The very galaxy of the internet which forms the ultimate context that environs our journal should not be underestimated. This is the universe in which the "computing" of our "social computing" takes place. Here, I want to tease out the “computing” side to our exploratory social networking. Because I am an early modernist, instead of turning to contemporary accounts that relate computing to electronic media, I indulge again my taste for Milton. In the beginning of Book VIII of Paradise Lost, after the angel Raphael narrates the creation story, the prelapsarian Adam detains his interlocutor by insisting,

Something yet of doubt remaines,
Which onely thy solution can resolve.
When I behold this goodly Frame, this World
Of Heav’n and Earth consistin, and compute
Thir magnitudes, this Earth a spot, a graine,
An Atom, with the Firmament compar’d
And all her numberd Stars, that seem to rowle
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Thir distance argues and thir swift return
Diurnal) merely to officiate light
………………………………………
……….reasoning oft I admire,
How Nature wise and frugal could commit
Such disproportions, with superfluous hand
So many nobler Bodies to create (8.13-22, 25-28).

Adam’s computing is certainly different from electronic computing. His computing, as you probably have pointed out yourself, is a reasoned engagement with a less technological and electronic galaxy and more with a physical and natural one. For us to understand Adam’s computation, we must identify the context that gave rise to his utterance of “compute.” The relevant context that deserves our attention is that of Adam’s “doubt” that “remaines.” When Adam computes the “magnitudes” of heaven and earth, he is comparing, or computing, their disparate sizes. By observing that the “Atom” of the Earth is dwarfed by the monolithic majesty of the “Firmament,” Adam doubts how Nature “could commit / Such disproportions, with superfluous hand.” Adam's computations lead him to a moment of doubt mixed with awe, reasoning bound in admiration ("reasoning oft I admire"). Adam admires and doubts because to him the created universe does not compute. How his environment can accommodate an insignificant speck of the Earth and surround it with “Spaces incomprehensible” and “many nobler Bodies” baffles the still inexperienced and innocent Adam. The Edenic father’s computations, rather than producing a more certain knowledge, amazingly creates within him the “remaines” of “doubt.” Adam doubts and is hence so curious and questioning because the “disproportions” challenge his assumption of a “frugal” Nature. Adamic computation brings the reasoning human beyond the borders of certain knowledge and into the residual penumbra of uncertainty. Adamic computation generates not pure knowledge, but rather the leftover shades of doubt.

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