When we think about present time, we unwittingly rely upon the notion of an indivisible self-presence, the possibility of an exact internal adequation with oneself. And we are supposed to communicate with other self-presence on the web...
But this valorisation of an undivided subjectivity, as well as the primacy that such a position accords to the 'now', or to some other kind of temporal immediacy, is properly invalid. If a 'now' moment is conceived of as exhausting itself in that experience, it could not actually be experienced, for there would be nothing to juxtapose itself against in order to illuminate that very 'now'. Every so-called ‘present’, or ‘now’ point, is always already compromised by a trace, or a residue of a previous experience, that precludes us ever being in a self-contained 'now' moment.
Real Time and coordinating chat on the web is hence envisaged as nostalgically seeking the impossible: that is, coinciding with oneself in an immediate and pre-reflective spontaneity.
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