---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Apr 1, 2014 at 8:16 PM Subject: URI's , QR codes, Western Philosophy, and "Artifactualization" To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>, " [email protected]" <[email protected]> Excerpts : http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/ppig/documents/Philosophy%20of%20the%20Web%20as%20a... *What the Web does to philosophy is what we call "artifactualization". A process where * *concepts become "embodied" in materiality* - with lasting consequences for this discipline. What happens when logical proper names take the form of URIs or when entities become resources with the mediation of the Web? The paradox is that while for the first time some philosophical concepts now exist in a concrete, material form, at the same time, this process tends to lend them some radically new characteristics, largely transforming them into something else. Heidegger posited a filiation between technology [Technik] and metaphysics (considered as the essence of modern technology). This takes a whole new sense now that technology realizes the Western metaphysical project by inscribing its categories directly into concrete matter. https://www.academia.edu/1788972/The_Artifactualization_of_Reference_and_Sub... URIs are especially interesting for philosophers. Likeproper names, a concept central both to the philosophy oflanguage and metaphysics, they seem to refer to an object. Ifthe architecture of the Web retains some of their characteristics,then philosophers are no longer facing a terra incognita butrather a familiar landscape. Unlike proper names, however,URIs also give access to Web contents. As such, they betokenan important change, from a symbolical dimension, whereproper names are bestowed certain functions and used to solvephilosophical conundrums regarding identity, to a technologicalone, to quote the late German media theorist Friedrich Kittler, where they earn new functionalities and act as the pillar of a world-wide information system. 2 This shift is what we call artifactualization , 3 the becoming-artifact of philosophical concepts -- *Please note an intrusion wiped out my inbox on February 8; I have no record of previous communication, proposals, etc ..* P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net <http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation>Updates: http://twitter.com/mbauwens; http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens #82 on the (En)Rich list: http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/