Where Are You?: An Ontology of the Cell Phone

This book sheds light on the most philosophically interesting of contemporary objects: the cell phone. Despite their name, this book argues that cell phones are not really all that good for sound and speaking. Instead, the main philosophical point of this book is that mobile phones have come into their own as writing machines - they function best in text messages, email, and archives of all kinds. Their philosophical urgency lies in the manner in which they carry us from the effects of voice over into reliance upon the written traces that are, this book argues, the basic stuff of human culture

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- FOREWORD: TRUTH AND THE MOBILE PHONE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- TRANSLATOR'S NOTE -- INTRODUCTION: WHERE ARE YOU? -- 1. SPEAKING -- 2. WRITING -- 3. RECORDING -- 4. CONSTRUCTING -- THE BOTTLE IMP -- 5. STRONG REALISM -- 6. STRONG TEXTUALISM -- 7. WEAK REALISM -- 8. WEAK TEXTUALISM -- EPILOGUE -- NOTES -- REFERENCES -- INDEX