This talk argues against the conflation of digital and computational that ails contemporary discourse. Searching for a common logic among analog, digital, and quantum computing, I ask what exactly is computation if not digitality and find an answer in the individuating backbone that runs through histories of postal, civic, and technological addresses.
This is a story of how cities came to be models for memory addresses (and consequently device and internet address) in computation and what it can tell us about the state of ubiquitous computing and surveillance societies today.
Ranjodh Singh Dhaliwal is the Ruth and Paul Idzik Collegiate Chair in Digital Scholarship and Assistant Professor of English and Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame, and an incoming associate professor of Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Basel.
He holds a Ph.D. in English and Science and Technology Studies from UC Davis, and a BTech in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Indore. He is the co-author (with Théo Lepage-Richer and Lucy Suchman) of Neural Networks (UMinnesota and Meson Press, 2024), and his award-winning writing—situated between media theory, literary studies, computer science, and science and technology studies—can be found in Critical Inquiry, Configurations, American Literature, JCMS, and Design Issues, among other venues.