Y’all might know I’m a STEM-head, but also a PATH-head. Add A to STEM to get STEAM and now that criss-crosses with PATH, like in a crossword. But what does that “A” stand for? And who talks about PATH? You catch the drift. There’s a slide show that goes into it. Creative Commons or one of those.
Computer Science is proving a useful intersectional discipline, partly as a consequence of Engineering (software and hardware both) in the field: every discipline seems ravenous for computer services in its own way. My focus has been hospitals and health care, from a data science angle. But that’s one of so many niche angles or vantage points.
I refer to “our subculture” as “computational” meaning we’re not “anti technology” even if we’re anti its abuse (there’s a difference). Our campuses have data center like attributes, but then so does a casino, a supermarket, a moon base. That just means we keep records, which today are multi-media. The idea that a data center is a training center where supervised learning happens is a niche use of the term.
PATH means Philosophy Anthropology Theater History. We explore the tensions. Philosophy did indeed take a turn into ethnography, with the linguistic turn, which led to self analysis, maybe psychological at the individual and family level, but sociological in nature when larger than that, and sociology is indistinguishable from cultural anthropology. I’m thinking of Wittgenstein in particular, as a paradigm linguistic turner.
STEAM means Science Technology Engineering, Anthropology, and Mathematics. Say what? Why does Technology get its own letter? Because STEM sounds better with that T in it. Engineering is distinct from Science, and that’s helpful to our Silicon Forest agenda (thinking ISEPP here).
But what I wanted to add here, most especially, is the fortuitous link to thermodynamics, meaning now that “steam” has entered the picture, lets not squander the opportunity: to talk about pressurized water vapor (steam) as a driving force in service of electrodynamic power generation. The hydro-dam is the new water wheel, with the added feature of being able to “transmit” via “conductors” (high tension lines) to networks of substations, serving communities.
Given all the destruction going on in Planet of the Apes world aka Nuthouse Earth, the need for reconstruction will be severe, which doesn’t always mean going for a carbon copy of what was there before.
The designer starts with user needs and works back from there to design intentional and attentive environments, amendable to user behaviors and selective control. Adaptable. Not unlike a hotel. Cultivating hospitable environments is a high art, as any GUI designer well knows.
Or maybe we’re even talking about a real hotel.
Maybe we’re looking at a new VA program. I asked Gemini to look ahead with me. I was sharing the prompt with a theater guy, which has everything to do with scenario planning.
