My dad has always been a fix-it guy. He’s spent his life working with heating and air systems, watching the field evolve from small air conditioning units to the massive climate control systems he designs today. And it’s not like he’s limited to just that realm; he can fix or build anything. He’s remarkably intuitive about the inner workings of machines, and spends a fair amount of time reading and in classes to figure out whatever he doesn’t already know. He’s also generous, and I think that a large part of the satisfaction he takes from all this is the fact that these machines can make lives better. He goes out of his way to make sure elderly clients are warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and takes particular care of others with special environmental needs. Woe betide a serviceman of his who doesn’t have the same priorities.

I’ve spent some time recently thinking about the reasons I ended up studying digital texts and intellectual property. My dad would probably trace it back to the fact that mom is a writer who spent a lot of time reading with me, and that’s probably true. But I think it also has a lot to do with watching him work with machines all these years, and seeing through him the ways that machinery and automation impact our lives, both good and bad. That’s why copies of Robosapiens and Against the Machine are crammed in with all the new media and copyright books on my shelves. At bottom, I want to know how this machine that was so new when I was a kid and is now ubiquitous in my particular culture changes things, how it alters the basic activities of literacy and creativity.

I like what I do. Thanks, Daddy.