David Golumbia
Biographic Data
| ID | 772289 |
|---|---|
| NAME | David Golumbia |
| GIVEN NAMES | David |
| FAMILY NAME | Golumbia |
| SIGNATURE | GOLUMBIA D |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Virginia |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
The Critique of Cyberlibertarianism
From free and open source software to free culture and "internet freedom"; from net neutrality to "censorship," to demands for unbreakable encryption and absolute anonymity: these and many other terms serve as rallying cries for digital activists from across the political spectrum. Raising questions about what the terms might actually mean, let alone what might be the arguments for and against the causes they seem to represent, is simply to stand…
Interview with Meg Havran
Margaret Havran served as managing editor of boundary 2 for twenty-five years until her retirement in 2021. She worked closely with editor in chief Paul Bové during that time, and was integral to every part of the journal production process. In an interview conducted shortly after her retirement, Havran reflects on her experiences working at the journal
The Deconstruction of Philology
The history of philology provides an exceptionally rich vein for locating what Derrida came to call deconstructions: nodes or pseudo-events in the development of discourse where it appears that foundations collapse, only to be rebuilt in forms that may or may not have changed. The history of philology engages language, the sciences (especially evolutionary biology), and race, all of which are evidenced in the work of the German philologist Wilhel…
Mirowski as Critic of the Digital
While Philip Mirowski’s scholarship has been widely read across many of the different academic fields with which it engages, his impact on the direct study of digital media and digital technology has been relatively minimal. This is particularly unfortunate, given that his work touches on so many different parts of the digital world, from the metaphors and rhetoric that structure our thinking about computers to the specific functions of various t…
The Militarization of Language
The question of the militarization of language emerges from the politics surrounding cryptography, or the use of encryption in contemporary networked digital technology, and the intersection of encryption with the politics of language. Ultimately, cryptographic politics aims to embody at a foundational level a theory of language that some recent philosophers, including Charles Taylor and Philip Pettit, locate partly in the writings of Thomas Hobb…
Correlationism
The theoretical movements known as Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology depend on the “critique of correlationism” offered by the French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux in his 2008 After Finitude. There Meillassoux claims to have shown that Kant and all philosophers following him committed a grave and unseen philosophical error that he calls “correlationism,” in failing to see that humans can have access to absolute knowledge. Meillas…
Death of a Discipline
In 2003, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak published Death of a Discipline, an exhortation to create "an inclusive comparative literature," one that "takes the languages of the Southern Hemisphere as active cultural media rather than as objects of cultural study." To many literary scholars such a development seemed welcome and even likely. Instead, ten years later, an entirely different transformation has taken place via the development of the digital h…
Communication,” “Critical”
Despite the proliferation of critical studies of communication, the meanings of the words “communication” and “critical” remain deeply contested. Attending to the history of the use of these terms inside and outside of the academy offers a broader perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting scholars of communication today.Keywords: Communicationcritical theorycultural studiesdigital mediamedia studies Notes[1] See “communication, …
High-frequency trading
The development of high-frequency trading (HFT) – automated trading of stocks, as well as bonds, options, and other investment instruments – provides a signal example of the political effects of computerization on a discrete social sphere. Despite the widespread rhetoric that computerization inherently democratizes, the consequences of the introduction of HFT are widely acknowledged to be new concentrations of wealth and power, opacity rather tha…
The Future of New Media
In this chapter, David Golumbia argues that computationalist ideology – the view that everything in reality is ultimately made up of computation – can be seen with particular clarity in what he calls “the uploading story.” According to this story, we human beings are on the verge of losing our human embodiment and our contact with everyday reality, and moving into a world where our minds merge with computers and we inhabit virtual realities much …
The Cultural Logic of Computation
Golumbia, who worked as a software designer for more than ten years, argues that computers are cultural “all the way down”—that there is no part of the apparent technological transformation that is not shaped by historical and cultural processes, or that escapes existing cultural politics.
