Next Assignment (for group 2, due by next Tuesday night)

Here's three options. Please specify which one you're doing.

1) Find a difficult passage in Lyotard's essay and explain it. By difficult, I mean that it should be one of the more difficult passages in the essay, such that you really don't understand it at all at first. By explain, I mean you should analyze it it in detail to explain the sentence (or phrase, or paragraph) both by itself and in context. You may need to look some things up, maybe in an unabridged dictionary or a dictionary of philosophy. Finally, once you understand it you should explain (or justify) why it's so hard. Why does he need to make a sentence (or paragraph, or phrase) so difficult?

2) Try to pin down, citing several passages from Lyotard, his understanding of technology, then respond to it, perhaps (although not necessarily) guided by one of the following questions. What functions does this definition serve? Does it have merit? Would you use it yourself?

3) Discuss in detail one crucial difference between Joy and Lyotard's understanding of what the posthuman future will look like, and discuss the significance of that difference. How should this effect our understanding of both authors?