Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127 » December 4th: Posthumanism

December 4th: Posthumanism

Plan for the Day

  • Eileen Gunn’s “Computer Friendly” (1989)
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers “Californication” (1999)
  • Please do the online course evaluations by tomorrow!
    • As of 12/4/2019, I have 23% done, which is too low. Even if you hate the class, I would appreciate your feedback.
    • Evaluations for all your classes should be here

Ok…so I decided to separate the discussion into two different pages. It will help to keep from digressions.

A Little about the Late-1980s

This is a story from the late-1980s, a time of great suspicion about crime, job loss, and automation anxiety. The intrusive capabilities of new technologies (and new commodification) were also anxieties played out through late-1980s films, such as RoboCop (1987), They Live (1988), and Cyborg (1989). Many of these films had a dystopian feel to them and technologies are seen more as harmful to humanity as opposed to texts from the Star Trek universe, where technologies are (usually) considered helpful overall. Although video games had been in homes since the early 1970s, by the late-1980s, video game consoles and computer games were extremely popular. Computer games, video games solely available on PCs, were popular with a particular type of computer “enthusiast.” Not that I’m biased or anything, but those who were more interested in computer games, such as the Sierra Online games, were usually more cerebral and had better knowledge of computers because PCs, specifically, were less standardized, requiring the superb debugging skills of self-taught individuals who found workarounds. {While this passage may appear to be all satire, one should realize there’s quite a bit of truth in satire…}

Eileen Gunn’s “Computer Friendly” (1989)

This is another technological dystopia. It starts out like a story about a child’s first day of kindergarten or 1st grade, but there’s a twist…the school is testing the children to determine if they’re worthy to be part of the labor force. The biggest theme in the story is the push for predictability and standardization. Uniformity makes processing more efficient. Instead of technologies being created to fit human conditions (a humanistic approach), humans are “optimiz[ed] for predictability” (p. 652) to work efficiently and fit the technologies (system-centered approach). This is a projection (“if this continues…”) of Fordist/Taylorist goals of efficiency during the early 20th Century. In fact, here are some aspects of Taylorism for the mid-Industrial Revolution:

  • Henry Ford’s Assembly Line; Frederick Taylor’s Management Science
  • Taylor (1911/1967) asserted that “great gain, both to employers and employés,” will come “from the substitution of scientific rule-of-thumb methods in even the smallest details of the work of every trade” (p. 24, emphasis added).
  • Taylor argued that “[t]he enormous saving of time and therefore increase in output…can be fully realized only after one has personally seen the improvement’’ of Taylor’s scientific application (p. 24).
    • One major goal of Taylorism was efficiency from ‘‘[t]he general adoption of scientific management’’ to achieve ‘‘the increase, both in the necessities and luxuries of life, which becomes available for the whole country’’ (p. 142).
    • Also, another goal would be “the elimination of almost all causes for dispute and disagreement between [management and workmen]” (p. 142).
  • Although Taylor (1911/1967) directly addressed managers and workers, the results of his system were to be a benefit to all industrialized nations: ‘‘Is it not the duty of those who are acquainted with these facts, to exert themselves to make the whole community realize this [study of scientific management’s] importance’’ (p. 144).
    • Taylor (1911/1967) claimed, “our larger wastes of human effort, which go on every day through such of our acts as are blundering, ill-directed, or inefficient, and which Mr. [Theodore] Roosevelt refers to as a lack of ‘national efficiency,’ are less visible, less tangible, and are vaguely appreciated” (p. 5).

Basically, although we claim the pace of life has increased with the ubiquity of computer technologies since the late 1970s, the drive for efficiency is much older. Don’t forget the beginning of the semester’s Futurism readings:

  • ‘‘Futurism is grounded in the great discoveries of science’’ (1913/1973, p. 96, italics mine).

Standardization

Because Elizabeth (Lizardbreath) is in a school context, the practice of standardized testing jumps out at me. Think about all the standardized testing you had do in school. Why do you think schools use standardized tests? Are you away of a growing trend to drop requiring the SAT and ACT tests? Also, I’m pretty sure the school in the short story is based on the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, IL, which currently has an innovative early childhood education curriculum.

