#wecf11

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Two sides of technology

Hayles, in chapter 3, discusses how the human mind has two different sides of opinion regarding technology.

Judging past and present technology trends, Hayles can have a good argument here. Humans like to pursue the latest advances in technology and innovations. Most of these new technologies are very beneficial. For example, look at how newer forms of medicine and treatment have helped increase the average life expectancy and eradicated some diseases. Innovation also increases competition and capitalism.

But, on the other hand, older technologies have their niches. Print media still circulate, and the Internet helps increase newspaper readership. (while lowering revenue)

http://www.era.eu.org/02/downloads/ERA_am09_jelluma.pdf

This Power Point is about how European print media could flourish.

Hayles cites Friedrich Kittler, turn of the 20th century technology analyst, about the typewriter. Kittler said that it "does not obey any voice and therefore forbids the leap to the signified" (Hayles 90). The typewriter found itself in common use until the mid 20th century and was soon overtaken by word processors and computers. But, even in the present day, typewriters could find a niche in its use. Besides nostalgia, typewriters have a use for filing out forms directly without having to go through a computer printer.

But, technology must have a meaning. "Only meaning can enframe information" (82) Mark B. N. Hansen is cited as saying (Hayles 103).

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E-Lit/They are Evil

I chose to read They Are Evil, which described itself as a feminist re-telling of the Red Riding Hood tale. It takes the form of an inter-active comic book. In the different panels, there are many things that will appear to be mouse prompts. Some are, others aren't. There are a few instances where you decide what Red should do. It reminds me a lot of the choose-your-ending books from when I was a kid.

The other day in class we were discussing how we measure success and how we could make the e-lit concept seem a success in the commercial. Perhaps, with the kids of this generation being so aware of technology, e-lit could be a start for them developing an interest in reading.

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I sort of have to agree with what my classmate Kelly said. While reading the first example of e-literature, where my choices of yes and no influenced how the story advanced, I couldn't help but feel as if it was a choose-your-own adventure. I like my stories to have a more or less decided ending, so I didn't feel I could finish the piece without reading all the possible choices.

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Electronic Literature

The author begins the book with a story about the dangers of books being printed instead of copied. The monk who discovers this is furious because he feels it will lead to a corruption of the value of literature.

We can see in every day life how this metaphor works beautifully for electronic literature. Have you read the book, people will ask, or just seen it on your kindle? I have several shelves full of books....you just have some downloaded pdfs [or something] {or whatever}. You aren't really reading.

People insist on qualifying technologies, and organizing them in a hierarchy. New technologies are forever being ranked low due to entrenched technologies and biases in the audiences. This is what the metaphor Hayle uses is telling us.

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Six degrees of seperation shrinks to 4.7

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Blinded by their science.

Google is a problem of our own making. We were so quick to welcome it into our homes, share our secrets and fetishes with it. We never treated it, largely, with the skepticism we've shown, as a race, to almost every other technological advancement or new idea. We shared our privacy, we smiled as search results for things our neighbors didn't know about us rolled in. Not only big secrets were shared. Little things, like our favorite foods, where we like to shop, taste in movies, political leanings were shared with our friend Google.

That's a problem, that we tend to see Google as a confidant.

What is it about Google to makes us harder to think critically about the search engine? I don't know. Even as I type about a worrisome lack of awareness of what Google does and stores, I am still using the search engine to look for a Christmas gift.

Its a system, which is fine. It works fantastically. But we need to be more of a critical audience about the system, and more cognizant of what we are sharing with Google.

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Ok, here's the thing

(This is gonna be part one of a crazy two-halved Google rant.)

I was reading Robbie's post about his conversation with the older gentleman, and that man's feelings on Google. Nothing against Robbie, but that guy's whole position is getting a little tiresome. If you don't like something, that's fine. I'm not going to try to convince you that Google is the bee's knee's. But it hasn't (or hasn't yet) totally corroded society.

He shows very little faith in his child if he doesn't think she can remember anything and that her homework consists of just Googling.

I know it sounds like I'm coming down in Google's corner, but I'm not. I just find this whole attitude tiresome, and sort of forgetful. Surely in the olden days, for the man, and many others like him, homework also consisted of looking things up. Or were they just expected to know who won the Battle of Hastings? No,they looked it right up. Only they looked it up in a book. Not a big difference.

And if he thinks its lazy to depend on the internet, imagine how the ancients must feel whenever someone commits something to paper instead of simply reciting it until memorized.

Things change. They have too. If you don't like it, that's fine. But its not always the end of the world.

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A Conversation Overheard During a Dinner Party

While attending a dinner party at my parents', I was talking to one of my mom's co-workers. Keith, a 60-something registered nurse, I was talking about his 19-year-old daughter and how completely out-of-the-loop Keith felt when it came to staying in touch with her via technology. He had no urge to jump into Facebook, saying, "It's just something that isn't meant for my generation." Then he said he refuses to learn how to text. He understood of how texting makes communication faster, but he didn't want to bother with it. As he put it, "If you have something to say to me, I have the time to listen to you."

Keith was amazed how fast technology grew and became so omnipresent in the last decade. He seemed blown-away when we started talking about the vast sea of knowledge that's available to anyone thanks to the Internet.

"You can literally find anything on Google now. It's amazing, but it's also a shame." Keith said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"Well, like my daughter doesn't have to really remember anything when it comes to just about anything. When she does her school work, it's just a matter of Googling a bunch of stuff. It's amazing how Google knows exactly what you're looking."

"I can understand that. I can't imagine where technology will be once Abby is 18 or 19 years old."

"I think we're quickly getting to a place where we won't have to even type any more. We'll just think, and Google will go and find it for us." Keith said with a mix of excitement and anxiety. 

And that's the moment Siva Vaidhyanathan's The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) came into a new light for me. As I read his book, I kept wondering if everyday people - people not in academics or advertising, people who don't know and don't care about copyright laws or the oppressive nature of the Chinese government - were actually worried about Google. But here was a Neo-natal Intensive Care Unit nurse, a father of three, a man who's more concerned about retirement than PageRank, and he showed that he was a little more than weary about the size Google has grown to, and the faith we as a community has put into it.