Techno-Prosthetic Romantic FuturismHistory is a HologramThe techno-prostheses of Romanticism on the Net render history holographic. It becomes difficult to sustain the illusion of historical facticity when facts are so transparently an effect of infotech. [1] As the simulacrum comes to set the terms for historical knowledge, the relation between fact and knowledge reverses: certainty produces the facts that confirm it, not vice versa. [2] Truth is software for generating historical fiction. Romanticism as infotainment: think of your classroom as a holographic history channel. Notes1. The lesson of Philip K. Dick's We Can Build You (1972 rpt; New York: Vintage, 1994). 2. See Jean Baudrillard, Simulations, trans. Paul Foss et. al. (New York: Semiotext(e), 1983). Navigation |