Here comes the technofear. Again. Actually it seems to turn up at ever-diminishing intervals; the gap between my mastering some aspect of new technology and my realising that I’m still light-years behind developments gets steadily smaller, partly, I suppose, because my mastering the new technology increases my access to information about other technological stuff. This isn’t going to get any better this side of the singularity, is it?
The particular issue this time arises from the application I’m putting together for a new phase of the Reception of Thucydides project. Compared with the previous phase (see previous posts), this includes some really neat ideas for outreach and impact activity, largely due to one of my (I hope) future collaborators, Liz Sawyer, including the proper development of the Thinking Through Thucydides multi-layered digital text thing that I’ve been trying to get off the ground for a bit. That’s really good, said the internal reviewer in Bristol, but it’s a shame you’re not planning to develop an app as well.
Hmm. As I believe the current argot would have it, WTAF? Please bear in mind that it was only this summer that I ceased to be one of those old-fashioned people who use their mobile phone solely for phone calls, and mainly just to let me wife know that I’m on my way home. Having upgraded to a SmartPhone, and while still struggling to master the swipy-swipy technique (why can I make the text bigger but not smaller?), I now find that I’ve merely moved into the class of old-fashioned people who use their mobile phone solely to check their email now and again. I more or less understand the idea of apps in principle, I just don’t grasp them in practice – and I struggle to imagine what a Thucydides app would look like. You type in a question about foreign affairs, political issues or personal relationships, and up pops a decontextualised, mistranslated pearl of Thucydidean wisdom? You type in a question about foreign affairs, political issues or personal relationships, and every time the answer is: the strong do what they can. and the weak suffer what they must? (Which, to be fair, isn’t any more vacuous than the usual Give me the serenity to accept the stuff that’s unavoidable etc. line).
Sphinx 