Date: Wed, 12 Feb 1997 09:50
From: John D.
... the symbolic transformation from traditional modes of inquiry to electronic means of pursuing the same (or similar) ends.
Something like this:
Traditional=the third degree (Miranda), an inquisition (the Turing case after the war), an adversarial relationship between knowledge and our pursuit of it (Turing, and also Wittgenstein's philosophical pursuits), the factor of "otherness" or strangeness (e.g., Carmen Miranda);
Electronic: the dance (samba), an interaction between the individual and the desired information, a free play of inquiry (late Wittgenstein, post-Tractatus, although I have no idea where that duck/rabbit things fits in), a highly self-conscious pursuit of knowledge (wanting to confess, as Ulmer puts it, but also aware of the consequences of not remaining silent).
These oppositions suggest that Ulmer wants to argue that the transformation is one involving both a greater degree of freedom/play, but one that brings risks with it as well.