Communicación Engineering

Þe more humans change...

As the heading on my domain summarizes, I am in the middle of a long span of research a decade in the making.

Research is normally assumed to mean science, a laboratory-bound clinical process held to rigor and rubric; I hope you can keep up as I examine a possible broader angle here.

My college degree had been in Computer Science, and of course this had been the youngest of all the sciences. Now some of the physicists are reaching and yearning to bring quantum science into popular dialogue; during my graduation a decade ago no one spoke of such ideas.

Science changes, and so even if you hold research as a pure domain of science, you need to recognize the changing shape of the process of research.

Of course, we can be sure that research comes in many shapes and appearances, because in a colloquial sense, you can research nearly anything. Geneology is hardly a science, and depends more on lore than experimentation - and is also one of the popular research hobbies of sociologists. In similar social circles, policy also is borne by decades upon centuries of gradual research; mainly by accident and reflection more than pre-planning and responsibility.

And so, I'm unsure if I'd like to call my career a science, although it has been imagined as such for nearly the duration of the field of study.

If anything, "computer science" should be broken up into the many, innumerable areas of dialogue ensuing on a daily basis, including:

• logical mathematics
• mesh topologies
• communication design
• electronic fabrication

This is a breakdown according to my normal ideology around the field, and is pleasing to me because I never need to think about the origins of the word "computer" again - I simply dig into one of the sub-genres, each of which promise more riches and curious scenarios than the rigid calculus that endlessly scares off newcomers, along with their hopes and ambitions.

So, if I choose one of these to focus my obsession on, I'm clearly in the camp of communication design, or in another sense, communication engineering; opening channels in human social groups for dialogue, to expand our reach and purpose.

Ambitious, I'm sure.

Only we need to recognize that nothing about these online spaces is a science; there are far too many people who see nothing more here than a breeding ground for memes and harassment, for coins no one can sink their teeth into, and for chances to spark a toothless brand for a quick flash-in-the-pan fortune.

This is communication, and as has always been, is incredibly messy.

This round, the difference is in scope: the mess is global, the only boundaries held in place by language barriers, gradually being broken up by the bilinguals and the meme-makers and the viral videos.