I'm glad that a couple of my concerns came up in the nytimes articles from Cohen! Digital humanists seem to been a keen and enthusiastic lot, so a little tentativeness is good.
I will admit, despite my (very real and well founded) fears there are very interesting possibilities with the massive collections of books.
The kind of massive searching and cross referencing these catalogues allow will radically changes the nature of history and what it means to be a historian. No doubt some things will remain the same but the times, they are a'changin.
In our last discussion Robert brought up the point that not every humanist has to understand the ins and the outs of the coding and other changes within the digital humanities. However, it seems that we as historians WILL have to learn more of the ins and the outs of the digital realm. Perhaps history as we have known it in the past is disappearing. Well not disappearing, rather it might become subsumed by the digital humanities. Seems to me that the same thing may happen to other disciplines as well.
A ...meta discipline? Why ...that's not very post modern at all! Maybe it's a sign that we're entering the post postmodern.
This isn't necessarily a terrible thing. History, in my opinion at least, is already multidisciplinary. The digital humanities will just tie it in closer with other areas. This will allow, and eventually demand for new standards. While I'm still wary and I imagine I always will be... (So much corruption! Everyone is out to get me!) I'm actually excited for this paradigm shift. The old boys club won't be able to hold out for much longer! Stick it to the Man, man!
No offense to the historians of the old cloth but soon enough you'll HAVE to make room for new thoughts, ideas and practices.
So, I've decided. I will willingly allow myself to be assimilated into the digital humanities. While I still urge caution and vigilance, I fully embrace the Mongol horde that is the digital humanities.
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