Qr codes and tiny URLs in print version
One of the reasons that Google claims they keep their proprietary algorithm secret is that they want Web searches to be more "organic" and unmanipulated by attempts to code for it. This would make searches somehow more authentic when the results are delivered, and provide a better service. However, with all the Web sites clamoring for our attention on the internet, its seems that rhetoric has an important place in delivering that content, making persuasion possible in the first place. Thus, not only is SEO a technique of delivery, but it seems a sophistic one, denying that any true/correct results is possible, but that all are contingent.
If the new individual identity is the brand, then to what extent do animals need branding (many of which are, of course, already branded). What effects does the shift from literacy into electracy have on nonhuman and posthuman subjects, many of whom may unwillingly partake in the writing/branding process but have little to no control on what may actually be communicated/transmitted. We need to theorize the production of "nature" within new media, and the implications this move has for what we typically consider the physical environment. A point of departure for this work comes from Heidegger, who notes in Introduction to Metaphysics the originary moment of literacy, when notable Ancient Greeks such as Plato and Aristotle began to develop a category system based on essences. In creating such a metaphysics, they necessarily exclude the accident, or as Heidegger might say, the poetic. Such a move by the Greeks closes off an entirely different way of being, and locked how we typically understand nature in the scientific mode of logic (or simply, a literate mode of logic). What would nature look like within an electrate metaphysics rather than a literate one [as if we didn't already know(tice)], and how might we attempt to invent a metaphysics that would provide a more "sustainable" contruction of nature. Such a new perspective would hopefully be beneficial toward solving public policy issues about environmental issues by providing practical guidance that would exist alongside the pure reason that the scientific community provides.
My editor asked if anyone had developed the "rhetorical tetrahedron" before, basically a 3D rhetorical triangle, with more surfaces for more possibilities.
3 traditional features, logos-pathos-ethos (or writer-reader-purpose) would still exist along the sides, where they would occupy not a point but a continuum (i.e., multiple writers or multiple audiences).
However the 4 faces might offer more, such as adding kairos to the mix.
For instance, the three vertices of where the planes come together could also integrate medium, genre, and design (or whatever other terms you want to use).
Ultimately, it's just another device with which to think about rhetoric.
