Pouring Postmodernism into the Computer

Pouring Postmodernism into the Computer

"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it," has become a standard reply to questions that are hard to answer, now serving as the definition of more than just pornography. Postmodernism seems to at times share this elusive definition. To paraphrase Lyotard, its refusal to take solace in and unified form and conventions are partly responsible for its apparently shapeless definition. Paraphrasing Sherry Turkle, computer culture realizes postmodern concepts, especially a realization of those concepts pertaining to the nature of the self (17-19). For Turkle and others, partaking in chat rooms, creating identities on the computer, and the structure of computer software itself all concretize a previously abstract set of postmodern concepts.

Before summarizing segments of Turkle's Identity in the Age of the Internet, a short background on postmodern concepts of the self is helpful.

Postmodern thought rejects the idea of a deeper self that can be discovered by rationally peeling away surface layers of that self. The idea that truth can be found by this process, on a personal level or in a narrative structure, is a point of contention. As Stephen Frosh says in Social Experience and the Constructed Self, "More generally, postmodernism opposes all tendencies to take refuge in any illusion of wholeness or of received wisdom…" (277). Thus, enlightenment-age scientific approaches to uncover knowledge fall under the "illusion of wholeness and received wisdom." Instead, postmodernism perceives the world through a large network of interconnected but meaningless things and experiences (Frosh, 282).

Frosh's opinion of self and action is also revealing: "…gone is the differentiation between the self and its expression….Meaning does not precede these practices, but is enigmatically created by them…" (280). This is to say that in the writing of a book for example, meaning is produced by the text. The author ceases to be a sort of creator, with a preconceived plan. The book's meaning is transitory, as readers may have several different experiences with a book, regardless of the author's intentions.

Finally comes the idea of the self as a social construct. To make sense of the world around us, some have suggested that the self is created in order to give a reference point for existence. Self-construction gives our lives meaning because it allows us to make sense of what surrounds us. I am me. That house across the street is not me, neither are the people who live in that house.