The Postmodern Era

If modernity can be best described by a vertical heirarchical structure and Fordism, postmodernity is best described as a decentralized, horizontal structure defined by on-demand production. The small microbrew has been a favourite class example, although small "artisian" businesses in general work well for this model. In philosophical terms, the postmodern looks at how the modernist metanarrative is best subverted through consumerism and fragmentation. Systems move away from the vertically organized structure of the modernist era and towards a linear order.

In the realm of the technological, postmodernity means moving away from both mainframes and the MIT Priesthood; we see ideas borrowed from railroad tracks, the idea of a time-share, and the subversion of the Priesthood by students - the emergence of the hacker culture. The idea of distributed computing time, combined with a fear of nuclear war wiping out standard methods of commuication merged with Bush's idea of the memex to bring us ARPANet followed by the internet. Simultaneously, technology shrunk the size of components (largely due to competition created by distributed manufacturing processes) to the point that personal computers become a reality instead of fantasy.

At this time, postmodern science fiction begins to move away from the idea of the automotan replacing humans and towards a disembodied computer that augments, and often begins to control, humans. One of the first examples of

If modernity can be best described by a vertical heirarchical structure and Fordism, postmodernity is best described as a decentralized, horizontal structure defined by on-demand production. The small microbrew has been a favourite class example, although small "artisian" businesses in general work well for this model. In philosophical terms, the postmodern looks at how the modernist metanarrative is best subverted through consumerism and fragmentation. Systems move away from the vertically organized structure of the modernist era and towards a linear order. In the realm of the technological, postmodernity means moving away from both mainframes and the MIT Priesthood; we see ideas borrowed from railroad tracks, the idea of a time-share, and the subversion of the Priesthood by students - the emergence of the hacker culture. The idea of distributed computing time, combined with a fear of nuclear war wiping out standard methods of commuication merged with Bush's idea of the memex to bring us ARPANet followed by the internet. Simultaneously, technology shrunk the size of components (largely due to competition created by distributed manufacturing processes) to the point that personal computers become a reality instead of fantasy. At this time, postmodern science fiction begins to move away from the idea of the automotan replacing humans and towards a disembodied computer that augments, and often begins to control, humans. One of the first examples of
this comes from prolific dystopic author Philip K. Dick, who, in The Simulacra, introduces the idea of a shadowy secret government functioning as a disembodied android which controls the Befahaltrager, those who carry out the orders. What separates Dick's simulacra and simulcrum from Gibson's matrix is his lack of leap to having the entire system exist solely in the virtual. Other compelling images of the disembodied computer that have remained culturally resonate are Majel Barret's monotonic computer from the Star Trek series, and Arthur C. Clarke's frightening calm Hal. As computers became separated from their bodies, so did humans. We moved from the realm of the real to that of the virtual - we were no longer our bodies, but only our minds. No longer cogs in a machine, we became self-contained individuals housed within a fleshy shell that had no more bearing on who we were than the computers we augmented ourselves with did.