Games Without Play
While we call them games without much critical reflection, this essay asks how well computer and video games fit into usual understandings of the conceptual and cultural functions of play. In different but related ways, in the writings of both Jacques Derrida and Roger Caillois, play is characterized by a certain kind of rule-a rule that is only quasi-teleological and partially breakable, and is fundamental precisely because of its disconnection …
Minimalism is functionalism
The interpretation of nonconfigurationality
Computation, Gender, and Human Thinking
david golumbia earned the PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. He writes about language, philosophy, computers, and world media and teaches media studies and English at the University of Virginia
South Asian Linguistic Diversity and the World Wide Web
Hiiperle-xl icoaor%ara=][-stroph-ism
Postmodern Culture - Volume 12, Number 1, September 2001
Toward a History of ‘Language’
Rethinking Philosophy in the Third Wave of Feminism
The influence of feminist theory on philosophy has been less pervasive than it might have been. This is due in part to inherent tensions between feminist critique and the university as an institution, and to philosophy's place in the academy. These tensions, if explored rather than resisted, can result in a revitalized, more explicitly feminist conception of philosophy itself, wherein philosophy is seen as an attempt to rethink the deepest aspect…
Rethinking Philosophy in the Third Wave of Feminism
The influence of feminist theory on philosophy has been less pervasive than it might have been. This is due in part to inherent tensions between feminist critique and the university as an institution, and to philosophy's place in the academy. These tensions, if explored rather than resisted, can result in a revitalized, more explicitly feminist conception of philosophy itself, wherein philosophy is seen as an attempt to rethink the deepest aspect…
Quine's Ambivalence
ne of the most striking developments in recent cultural studies is the growing recognition that modern forms of cultural oppression operate not only, perhaps not even principally, by means of directly repressive policies and practices. Instead, we have come to understand that one of the most important weapons in the modern colonial arsenal is what appears, on the surface, to be ambivalence within the colonial project itself. That ambivalence may …
Hypercapital
Hypercapital David Golumbia Some of liberal democracy's deepest convictions rest on assumptions about free (or nearly free) and complete access to information. These assumptions, tied to our dreams about liberal American democracy at least since the passage of the Bill of Rights, go something like this: more information is generally better than less information; the more widely information is disseminated, especially throughout the general popula…
Resisting “The World”
The manipulation of reality and appearance that figures so prominently in Philip K. Dick’s fiction remain a subject of persistent interest. This interest extends from Dick’s work through to some important themes in recent cultural studies. In both cases, purely philosophical speculation on the nature of ‘reality’ extends into theoretical and political reflection. In both Dick’s work and cultural studies, faith in the existence of a single, presen…
Black and White World
This is an essay about utopian representations of race. More generally, it examines the project of imagining a future in which contemporary racial problems-specifically the conflicts between blacks and whites in the U.S.-have been, to whatever degree this may be possible, resolved. This project interests me for what might be called negative and positive hermeneutic reasons. The negative reasons have to do with the common representation
Black and White World
This is an essay about utopian representations of race. More generally, it examines the project of imagining a future in which contemporary racial problems-specifically the conflicts between blacks and whites in the U.S.-have been, to whatever degree this may be possible, resolved. This project interests me for what might be called negative and positive hermeneutic reasons. The negative reasons have to do with the common representation
Games Without Play
While we call them games without much critical reflection, this essay asks how well computer and video games fit into usual understandings of the conceptual and cultural functions of play. In different but related ways, in the writings of both Jacques Derrida and Roger Caillois, play is characterized by a certain kind of rule-a rule that is only quasi-teleological and partially breakable, and is fundamental precisely because of its disconnection …
High-frequency trading
The development of high-frequency trading (HFT) – automated trading of stocks, as well as bonds, options, and other investment instruments – provides a signal example of the political effects of computerization on a discrete social sphere. Despite the widespread rhetoric that computerization inherently democratizes, the consequences of the introduction of HFT are widely acknowledged to be new concentrations of wealth and power, opacity rather tha…
Correlationism
The theoretical movements known as Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology depend on the “critique of correlationism” offered by the French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux in his 2008 After Finitude. There Meillassoux claims to have shown that Kant and all philosophers following him committed a grave and unseen philosophical error that he calls “correlationism,” in failing to see that humans can have access to absolute knowledge. Meillas…
