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nature. At the same time, he pays no attention to the work of constructing the simulations, or the infrastructural considerations that underwrite the images or events (and we agree that separating them ontologically is a hopeless task). The hype of our postmodern times is that we do not need to think about this sort of work any more. The real issues are scientific and technological, stripped of the conditions of productionin artificial life, thinking machines, nanotechnology, and genetic manipulation. . . . Clearly each of these is important. But there is more at stakeepistemologically, politically, and ethicallyin the day-to-day work of building classification systems and producing and maintaining standards than in abstract arguments about representation. Their pyrotechnics may hold our fascinated gaze, but they cannot provide any path to answering our moral questions. |
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Two Definitions: Classification and Standards |
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Up to this point, we have been using the terms classification and standardization without formal definition. Let us clarify the terms now. |
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A classification is a spatial, temporal, or spatio-temporal segmentation of the world. A "classification system" is a set of boxes (metaphorical or literal) into which things can be put to then do some kind of workbureaucratic or knowledge production. In an abstract, ideal sense, a classification system exhibits the following properties: |
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1. There are consistent, unique classificatory principles in operation. One common sort of system here is the genetic principle of ordering. This refers not to DNA analysis, but to an older and simpler sense of the word: classifying things by their origin and descent (Tort 1989). A genealogical map of a family's history of marriage, birth, and death is genetic in this sense (even for adopted children and in-laws). So is a flow chart showing a hierarchy of tasks deriving from one another over time. There are many other types of classificatory principlessorting correspondence by date received (temporal order), for example, or recipes by those most frequently used (functional order). |
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2. The categories are mutually exclusive. In an ideal world, categories are clearly demarcated bins, into which any object addressed by the system will neatly and uniquely fit. So in the family genealogy, one mother and one father give birth to a child, forever and uniquely attributed to them as parentsthere are no surrogate mothers, or |
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