three thoughts i've been thinking - by Lilian Caylee

Throughout much of history, humans derived meaning from identifiable markers of status, which were (are?) conflated with identity. Specifically, identity was predominantly portrayed through tangible objects and the act of consuming these objects. As the contemporary philosopher, Byung-Chul Han, writes ”objects are resting places for life” — they are enduring, corporeal; they can be seen, tasted, touched; they can be lingered on. In an increasingly digital — even meta — universe, we have access to continuous streams of information, data, and “experiences,” temporal and fragmented. Han writes about this evolution from objects to information in his most recent book (emphasis mine): In Undinge I have made the proposition that nowadays we perceive reality primarily in terms of information. As a consequence, there is rarely a tangible contact with reality. Reality is robbed of its presence. We no longer perceive its physical vibrations. The layer of information, which covers objects like a m

Throughout much of history, humans derived meaning from identifiable markers of status, which were (are?) conflated with identity. Specifically, identity was predominantly portrayed through tangible objects and the act of consuming these objects. As the contemporary philosopher, Byung-Chul Han, writes ”objects are resting places for life” — they are enduring, corporeal; they can be seen, tasted, touched; they can be lingered on. In an increasingly digital — even meta — universe, we have access to continuous streams of information, data, and “experiences,” temporal and fragmented. Han writes ab