The story of the great computer

Abstract

What can sci-fi novels, language-learning exercises, research databases, and gossip magazines tell us about Sweden? The strict word limits of flash ethnography invite playful approaches to theoretical impasses. In this piece, written for a special section on flash ethnography, I return to longstanding anthropological dilemmas—how to distinguish between humans and computers, where technology meets society—to experiment with a new genre of creative nonfiction.