When computers, digital information, the internet, and all
that jazz came in, a number of efforts were made to humanize them by drawing
analogies between the mysterious strings of ones and zeroes, and the electric
networks that underpinned them, and more familiar aspects of living organisms. One of the most popular was the description
of pieces of computer code that could be attached to existing programs in such
a manner as to be copied onto other programs as viruses. This usage seemed
particularly appropriate in cases where the copied computer code interfered
with the intended usages of the existing program, in a way analogous to that of
living viruses infecting organisms, bring reproduced in other organisms, and
hurting or even killing the host organisms.
By an odd quirk of language, the sudden and very rapid
popularity of a video or bit of text which is accessed and reproduced quite
rapidly by thousands or even millions of end users is described as the text or
video going viral, although there
really is little connection between the two neologisms.
As I have reported here before, my first lecture on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, recorded and
posted on YouTube, has been unexpectedly popular. It has now been viewed more than 68,000
times, and is racking up new views at more than 2000 a month. This is small potatoes compared to a clip
from The Big Bang Theory or a classic
Monty Python sketch, but considering the topic, it is still rather remarkable. It can hardly be said to have gone viral, but
I do think it might plausibly be described as having
gone bacterial.
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ReplyDeleteIt is in contemporary parlance, and in all seriousness, huge.
ReplyDeleteIt is remarkable that 68,000+ people have viewed your Kant lecture, it brings to mind a thought expressed by the Canadian academic Jordan Peterson.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Peterson there has been a revolution, the spoken word is now as accessible as the written word. Peterson claims that online video on demand is a new technology which is a Gutenberg revolution. The spoken word is now as powerful as the written word, it is just as distributable and in fact more people can access it because you don't have to be able to read.
I have recently finished your Marx lectures, I found them a very helpful introduction for reading vol one of Capital, which was quite an undertaking for a non academic schmuck. I hope the Marx lectures will go viral too.