Thomas Mullaney: A Global History of the Information Age

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May 30, 2024

Thomas Mullaney, a Professor of Chinese typewriter history, discusses destabilizing technology understandings, balancing meaningful work, and personal research aspects. The podcast delves into the evolution of communication, taxonomy in the digital age, and the power of writing gaps. Mullaney also explores the horror of unseen phenomena and reflects on Chinese language exclusion in historical narratives.

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ANECDOTE

The "Why" Mystery

Thomas Mullaney was interviewed early in his Chinese typewriter project, asked why he pursued it.
He admitted to not knowing, embracing the uncertainty like falling in love.

INSIGHT

Authenticity vs. Performance

Researchers must balance the "true" narrative of their work with the "performative" narrative for grants, etc.
This performative narrative, though sometimes a "lie", can surprisingly lead to genuine insights.

ADVICE

Building a Persona

Create a professional persona that doesn't feel unbearably inauthentic.
This allows you to navigate the professional world without sacrificing your core values.

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Episode 125

False universalism freaks me out. It doesn’t freak me out as a first principle because of epistemic violence; it freaks me out because it works.

I spoke with Professor Thomas Mullaney about:

* Telling stories about your work and balancing what feels meaningful with practical realities

* Destabilizing our understandings of the technologies we feel familiar with, and the work of researching the history of the Chinese typewriter

* The personal nature of research

The Chinese Typewriter and The Chinese Computer are two of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. And they’re not just good and interesting, but important to read, for the history they tell and the ideas and arguments they present—I can’t recommend them and Professor Mullaney’s other work enough.

Tom is Professor of History and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, by courtesy. He is also the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author or lead editor of 8 books, including The Chinese Computer, The Chinese Typewriter (winner of the Fairbank prize), Your Computer is on Fire, and Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China.

Reach me at editor@thegradient.pub for feedback, ideas, guest suggestions.

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Outline:

* (00:00) Intro

* (01:00) “In Their Own Words” interview: on telling stories about your work

* (07:42) Clashing narratives and authenticity/inauthenticity in pursuing your work

* (15:48) Why Professor Mullaney pursued studying the Chinese typewriter

* (18:20) Worldmaking, transforming the physical world to fit our descriptive models

* (30:07) Internal and illegible continuities/coherence in work

* (31:45) The role of a “self”

* (43:06) The 2008 Beijing Olympics and false (alphabetical) universalism, projectivism

* (1:04:23) “Kicking the ladder” and the personal nature of research

* (1:18:07) The “Technolinguistic Chinese Exclusion Act” — the situatedness of historians in their work

* (1:33:00) Is the Chinese typewriter project finished? / on the resolution of problems

* (1:43:35) Outro

Links:

* Professor Mullaney’s homepage and Twitter

* In Their Own Words: Thomas Mullaney

* Books

* The Chinese Computer: A Global History of the Information Age

* The Chinese Typewriter: A History

* Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China

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