Zeke Kimball, Cameron Kunzelman, Karla Loya, Brett Lunceford, Robert MacDougall, Benjamin Morton, Kathleen Oswald, Matthew Pittman, Rachel Plotnick, Madhusudan Raman, Jim Thatcher Edited by Robert MacDougall
Publication date:
01 July 2015Length of book:
280 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739198759
Communication and Control: Tools, Systems, and New Dimensions advocates a systems view of human communication in a time of intelligent, learning machines. This edited collection sheds new light on things as mundane yet still profoundly consequential (and seemingly “low-tech”) as push buttons, pagers, and telemarketing systems. Contributors also investigate aspects of “remote control” related to education, organizational design, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, drones, and even binge-watching on Netflix. In line with a systems view, the collection takes up a media ecological view. This work will be of interest to students, scholars, and researchers in communication, new media, and technology.
The shift from analog to digital is about much more than efficiency, precision, and progress. As MacDougall points out, it is a dramatic shift in what it is to be human and how we relate to the world. Computers are enveloping areas of expertise that were once the sole domain of human creativity and are transforming the relationship of humans to those domains. Such a shift is difficult to see and discuss, but MacDougall gets the conversation started.