we live in an age of rapid cross multiplication.
in math, cross multiplication between two sets of things results in a new
set that pairs each element of the first set with each element of the second
set.
{1, 2, 3} x {4, 5, 6} = {(1,4), (1,5), (1,6), (2,4), ( 2,5), (2,6), (3,4),
(3,5), (3,6)}
the first two sets are one-dimensional. the cross product is two
dimensional. the cross product of two sets has more dimensions.
the internet accelerates the processes of cultural cross multiplication.
poetry x programming; poetry x spam; poetry x lots of things. because the
internet is a vast network. a network is a bunch of nodes in relation to
other nodes. and the relations grow between different nodes. and new nodes
form out of unions of groups of nodes. as the lettrist poet isadore isou put
it, "Each poet will integrate everything into Everything".
given a finite set of plain old numbers, it makes sense to talk about the
greatest one or the least one. but it doesn't make much sense to speak of
the greatest or least in {(1,4), (1,5), (1,6), (2,4), ( 2,5), (2,6), (3,4),
(3,5), (3,6)}.
we can talk about the point which is the greatest distance from (0,0), or
something like that, but it doesn't mean simply 'the greatest'.
similarly, in a situation of cultural cross multiplication, standards that
might loosely apply to, say, poetry, might not so easily apply to (poetry,
programming).
so we get a situation where no one knows what is greatest or least. because
there really is no greatest or least in a situation of cross multiplication.
ja
http://vispo.com
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