  • p. 642: Why do you think it’s called the Asia Center?
  • p. 643: Why does Elizabeth’s dad need his brain wiped?
  • p. 644: Elizabeth’s dad tells her, in her future career, “you’ll be hardwired into the network…” cyborg style!
  • p. 644: Elizabeth’s dad says, “‘Being an executive is sort of like playing games all the time….the harder you work…the more fun you’ll have later.”
    • Someone else’s father also had a video game-type job…
    • He even had a special suit he wore.
  • p. 645: Her parents are happy that “her physical aptitude scores are even lower than Bobby’s”
    • What other story didn’t want people to have too much physical capability?
    • Semester’s coming full circle.
  • p. 646: Elizabeth dreams of Sheena not wanting to fall asleep.
    • What are the “white things in glass jars”?
  • p. 647: Elizabeth on lying–“It seemed to be mostly a matter of convincing yourself that what you said was true.”

(In)Efficiency

One of the pursuits of systems is efficiency–meeting goals with the fewest resources. Conventional wisdom claims that you make more profit if you reduce your costs, and one way to reduce costs is being more efficient. Computers (and other technologies) are supposed to make our lives more efficient. Elizabeth’s mother and brother have become efficient tools of “the system” by becoming machines. They don’t jack in like in The Matrix; they never leave cyberspace.

  • In order to get the most efficiency, the human is reduced to brain waves. So are animals. Brownie “fetches” information for Elizabeth.
    • Windows XP had a dog…
  • p. 649: All computer functions appear to be personified.
  • pp. 651-652: The Chickenheart was surprised about his creation and its insistence on optimizing for predictability.
    • What’s the problem with too much predictability?
  • p. 653: The Chickenheart brings Sheena and Oginga into the system.
    • “Things are too predictable here already. Same ideas churning around and around.”
    • “[Oginga] has a brand of curiosity we can put to use.”

Overall Questions for “Computer Friendly”

Because we have a social science fiction approach to our readings, consider what the following questions through that lens:

  • What comment is being made about our labor practices?
  • What’s the problem with too much predictability?
  • What other story showed a little change in the system at the end?
    • What might be Gunn’s comment on a little subversion in the system?
    • Also, what’s the bigger picture hierarchy of this system? Who are the cops, executives, and architects?
  • What’s the play on the phrase “user friendly”? What effect does changing “user” to “computer” have?

Posthumanism

The topic of posthumanism, like many philosophical terms, doesn’t have an exact definition. However, we can begin to understand the concept–after all, this course is all about leading you to more questions than answers–by thinking literally of “post” being after humans. Although many science fiction texts have humans becoming machine-like, I read that metaphorically as the ways in which technologies–socially constructed–have conditioned behaviors (but not values or worldviews necessarily). You have heard me say that we became posthuman once we used non-instinctual technologies. Humans are tool users, but we have also become tools for social systems that we cannot separate ourselves from. Although this concept has varying ideas about how much control humans can exert on a system, I argue that our control is extremely limited and tied to illusions of control embedded in a system that trained us to think and even dream the way the system wants.

There is certainly room for subversion, but how often is is co-opted by hegemonic actors? Perhaps, I’m too pessimistic and reject the overwhelming potential of small, incremental changes. Perhaps, others are too committed and too optimistic of the potential for individuals to effect change. Perhaps there’s more gray area.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the semester! Sorry I can’t tie up all the loose ends. Then again, what fun would that be?

Final Exam!!!

We’re done with class. Your Final Exam is December 11th–don’t forget–on Canvas. It will be 85-100 questions, and, yes, the exam is cumulative. I will set it up so you’ll definitely get questions from these last two short stories and, of course, our discussions. Good luck! And may the odds be ever in your favor.


Works Cited

Marinetti, F. T. (1913/1973). Destruction of syntax—[Wireless imagination]—Words-in-freedom. In U. Apollonio (Ed.), Futurist manifestos (pp. 95–106). Boston, MA: MFA Publications. (R. W. Flint, Trans).

Taylor, F. W. (1967). The principles of scientific management. New York: Norton. (Original work published in 1911).

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