Cultural Logic of Computation

David Golumbia is Associate Professor of Digital Studies in the English Department and the Media, Art, and Text PhD Program at Virginia Commonwealth University.

• * The Cultural Functions of Computation Part I. Computationalism and Cognition * Chomsky's Computationalism * Genealogies of Philosophical Functionalism Part II. Computationalism and Language * Linguistic Computationalism * Computational Semantics, Digital Textuality Part III. Cultural Computationalism * Computation, Globalization, and Cultural Striation * Computationalism, Striation, and Cultural Authority Part IV. Computationalist Politics * Computationalism and Political Individualism * Computationalism and Political Authority * Epilogue: Computers Without Computationalism * Notes * References * Acknowledgments

The Cultural Logic of Computation is a brilliant, audacious book. It might be described as a rollicking, East Coast version of Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool-- or one part Laws of Cool, one part Seeing Like a State, with more than a dash of Baudrillard and Virilio for brio. Golumbia's argument is that contemporary Western and Westernizing culture is deeply structured by forms of hierarchy and control that have their origins in the development and use of computers over the last 50 years. I look forward to pressing this book on friends and colleagues, starting with anyone who has ever recommended The World is Flat to me.