In 1996 Alan Sokal, a NYU professor of Physics, published the article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity” in Social Text, a leading a leading journal of cultural studies.

His article was 100% intentional jibberjabber.

After it was published as a legitimate article Sokal exposed it as a parody in Lingua Franca, where he talked about the troubling “decline in the standards of intellectual rigor in certain precincts of the American academic humanities.”

Priceless.

Some MetaCreations expats (including Kai Krause on the advisory board) had something to do with this. CoOperating Systems’ HelloWorld looks interesting, though, as with PDAs, I don’t know if it’s something I’d use–my comrades are all located in an area roughly equivalent to two pixels on the interface shown. And who wants to talk to them anyway?

Note also “CoSI’s” appreciation of subtlety, even in a web presentation: If you click on the right half of a screenshot it takes you to the next page, and the left side it takes you back. Clever monkeys!

(I can also personally appreciate the fact that Christopher Franke, formerly of Tangerine Dream, is also on the advisory board.)