What's the difference between computers and women? Hope you're not expecting a punch line, because this isn't an alt.joke. It's one of many questions posed by Sadie Plant in Zeros and Ones, a fascinating expedition through the history, culture, and philosophical implications of modern technology.
Subtitled "Digital Women and the New Technoculture," Plant's latest book features historical accounts of women in technology, from extensive discussion of pioneering programmer Lady Ada Lovelace to the tale of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, "the second of the first computer programmers." The economic and social history of textiles provides an underpinning for the book, linking women in the workplace to the machines of industrial production and the "spider work" of automated weaving to the interconnections of the World Wide Web. Films, fictions, and cultural artifacts mingle comfortably with scientific research and theoretical discourse in Plant's analysis.
But don't expect a reprieve from the grandiose proclamations and button-pushing half-truths intrinsic to cyber commentary. "Face-to-face communication – the missionary position so beloved of Western man – is not at all the most direct of all possible ways to communicate," Plant opines. Among such humorous provocations, dubious statements like "a strong sense of identity and direction gets one nowhere in cyberspace" come off as unnecessary trolls. It can be annoying, frankly, but if you give yourself over to her rhythmic voice, she will take you on a fantastic ride.
So what is the difference between chicks and thinking machines? Hmm. Both were traditionally employed as tools, controlled by and devoted to the work of men. They used secret languages to communicate among themselves. But where postmodern Westerners agree that women possess consciousness, intelligence, and the capacity to create life, computers are just man's helpmates. And we can assume they'll stay in their given role, just like women did. Right?
Zeros and Ones: Digital Women and the New Technoculture, by Sadie Plant: US$23.95. Doubleday: (800) 323 9872.
This article originally appeared in the November issue of Wired magazine.
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