Analog

Why, surrounded by screens and smart devices, we feel a deep connection to the analog--vinyl records, fountain pens, Kodak film, and other nondigital tools.

We're surrounded by screens; our music comes in the form of digital files; we tap words into a notes app. Why do we still crave the "realness" of analog, seeking out vinyl records, fountain pens, cameras with film? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Robert Hassan explores our deep connection to analog technology. Our analog urge, he explains, is about what we've lost from our technological past, something that's not there in our digital present. We're nostalgic for what we remember indistinctly as somehow more real, more human. Surveying some of the major developments of analog technology, Hassan shows us what's been lost with the digital.

Along the way, he discusses the appeal of the 2011 silent, black-and-white Oscar-winning film The Artist; the revival of the non-e-book book; the early mechanical clocks that enforced prayer and worship times; and the programmable loom. He describes the effect of the typewriter on Nietzsche's productivity, the pivotal invention of the telegraph, and the popularity of the first televisions despite their iffy picture quality.
The transition to digital is marked by the downgrading of human participation in the human-technology relationship. We have unwittingly unmoored ourselves, Hassan warns, from the anchors of analog technology and the natural world. Our analog nostalgia is for those ancient aspects of who and what we are.

為什麼在被屏幕和智能設備包圍的情況下，我們對類比技術（如黑膠唱片、鋼筆、柯達膠卷和其他非數字工具）感到深深的連結？

我們被屏幕包圍，我們的音樂以數字文件的形式存在，我們在筆記應用程序中輸入文字。為什麼我們仍然渴望類比技術的「真實感」，尋找黑膠唱片、鋼筆和膠卷相機？在麻省理工學院出版社的「MIT Press Essential Knowledge」系列中，羅伯特·哈桑（Robert Hassan）探討了我們對類比技術的深刻連結。他解釋說，我們對類比的渴望是因為我們在技術過去中失去了一些東西，在數字時代中找不到。我們對於模糊地記憶為更真實、更人性化的東西感到懷舊。哈桑回顧了一些類比技術的重大發展，向我們展示了數字時代所失去的東西。

在此過程中，他討論了2011年無聲、黑白奧斯卡獲獎電影《The Artist》的吸引力；非電子書的復興；早期的機械時鐘，用於強制祈禱和崇拜時間；以及可編程織機。他描述了打字機對尼采生產力的影響，電報的重大發明，以及儘管畫質不佳，第一台電視的普及。

數字時代的轉變標誌著人類在人與技術關係中參與度的降低。哈桑警告說，我們不知不覺地與類比技術和自然界的錨點脫節。我們對類比的懷舊是對我們的古老本質的懷念。

Robert Hassan is Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Melbourne. He is the author of The Condition of Digitality, The Age of Distraction, and other books.

Robert Hassan是墨爾本大學媒體與傳播學教授。他是《The Condition of Digitality》、《The Age of Distraction》等書的作者。