Response to Nikhil

In response to Nikhil I too experienced the same wondering what the ultimate point of McPherson’s chapter was. I was understanding and seeing the relationships she was connecting with UNIX and racism in the 60’s, and I also understood how modulation was a system in which programing functions as well as Identity Politics. Also like Nikhil I got to the end of the chapter and finally thought I had grasped the meaning behind this seemingly narrow comparison, and wondered why she spent so much time forcing together two seemingly unconnected events in history when she could have gone into multiple examples to create a more clear and precise picture.

It wasn’t until after class that I understood what the chapter was trying to convey, it in its own structure of meshing two unlike things was pulling away from modulation. If the chapter had been overviews of dichotomy that are unlike but could possibly be connected, it in its structure would have been modulated, a thing I believe McPherson is trying to fight or stand against. I do think that modulation was a necessary beginning to university and human rights, because the efforts were pointed and specific they achieved their goals. Now that most of the work is done, a blending of identities and movements is happening. Which I think McPherson doesn’t really touch on. There are political parties that allow us to view identities in a blended fashion. There is already a high awareness of the sexual orientation spectrum, rather than a binary. In my opinion, modulation has its place where it is most effective, as does hybridization. There are some things, like programming that function best in modulation, which is where I disagree with McPherson, but there are also places that hybridization is very beneficial to our culture, for instance, blending the fields of biology and engineering has produced amazing advances in prosthetics and artificial organs. There are two sides to every argument, and in this case I think both sides have merit in particular areas, a blanket solution often never works.

This is the Kinsey Scale I referenced earlier, this is an example of when having a hybrid is beneficial and the best way to go.