The Critique of Cyberlibertarianism
From free and open source software to free culture and "internet freedom"; from net neutrality to "censorship," to demands for unbreakable encryption and absolute anonymity: these and many other terms serve as rallying cries for digital activists from across the political spectrum. Raising questions about what the terms might actually mean, let alone what might be the arguments for and against the causes they seem to represent, is simply to stand…
Death of a Discipline
In 2003, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak published Death of a Discipline, an exhortation to create "an inclusive comparative literature," one that "takes the languages of the Southern Hemisphere as active cultural media rather than as objects of cultural study." To many literary scholars such a development seemed welcome and even likely. Instead, ten years later, an entirely different transformation has taken place via the development of the digital h…
The interpretation of nonconfigurationality
Computation, Gender, and Human Thinking
david golumbia earned the PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. He writes about language, philosophy, computers, and world media and teaches media studies and English at the University of Virginia
Toward a History of ‘Language’
Rethinking Philosophy in the Third Wave of Feminism
The influence of feminist theory on philosophy has been less pervasive than it might have been. This is due in part to inherent tensions between feminist critique and the university as an institution, and to philosophy's place in the academy. These tensions, if explored rather than resisted, can result in a revitalized, more explicitly feminist conception of philosophy itself, wherein philosophy is seen as an attempt to rethink the deepest aspect…
Black and White World
This is an essay about utopian representations of race. More generally, it examines the project of imagining a future in which contemporary racial problems-specifically the conflicts between blacks and whites in the U.S.-have been, to whatever degree this may be possible, resolved. This project interests me for what might be called negative and positive hermeneutic reasons. The negative reasons have to do with the common representation
Hypercapital
Hypercapital David Golumbia Some of liberal democracy's deepest convictions rest on assumptions about free (or nearly free) and complete access to information. These assumptions, tied to our dreams about liberal American democracy at least since the passage of the Bill of Rights, go something like this: more information is generally better than less information; the more widely information is disseminated, especially throughout the general popula…
Resisting “The World”
The manipulation of reality and appearance that figures so prominently in Philip K. Dick’s fiction remain a subject of persistent interest. This interest extends from Dick’s work through to some important themes in recent cultural studies. In both cases, purely philosophical speculation on the nature of ‘reality’ extends into theoretical and political reflection. In both Dick’s work and cultural studies, faith in the existence of a single, presen…
Rethinking Philosophy in the Third Wave of Feminism
The influence of feminist theory on philosophy has been less pervasive than it might have been. This is due in part to inherent tensions between feminist critique and the university as an institution, and to philosophy's place in the academy. These tensions, if explored rather than resisted, can result in a revitalized, more explicitly feminist conception of philosophy itself, wherein philosophy is seen as an attempt to rethink the deepest aspect…
Rethinking Philosophy in the Third Wave of Feminism
The influence of feminist theory on philosophy has been less pervasive than it might have been. This is due in part to inherent tensions between feminist critique and the university as an institution, and to philosophy's place in the academy. These tensions, if explored rather than resisted, can result in a revitalized, more explicitly feminist conception of philosophy itself, wherein philosophy is seen as an attempt to rethink the deepest aspect…
Quine's Ambivalence
ne of the most striking developments in recent cultural studies is the growing recognition that modern forms of cultural oppression operate not only, perhaps not even principally, by means of directly repressive policies and practices. Instead, we have come to understand that one of the most important weapons in the modern colonial arsenal is what appears, on the surface, to be ambivalence within the colonial project itself. That ambivalence may …
Toward a History of ‘Language’
Hiiperle-xl icoaor%ara=][-stroph-ism
Postmodern Culture - Volume 12, Number 1, September 2001
South Asian Linguistic Diversity and the World Wide Web
Computation, Gender, and Human Thinking
david golumbia earned the PhD in English from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999. He writes about language, philosophy, computers, and world media and teaches media studies and English at the University of Virginia
The interpretation of nonconfigurationality
Minimalism is functionalism
The Cultural Logic of Computation
Golumbia, who worked as a software designer for more than ten years, argues that computers are cultural “all the way down”—that there is no part of the apparent technological transformation that is not shaped by historical and cultural processes, or that escapes existing cultural politics.
