Anthony J. Pennings, PhD

WRITINGS ON AI POLICY, DIGITAL ECONOMICS, ENERGY STRATEGIES, AND GLOBAL E-COMMERCE

The SACT Attack: How Spreadsheet Capitalism Conquered the World

Once Substitution is complete, the other layers of SACT can take over. You cannot apply Abstraction (comparing unlike things), Symbolic Computing (formulas), or Telecommunications (speed) to a physical house. But you can apply all of them to the token of the house sitting in a spreadsheet cell.

Remediating the Blurred Lines of Human-AI Collaboration in Disaster Management and Public Safety Communications

Drawing on Bolter and Grusin’s theory of remediation, with its two logics of transparent immediacy and hypermediation, we can piece together how AI can function as a next-generation operating system for Common Operating Picture (COPs) in disaster management and public safety command centers, dashboards, and mobile Personal Operating Pictures (POP).

The Framing Power of Digital Spreadsheets

The power of framing in digital spreadsheets arises from the ability to define what data is included, how it is processed by functions or formulas, and the visual or numerical emphasis placed on specific inputs and outcomes. Spreadsheets exert framing power through selecting and prioritizing data, formula logic and embedded assumptions, standardization and norms, simplifying complex realities, and selective presentation of results.

The Digital Spreadsheet: Interface to Space-Time, and Beyond?

The digital spreadsheet, a visual interface, uses language and numerical information organized for intelligibility and uses media and mathematical formulas to initiate horizontal and vertical causation. The spreadsheet interfaces the conscious agent with space-time and the quantum realm to operate in the space-time reality and to “summon” new realities through the acts of writing and measurement.

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  • About Me

    Professor (full) at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Research Professor for Stony Brook University. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and global political economy

    You can reach me at:

    anthony.pennings@gmail.com
    apennings70@gmail.com
    anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr

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    The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers, past or present. Articles are not meant as financial advice.

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