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Influential Machines: The Rhetoric of Computational Performance: Acknowledgments

Influential Machines: The Rhetoric of Computational Performance
Acknowledgments

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Notes

table of contents
  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. List of Tables and Figures
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Introduction: Locating the Energies of Computational Performance
    1. The Rhetorical Energies of Computing Machines
    2. Beyond the Front and the Back Ends of Computing and Toward the Deep End
    3. Thickening Procedurality with the Rhetorical Energies of Computational Performance
  9. Chapter 1: Manufactured Processing, Ritual, and Expert Systems
    1. Automation as Ritual of Science
    2. Knowledge-Based Systems and Looking to Machines for Answers about Health
    3. The Manufactured Processing of Vaccine Calculator
    4. The Energetic Movements of “Experts” and Science Communication
  10. Chapter 2: Processual Magnitude, the Sublime, and Computational Poiesis
    1. The Aesthetics of Vast Computing
    2. The Sublime Energies of @censusAmericans
    3. Attuning to the Angst of @censusAmericans
    4. Doing More with Computational Performance
  11. Chapter 3: Processual Signaling, Compulsion, and Neural Networks
    1. Persuasion, Indication, and Affective Compulsion
    2. The “Grooves” of Neural Networks
    3. The Machinic Parody of @DeepDrumpf
    4. The Critique of Processual Signaling
  12. Chapter 4: Designing Computational Performances to Actively Contribute Positive Energies
    1. Moral Luck and the Machine Question
    2. First- and Second-Order Agency
    3. Hedging Against Moral (Un)Luckiness and the Limits of Avoidance
    4. Computational Performance and an Ethic of (Distributed) Responsibility
    5. Pushing on the Precautionary Principle and the Paradox of Machinic Intervention
    6. Doing Good Instead of Avoiding Wrong with Alexa
    7. Good Machines, Speaking Well
  13. Chapter 5: Leveraging the Rhetorical Energies of Machines
    1. The Informational and Persuasive Labors of Machine Communicators During the Pandemic
    2. Going “Deeper” Toward Anthropomechanation
    3. Enlivening Human–Machine Communication with Rhetorical Energies
    4. Enlivening Inoculations Against Misinformation with Machinic Rhetorical Energies
  14. Notes
  15. Works Cited
  16. Index

Page ix →Acknowledgments

Burning sage and rubbing crystals, coding interactive art installations, giving words of encouragement, leaving edit lines in a document, grooving to math rock, posting custom memes to the group chat—over the course of writing this book, I have had the pleasure not only of developing ideas, but also of personal growth, stirred by the warm, wise energies of colleagues, friends, and family. People who, in their own valuably unique ways, have taught me, and continue to teach me, what it means to imbue positive energies.

This project got its start when I was an instructor in the program on Digital Technology and Cultures at Seattle University. While there, my fellow faculty members, Shawn Ryder and Becky Peltz, accomplished web developers and scholars, generously shared with me their knowledge of coding and their seemingly effortless ability to connect humanities issues to computing. Shawn and Becky taught me how to write and read code in a way that is mindful of the influence one’s application might have, something that would become an important component of my own approach to thinking rhetorically about computation. During this time, I also met my now longtime friend, Mark Anthoney, a technically inclined, gifted thinker, who worked in the Center for Digital Learning and Innovation, the instructional design unit at Seattle University. Mark’s enthusiasm for the “woowoo” of technology would inspire some of the themes of this book. It was during a code art exhibition, organized by Jackie Buttice at Seattle University, featuring installations made by Jackie, Shawn, Becky, Mark, and myself, that I started to first congeal the idea for this book. Watching their installations move was bewildering, astonishing, and gripping—they all, in their own distinct craftiness, leveraged the movements of machines, showing what computational performances can do. Without these friendships and experiences, this book likely never would have materialized.

What started out as an inkling eventually developed into a couple of journal articles and then snowballed into a book project, informed by insightful Page x →conversations with, and encouragement from, wonderful people. The conversations I had with my Seattle University colleagues Dung Tran, Trish Henley, and Rick Fehrenbacher were some of the most “far out,” engaging conversations of my life. Robot Jesus! Medieval digital culture! Their challenges, ideas, and just plain exciting thinking helped me to start thinking about “machinic rhetorics” in the earlier, nascent stages of my working through the themes of the book. My Rowan University colleagues and friends, John Feaster, Amy Reed, Joy Cypher, Dan Strasser, and Dan Schowalter have graciously entertained too many “what about this” discussions in addition to generously providing written comments and feedback on earlier drafts of chapters and ideas from the book. My friends Will Mari, Jeremy Gordon, John Crowley, Melba Vélez Ortiz, Blake Ragland, Nanda Saczawa, and Joe Hanson all patiently, and warmly, prodded with insightful questions and suggestions regarding the conceptualization of the energies of computational performance (the central focus of the book). I hope that someday I can live up to what my friends and colleagues consistently model in their daily lives—compassion, capability, and positivity.

I would also like to acknowledge my doctoral and masters advisors and teachers, Leah Ceccarelli, Matt McGarrity, Mark Williams, Michelle Foss-Snowden, and Raymond Koegel, for sharing their zeal and their smarts with me. You changed my life. In addition, thanks are owed to Aurora Bell for her excellent editorship and guidance as well as the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful commentary, suggestions, and challenges.

Most important, I would like to thank my family for their support throughout the writing of the book. Mom, you have consistently been a positive influence in my life, ever since I was a kid; now I call you to talk about whatever, including robot rhetorics! Ash and Bash—my pillars—I would not have been able to write this book without your encouragement and support. Ashley, I love everything that you do. I love your jokes, your voice, your face, your thoughts, and the way you sleep (yes, I watch you when you sleep). I love that you are you, always. You are the star in my galaxy, soaking everything around you in a life-giving light. Sebastian, at the time of this writing you are exactly 10 months old, and you are already the most amazing person. I feel like you teach me something new every day about finding wonder and joy in even the smallest, most easily overlooked nooks and crannies of a good life. I am so proud to be your father.

Parts of the introduction and chapter 3 are derived from my article, “Machinic Rhetorics and the Influential Movements of Robots,” published in The Review of Communication (2018), copyright © National Communication Page xi →Association, available online, https://doi.org/10.1080/15358593.2018.1517417. The introduction and chapter 5 include parts of another of my articles, “Leveraging the Rhetorical Energies of Machines: COVID-19, Misinformation, and Persuasive Labor,” published in Human-Machine Communication (2021), available online, https://doi.org/10.30658/hmc.3.2.

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