February 23 2006

Text By Greg Fallis

There is nothing more iconic of the 20th century than massive machinery. Gears, levers, cogs, valves, pistons...the clamorous mechanisms of modernity. The gigantic iron engines that drove western culture for more than a century remain powerfully dramatic, even when they've gone still and lifeless.

It's easy to visualize the strong hands that once operated these machines, to see the sweaty bodies and hear the grunts and curses of the workers. Ghosts haunt the old foundries and factories.

There is no romance in digital circuitry. There is no sense of history or permanence in a computer chip. The quiet computation of 0s and 1s is not amenable to ghosts.