Networking

The use of cybernetic metaphors drawn from communications networks may seem to be a recent phenomenon, growing out of the increasing importance of computers in contemporary life. But Laura Otis demonstrates that such metaphors have had a long and powerful influence ever since telegraph networks first separated communication from transportation. Networking is a sophisticated but jargon-free analysis of the ways in which scientific and technological ideas created novel explanatory metaphors that also became powerful tools for understanding social and natural systems. Otis is most explicit about this in the conclusion to her first chapter, which explores the connections between electricity and the electric telegraph and scientific concepts of the nervous system: "metaphors do not 'express' scientists' ideas; they are the ideas. Metaphors suggest new visions, images, and models; they inspire scientists to approach problems in new ways" (p. 48)

Cognitive science · Cybernetics · Epistemology · Jargon · Linguistics · Natural (archaeology) · Phenomenon · Scientific communication · Sociology · Vision · Computer Science · History · History of Computing Technologies · Media, Communication, and Education · Philosophy · Psychology