The Semantics of Clouds

It is a difficult thing to get into the world of contemporary computer technologies. Like any new system that holds the potential for being inclusive and radically independent, the first stages of its growth is often accompanied by what many new users perceive to be difficult language. It’s a complication that arises in anything new and possibly transformational. It’s also something of a criticism that’s often leveled at philosophers and academics as they begin developing new theories of how things are, or how things seem to be.

It’s not a new development, although it certainly seems to be. New concepts, new structures, and new ways of thinking do require a new language. In the early 1960s, when post-structural philosophy was making waves in Europe, the intellectuals were vastly excited, and the students were either taken in by the wave, or else left terribly confused. In that particular context, the thinkers of the time were responding to the notion that language had suddenly become a tool not of revelation or communication, but of intentional obfuscation .

That’s not the case today, although a first look at computer language might suggest otherwise. With a bit of time, however, it becomes easier to understand, and is actually as user-friendly as the programs have become. The metaphors are embedded in the names, so that cloudshare refers to the interconnected networks in a company, but also create a visual picture of clouds in the sky, separate but moving along the same air flows. These metaphors are the very key to understanding the systems.

No related posts.