Digitalization reduces the sensory continuum to standardized discrete units manipulable by logic
Evidence
However high the definition of a digital image, however refined the computer’s soundcard, colours and sounds are today reduced to standardized sampling units which are predetermined by the system of digitalization on which the operation of the apparatus being used is based. We may, with Sylvain Auroux and Bernard Stiegler, speak of GRAMMATIZATION to refer to this reduction of the sensory continuum to which we are attentive to discrete units susceptible to logical manipulation. ‘Digitalization’ properly speaking consists in the assignation of a ‘number’ (which may ultimately be decomposed into a sequence of 0s and 1s) to each of the discrete units resulting from this analytical process. — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 208
Categorization
- DEFINE: Defines ‘grammatization’ (Auroux/Stiegler) and the core operation of digitalization as assigning numbers to discrete sampled units.
- XREF: Connects to Stiegler’s pharmacon and attention economy literature, and to Kittler’s discourse networks where technical media preconfigure perception. — connects to: Digital processing makes measurements better approximate what we hear — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 170; Formal logic preconditioned the mind for technological control — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 526; The brain contradicts the machine metaphor through entangled plastic processes — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 98 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Digital processing makes measurements better approximate what we hear
#qualifies(0.80) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 170 - The brain contradicts the machine metaphor through entangled plastic processes
#contradicts(0.75) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 98 - Formal logic preconditioned the mind for technological control
#expands(0.72) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 526 - When quantification destroys qualitative perception, bare sensation replaces experience.
#exemplifies(0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 257