A Tear In The Consciousness: Irony, Secrecy, and Dissimulation
The latest issue of Harper's includes a tongue-in-cheek proposal for a study of "weaponized irony" (not, not iron-working; the "it's ironical" kind of irony), and development of a sort of semantic mapping technology, the "Ironic Cloud". According to Harper's, "Last winter, Lockheed Martin Corporation approached Princeton University with a request for research initiatives." Sounds like a Minerva sub-contract." In April, [D. Graham] Burnett, an historian of science, and [Jeff] Dolven, a professor of English,