43. The Work of Culture in the Age of Cybernetic Systems, Nichols, 1988

• Those working in digital new media fields often "borrow insights and tropes from other forms," "discourses and examples."
• Nichols was attempting to rewrite Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," but write it for the digital age.
• 1936 - Benjamin's text
• 1988 - Nichols text
• Benjamin was speaking at the age in which video was rising, and Nichols during the age in which video games and simulation media were starting
• Nichols examined why such interactivity was popular:  freedom, pleasure, etc.
• What are the effects of simulation?  Good?  Bad?