Jack Kloppenburg's *First the Seed*, now available in a second edition ( https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/2659.htm), is superb on "the Columbian Exchange" that transformed biological life on the planet via global transfers of germplasm.
As two entrants in the class of informational meta-technologies, distinct in kind from industrial technologies and pre-industrial tools, biotechnology and digital technology share many spaces. ( http://people.tamu.edu/~braman/bramanpdfs/025_biology.pdf) Sandra Braman On Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM <[email protected]> wrote: > Send nettime-l mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of nettime-l digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: deep humanities initiative (Brian Holmes) > 2. Re: deep humanities initiative (mp) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2021 14:07:35 -0500 > From: Brian Holmes <[email protected]> > To: Keith Sanborn <[email protected]> > Cc: a moderated mailing list for net criticism > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: <nettime> deep humanities initiative > Message-ID: > <CANuiTgzYcoMgcizDrO_4LHYwxkvA33FTQ-h6O= > [email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 10:53 AM Keith Sanborn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Interesting that at a time when planetary survival is in jeopardy, > > analysts shd return to a geological metaphor. Does history then equal > > stratigraphy? > > > > That is exactly the claim. The geologists of the Anthropocene Working Group > identify the stratum marking the end of the Holocene in radioactive > isotopes left by nuclear fallout in the period of above-ground testing > (1952-63). These can be identified in fine layers deposited in undisturbed > lake beds around the world, and most precisely, in ice cores from > Antarctica. Of course, geological markers based on the activity of living > creatures are nothing new. What's new is that the creatures are humans, and > the rate of change, particularly in CO2 concentration, is faster than > anything previously recorded, by orders of magnitude. > > The dating of the new geological epoch is hotly contested, and in my view, > the other proposed dates (Industrial revolution, colonization of the New > World) are full of significance. Colonialism inaugurates a form of > domination, the enslavement of people on plantations, that allowed early > cycles of capital accumulation to proceed through the plunder of the rest > of the planet. The formally "free" labor of the Industrial Revolution could > only compete with colonial domination because the life of previous > geological epochs was brought out of the ground and sent back into the > atmosphere by the burning of coal and oil. However, the big changes in > atmospheric and oceanic chemistry only become clearly measurable in the > 1950s, and they are correlated with the particular form of technological > development that begins in the US during WWII, then spreads around the > planet afterwards. The contemporary US state is brought to account with the > 1950s date, along with all those that emulate it. The present US > administration shows some dawning awareness of these things. If you're > interested, I and a couple friends made a short video and a long text about > these issues: > > https://vimeo.com/374696808 > > https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053019620975803 > > Basically it's a depth interpretation of the Superman festival held every > year in the tiny town of Metropolis, Illinois.... > > best, Brian > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: < > http://mx.kein.org/pipermail/nettime-l/attachments/20210425/71c0ae91/attachment-0001.html > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 25 Apr 2021 21:23:10 +0100 > From: mp <[email protected]> > To: a moderated mailing list for net criticism > <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: <nettime> deep humanities initiative > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > > > On 25/04/2021 20:07, Brian Holmes wrote: > > On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 10:53 AM Keith Sanborn <[email protected]> wrote: > > > >> Interesting that at a time when planetary survival is in jeopardy, > >> analysts shd return to a geological metaphor. Does history then equal > >> stratigraphy? > >> > > > > That is exactly the claim. The geologists of the Anthropocene Working > Group > > identify the stratum marking the end of the Holocene in radioactive > > isotopes left by nuclear fallout in the period of above-ground testing > > (1952-63). These can be identified in fine layers deposited in > undisturbed > > lake beds around the world, and most precisely, in ice cores from > > Antarctica. Of course, geological markers based on the activity of living > > creatures are nothing new. What's new is that the creatures are humans, > and > > the rate of change, particularly in CO2 concentration, is faster than > > anything previously recorded, by orders of magnitude. > > > > The dating of the new geological epoch is hotly contested, and in my > view, > > the other proposed dates (Industrial revolution, colonization of the New > > World) are full of significance. > > Setting the date for a decisive human impact on the planet so late could > appear like a defense of all the extractive civilisations that in the > last 6000 years - again and again - separated culture from nature, > relied on irrigation, slavery, tax and debt, and expanded unsustainably > until the point of collapse. > > As Scott writes: > > "...While there is no doubt about the decisive contemporary impact of > human activity on the ecosphere, the question of when it became decisive > is in dispute. Some propose dating it from the first nuclear tests, > which deposited a permanent and detectable layer of radioactivity > worldwide. Others propose starting the Anthropocene clock with the > Industrial Revolu?tion and the massive use of fossil fuels. A case could > also be made for starting the clock when industrial society acquired the > tools- for example, dynamite, bulldozers, reinforced con?crete > (especially for dams) - to radically alter the landscape. > Of these three candidates, the Industrial Revolution is a mere two > centuries old and the other two are still virtually within living > memory. Measured by the roughly 200,000-year span of our species, then, > the Anthropocene began only a few min?utes ago. > > ....I propose an alternative point of departure that is far deeper > historically. Accepting the premise of an Anthropo?cene as a qualitative > and quantitative leap in our environmen?tal impact, I suggest that we > begin with the use of fire, the first great hominid tool for landscaping > - or, rather, niche con?struction. Evidence for the use of fire is dated > at least 400,000 years ago and perhaps much earlier still, long > predating the appearance of Homo sapiens. Permanent settlement, > agri?culture, and pastoralism, appearing about 12,000 years ago, mark a > further leap in our transformation of the landscape. > If our concern is with the historical footprint of hominids, one might > well identify a "thin" Anthropocene long before the more explosive and > recent "thick" Anthropocene; "thin" > largely because there were so very few hominids to wield these > landscaping tools. Our numbers circa 10,000 BCE were a puny two million > to four million worldwide, far less than a thousandth of our population > today. The other decisive pre-modern invention was institutional: the > state. The first states in the Mesopotamian alluvium pop up no earlier > than about 6,ooo years ago, several millennia after the first evidence > of agriculture and sedentism in the region. No institution has done more > to mobilize the technologies of landscape modifi?cation in its interest > than the state..." (in Against the Grain, 2017: 2-3) > > The institutional arrangements have changed little in this period - > especially when contrasted with non-extractive civilisations such as > those found in the Amazon, which expanded while enriching their habitat > - and the continued ploughing, or scarring of the earth, until the soil > is entirely depleted, combined with cutting down trees incessantly, > until the rivers run dry, is arguably the crux of human destruction. > > Remove fossil fuels, capitalism and all the rest of the modern package > and you would still be stuck with those self-destructive patterns of > behavior that profoundly alter the landscape and cause climate chaos. > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > > End of nettime-l Digest, Vol 163, Issue 16 > ****************************************** >
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