Games Without Play
While we call them games without much critical reflection, this essay asks how well computer and video games fit into usual understandings of the conceptual and cultural functions of play. In different but related ways, in the writings of both Jacques Derrida and Roger Caillois, play is characterized by a certain kind of rule-a rule that is only quasi-teleological and partially breakable, and is fundamental precisely because of its disconnection …
The Future of New Media
In this chapter, David Golumbia argues that computationalist ideology – the view that everything in reality is ultimately made up of computation – can be seen with particular clarity in what he calls “the uploading story.” According to this story, we human beings are on the verge of losing our human embodiment and our contact with everyday reality, and moving into a world where our minds merge with computers and we inhabit virtual realities much …
Communication,” “Critical”
Despite the proliferation of critical studies of communication, the meanings of the words “communication” and “critical” remain deeply contested. Attending to the history of the use of these terms inside and outside of the academy offers a broader perspective on some of the most pressing issues confronting scholars of communication today.Keywords: Communicationcritical theorycultural studiesdigital mediamedia studies Notes[1] See “communication, …
High-frequency trading
The development of high-frequency trading (HFT) – automated trading of stocks, as well as bonds, options, and other investment instruments – provides a signal example of the political effects of computerization on a discrete social sphere. Despite the widespread rhetoric that computerization inherently democratizes, the consequences of the introduction of HFT are widely acknowledged to be new concentrations of wealth and power, opacity rather tha…
Death of a Discipline
In 2003, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak published Death of a Discipline, an exhortation to create "an inclusive comparative literature," one that "takes the languages of the Southern Hemisphere as active cultural media rather than as objects of cultural study." To many literary scholars such a development seemed welcome and even likely. Instead, ten years later, an entirely different transformation has taken place via the development of the digital h…
Correlationism
The theoretical movements known as Speculative Realism and Object-Oriented Ontology depend on the “critique of correlationism” offered by the French philosopher Quentin Meillassoux in his 2008 After Finitude. There Meillassoux claims to have shown that Kant and all philosophers following him committed a grave and unseen philosophical error that he calls “correlationism,” in failing to see that humans can have access to absolute knowledge. Meillas…
The Militarization of Language
The question of the militarization of language emerges from the politics surrounding cryptography, or the use of encryption in contemporary networked digital technology, and the intersection of encryption with the politics of language. Ultimately, cryptographic politics aims to embody at a foundational level a theory of language that some recent philosophers, including Charles Taylor and Philip Pettit, locate partly in the writings of Thomas Hobb…
Mirowski as Critic of the Digital
While Philip Mirowski’s scholarship has been widely read across many of the different academic fields with which it engages, his impact on the direct study of digital media and digital technology has been relatively minimal. This is particularly unfortunate, given that his work touches on so many different parts of the digital world, from the metaphors and rhetoric that structure our thinking about computers to the specific functions of various t…
The Deconstruction of Philology
The history of philology provides an exceptionally rich vein for locating what Derrida came to call deconstructions: nodes or pseudo-events in the development of discourse where it appears that foundations collapse, only to be rebuilt in forms that may or may not have changed. The history of philology engages language, the sciences (especially evolutionary biology), and race, all of which are evidenced in the work of the German philologist Wilhel…
Interview with Meg Havran
Margaret Havran served as managing editor of boundary 2 for twenty-five years until her retirement in 2021. She worked closely with editor in chief Paul Bové during that time, and was integral to every part of the journal production process. In an interview conducted shortly after her retirement, Havran reflects on her experiences working at the journal
The Critique of Cyberlibertarianism
From free and open source software to free culture and "internet freedom"; from net neutrality to "censorship," to demands for unbreakable encryption and absolute anonymity: these and many other terms serve as rallying cries for digital activists from across the political spectrum. Raising questions about what the terms might actually mean, let alone what might be the arguments for and against the causes they seem to represent, is simply to stand…
Sociology (16 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Epistemology (12 works) · Computer Science (10 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Linguistics (6 works) · Aesthetics (5 works)