mostly, I just liked the title...
Jul. 16th, 2003 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexr_rwxThe Rudnick is switching into Social Sciences Researcher Mode again. Mostly because he's been reading Marty's copy of Sex/Machine, which is this big collection of cultural studies essays about gender/technology interactions...
Not that you guys are any sort of representative sample, but... could you comment up some responses? I'm curious:
- Does your computer have a name?
- Do you tend to anthropomorphize your computer?
- Do you normally name and/or anthropomorphize your things?
Not that you guys are any sort of representative sample, but... could you comment up some responses? I'm curious:
- Does your computer have a name?
- Do you tend to anthropomorphize your computer?
- Do you normally name and/or anthropomorphize your things?
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no subject
Date: 2003-07-16 09:03 pm (UTC)- Yes. elrond, eowyn, treebeard, cirdan, and aragorn all have names.
- Often... I think of elrond and eowyn as having personalities, at least. That's silly, yes. However, elrond is more warm, open, friendly -- he's older, more accepting, and has seen a lot more software (and hardware -- he's on his fourth motherboard and second case) go by ... so he knows an ugly hack when he sees one, but it doesn't bother him as much. eowyn is younger, more tightly controlled. She's only seen things done The Right Way and has more of a mind to be exclusive towards things that are less than classically beautiful. She's female, and a Sony laptop with sleek lines.
- Not so much. My car (the Geekmobile) gets personified a little bit, but I think he's my only other named posession.
... so how scary is that?
Answers
Date: 2003-07-16 09:47 pm (UTC)But, to answer the questions (which you already know I think):
Yes, my computer has a name: "nameless", haha!
I don't anthropomorphize nameless very often on a conscious level, but there is a sort of vague mental entity at which I direct frustration with the computer on occasion.
And computers I own are the only objects I name regularly; I don't tend to anthropomorphize... hm, come to think of it, though, I do sort of anthropomorphize my car- a long time ago I'd thought of naming it "Mohammed"... It feels friendly and dependable- a big guy like Thomas Perkins (remember him? He'd always give me these huge hugs and clear lift me off the ground).
no subject
Date: 2003-07-16 11:54 pm (UTC)-Very much so. It's not "Giggles has a b0rked processor," it's "Giggles is in a coma. She's temporarily lost brain function."
-Not really. If I ever do it again, I'll probably do it to my car.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 05:30 am (UTC)-sometimes, although not very often. i really tend to think of them as machines...just machines that i take extra special care of.
-on the rare occasion i will, but its usually something like a tree or an animal. particularly animals, and i can long conversations with them ;) i prefer things that respond, but for some reason i treat most all things...wait a sec. actually...i do tend to pat doors when i hit them too hard and say "there there, im sorry!" and ill thank my car for getting me to work, and ill apologize to trees for playing with their leaves (by ripping them off). so yeah, but i don't tend to name things, as to me...naming something is very special and not to be done with just any old thing, or indeed person. but the things that i actually OWN no...they are just things to me, for the most part. odd, huh?
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 09:46 am (UTC)My computer has a name, and so does my iPod, and so does my car, and so does my other computer.
My things all have distinct personalities.
I cried when Ben (my car) broke down yesterday. He's a good car and I love him.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 10:28 am (UTC)-Only when I'm programming and only when the computer's misbehaving. Then I do talk to it, like "You worthless piece of crap! Why do you hate me? There's nothing friggin' wrong with my code!" I do believe that my computer secretly hates me.
-No
But then again, I am the non-CS CS person. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 10:43 am (UTC)-I think that's illegal within city limits here. And anyway, we are low on hot sauce and fishbowls.
-Every chance I get.
Okay, I admit, I have no idea what anthropomorphize means.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 11:02 am (UTC)2) McKie I do sometimes. I try to refer to him by his name as often as possible. My poor laptop has had so many formats and operating systems on it, I think it is a little schitzo and doesn't know what is going on.
3) Really, my computers are all I anthropomorphize. Though my sister has taken the car I had in HS and officially dubbed it the "Rossmobile" and has personalized it to heaven, hell, and back again.
no subject
Date: 2003-07-17 11:14 am (UTC)So not only can a computer (a machine pretending to be intelligent, more or less) be attributed a name, but a program pretending to be a computer can get a name as well...
Virtual Machines
Date: 2003-07-17 11:22 am (UTC)On a completely unrelated note....
Date: 2003-07-17 01:11 pm (UTC)This provides a great deal of amusement. You should peruse the 2003 and 2002 contest winners when you have a chance, for lots of time-wasting laughter. I'm particularly fond of the "Vile pun" awards section. Also you should enter something next year... I can't help but have my imagination tugged back to when you were writing an odd little short story during some CS clss (2340?) about some mad professor reading his books when he had a revalation but the pizza guy came so he folded the note up and put it in his pocket and... er, yeah, so forth and so on. I bet you could come up with a highly amusing little entry for this contest ^_^
~Lisa lisa
Re: On a completely unrelated note....
Date: 2003-07-17 01:51 pm (UTC)*laughs* That particular bit of fiction was the README for our boulderdash project for Practicum... we were writing a game, so it had to have a background story. Surprised you remember that...
Thanks muchly for the link :) :)
Re: On a completely unrelated note....
Date: 2003-07-17 02:08 pm (UTC)And Thy Computers Shall be Called
Date: 2003-07-17 02:41 pm (UTC)Clouds are cool, anyway.
~samarin samarin~
Re: And Thy Computers Shall be Called
Date: 2003-07-17 07:59 pm (UTC)~samarin~
no subject
Date: 2003-07-19 03:01 am (UTC)- my computers do not have names
- nope
- my code... almost all code I write has personality, and physically beauty (or an appalling lack of at times)