All and Nothing: A Digital Apocalypse

by Martin Burckhardt, Dirk Hofer, Erik Butler (Translator)

Why 1 = presence and 0 = absence and the digital world formula is x = xn: an exploration of meaning in a universe of infinite replication.

In the beginning was the Zero, and the Zero was with God, and God was the One.—All and Nothing

In 1854, the British mathematician George Boole presented the idea of a universe the elements of which could be understood in terms of the logic of absence and presence: 0 and 1, all and nothing—the foundation of binary code. The Boolean digits 0 and 1 do not designate a quantity. In the Boolean world, x times x always equals x; all and nothing meet in the formula x = x n. As everything becomes digitized, God the clockmaker is replaced by God the programmer. This book–described by its authors as “a theology for the digital world”—explores meaning in a digital age of infinite replication, in a world that has dissolved into information and achieved immortality by turning into a pure sign.

All and Nothing compares information that spreads without restraint to a hydra—the mythological monster that grew two heads for every one that was cut off. Information is thousand-headed and thousand-eyed because Hydra's tracks cannot be deleted. It shows that when we sit in front of a screen, we are actually on the other side, looking at the world as an uncanny reminder of the nondigitized. It compares our personal data to our shadows and our souls, envisioning the subconscious laid out on a digital bier like a corpse.

The digital world, the authors explain, summons forth fantasies of a chiliastic or apocalyptic nature. The goal of removing the representative from mathematics has now been achieved on a greater scale than Boole could have imagined.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory

104 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2017

About the author

Martin Burkhardt is an audio artist, cultural theorist, and playwright based in Berlin.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hab’s nur gelesen weils ein Geschenk meines ehemaligen Chefs ist. War größtenteils unverständliches akademisches Gelaber ohne klare Grundaussagen. Vereinzelt ganz interessante Gedanken versteckt.

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first of what I believe will be many readings. An absolutely essential text, in the spirit of Baudrillard, but with a line of reasoning that is considerably easier to follow. Underscores just how big an existential shift the digital revolution has proven to be and how little we have grasped its impact, not only societally, but fundamentally as human beings in the Internet era. Frightening, if not strangely hopeful, in that there are at least a few able to pierce the veil.

This book is like a dispatch of what they saw on the other side.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The simultaneous presence of all that has ever been created, medieval theology taught, is Hell. Under these auspices, the Internet may be understood as a site of world constipation: a digital inferno.

https://withagreenscarf.wordpress.com...

[Lethe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Größtenteils leider pseudointellektuelles Geschwafel, auch wenn ab und an ein interessanter Gedanke aufblitzt. So ziemlich alles hier Erwähnte gibt es jedoch andernorts in ausgefeilter Version zu lernen, hier wirkt alles sehr unterkocht - außerdem sind einige Takes meines Erachtens nach naiv, zum Beispiel die Annahme, dass digitalisierte Dinge wirklich ewig und immateriell seien.

[Philtatos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty hallucinogenic discourse to the Boolean nature of the ‘metaphysics’ encoded in our digital selfhood/s. I feel there’s a great message in it, but the abstract nature of something that is abstract in nature makes it inaccessible at times (as the series says - it would require ‘meditation’)

[job]

Stirrar stirrar stirrar på Kylie Jenner tills mina ögon tåras

[Péter Horányi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elgondolkodtató és provokatív könyv a digitális világról.