The Internet Temps Commission is #hiring

The Internet Temps Commission (ITC) plays an active role in developing the Internet and the World Wide Web overall time strategy. Unlike physicians, we focus on the sociocultural nature of time: temporalities.

We are setting up the best team of ITC agents and are looking for super top-level time experts. Please take into consideration that the recruitment process can take up several decades or centuries. Apply for a position here.

THE INTERNET TEMPS COMMISSION

The ITC was born out of the realization that the Internet and the Web could affect individuals’ and collective subjective perception of time. Such technologically mediated temporal experiences became salient on the 17th of February 2023, when web platforms had to publish their average monthly active users in Europe. Following this calculation, inactive dead users entered the public debate. In the midst of all, one question was on people’s minds: will the Web evolve in a public graveyard? Two main reasons prompted people to draw this conclusion: humans are mortals and platforms follow an enshittification cycle.

ITC founders believe this public concern is the tip of the iceberg. And Google Inactive Account Manager or Facebook memorial pages are a small band-aid on a deep wound. So the ITC sets out on a mission to address the full complexity of temporalities on the Internet and the Web. From the engineer’s and designers’ perception of time to social norms around mourning practices in social media, the ITC has your back! How can I design an interface with decay in mind? Should I like posts from dead persons? Should I include my password in my testament, or should I delete it all? You will find all your answers on the ITC website.

BACKGROUND

As the Internet and the Web are technologies, it is expected from the candidate to master technology time constructs key paradox: technology aspires to permanence but is the product of a short-term conception of time. Humans are torn between two opposite imaginaries: permanence and speed. One takes root in (1) greek mythology, whereas the other is (2) embedded in modern short-term economical incentives.

In the Myth of Prometheus, after sharing faculties across animals, Epimetheus realizes he forgot to give any ability to humans. Puzzled, Prometheus steals from Hephaestus and Athena the knowledge of the arts with fire, and gives this godly “technè” to humans. However, Prometheus did not have the time, nor the power to enter Zeus acropolis and steal the political and moral genius. It will take a second divine intervention, from Hermes, to give humans a sense of modesty and justice. Thus, the myth distinguishes two geniuses: the technical and the moral. Above all, the myth highlights technological imaginary. It represents human hubris and willingness to defy the limits of nature. In that way, technology imaginary is built against natural senescence, biological aging.
In her research, Britt S Paris looks into how “discourses of time” unfold in the design of the Internet infrastructure. Her research introduces interesting tools to help future ITC agents articulate “discourses of time” and how they interact with political/economical views. Building on Latour’s concept of time enmeshes, Stielger’s and Heidegger’s philosophy, she argues that “time can be investigated as a design ideology”. Throughout her investigation, she conducted interviews and analyzed project documents to better understand how a discourse of time comes about in a specific technological project. Her findings show that “discourses of time” can be collected at different levels and stages of the development process e.g. imagining user case scenarios, engineering, and managing technical latency.

YOUR ROLE AS AN ITC AGENT

Remake political and economic decision-making “discourses of time” during the development process

Elicit Internet + Web funding strategies time constructs

Elicit Internet + Web business models time constructs

Build a roadmap to transform an immediate conception of time into a more sustainable and robust approach

Remake design decision-making and research new design approaches

Apply thanatosentivity to design practices on the Internet + the Web

Conduct user research on how intercultural perception of time interact with the Web

Design beyond deletion and retention of digital possessions on the Web e.g. inspiration from senescence or rituals of letting go

First blog post after the research blog birth, a bit experimental, fictional, and satirical. Let me know what you think. I feel like artifacts have always questioned our perception of time. I guess the main difference now is that there is a proliferation of “digital possessions” (a spicy mix of tracking + the entrainment industry). Because of the time constructs surrounding technology development on the Internet and the Web, we don’t often talk or act on these complex issues. Personally, I would love to contribute and see a change (spoiler the Internet Temps Commission is my invention partially inspired from The Umbrella Academy and I do not believe that an ITC agent will change time constructs). Feel free to share you thoughts about time, death, and the Internet at @margelacool.

Credit to Emilie Lor/@_kknomos for the speedy snail (go check her work now)

References

Massimi, M., & Charise, A. (2009). Dying, death, and mortality: towards thanatosensitivity in HCI. In CHI’09 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 2459-2468).

Paris, B. (2018). Time constructs: The origins of a future internet. University of California, Los Angeles.

Paris, B. S. (2021). Time constructs: Design ideology and a future internet. Time & Society, 30(1), 126-149.

Sas, C., Whittaker, S., & Zimmerman, J. (2016). Design for rituals of letting go: An embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 23(4), 1-37

Wagner, A. J. (2018). Do not click “like” when somebody has died: The role of norms for mourning practices in social media. Social Media+ Society, 4(1), 2056305117744392.

Wright, N. (2014). Death and the Internet: The implications of the digital afterlife. First Monday.