Digital songs: Aspects of contemporary work and life

Despite apparent differences, industrial and digital worlds rely, it is claimed, on the same epistemological foundation epitomized by the deductive-analytical and projective character of representation. A comparison of the very mode by means of which language and cognition have been re-represented in software with the logic that underlies the motion patterns of the industrial machine helps to lay open the hidden epistemological affinities of these otherwise different instrumental devices. Within this overall framework an attempt is made to reconfigure the novelty of the digital machine and to assess some consequences of the ongoing electronic textualization of contemporary contexts of work.     

A nebula of gases from Io surrounding Jupiter

Several planetary missions have reported the presence of substantial numbers of energetic ions and electrons surrounding Jupiter; relativistic electrons are observable up to several astronomical units (au) from the planet. A population of energetic (>30[?]keV) neutral particles also has been reported, but the instrumentation was not able to determine the mass or charge state of the particles, which were subsequently labelled energetic neutral atoms. Although images showing the presence of the trace element sodium were obtained, the source and identity of the neutral atoms---and their overall significance relative to the loss of charged particles from Jupiter's magnetosphere---were unknown. Here we report the discovery by the Cassini spacecraft of a fast (>103[?]km[?]s-1) and hot magnetospheric neutral wind extending more than 0.5[?]au from Jupiter, and the presence of energetic neutral atoms (both hot and cold) that have been accelerated by the electric field in the solar wind. We suggest that these atoms originate in volcanic gases from Io, undergo significant evolution through various electromagnetic interactions, escape Jupiter's magnetosphere and then populate the environment around the planet. Thus a 'nebula' is created that extends outwards over hundreds of jovian radii.