Writing Technogenesis

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 13

Our mind is by far the most intriguing and mysterious aspect of our humanly existence. It has the capability to perceive all physical material in front of us, analyze sounds from all around us, feel warmth or cold or matter, and do far more incredible things. It has always been so strange to me that we do not much about our consciousness and brain despite it being the very thing that creates our thoughts. It is what is causing me to think of what to write and ponder about its very own mysteries yet it will not simply tell me or anyone for that matter its darkest capabilities and how it functions entirely. Overall it’s an entirely interesting phenomenon that we know so little about the very thing that gives us knowledge. I would like to begin the discussion of visionary experiences with two of my own. I myself am in no way religious or spiritual, I have been exposed to religion and obviously have been exposed to the idea of ghosts, and as such I have come to explain these events from a more realistic over spiritual approach. One of the events was from when I was pretty young, probably around nine or ten years old. I had a fever over 100 and as such I had plenty trouble sleeping. When I woke up one time in the middle of the night and walked out of my room for a drink, I could have sworn I saw someone at the end of the hallway. I then heard a whisper and a shouting but in reality, the materialistic view of the world, there was nothing there. But it is strange because the event I described was real because it did happen to me simply it was a manifestation of my imagination. Caused by perhaps the stress my body was under from the illness, I do not know but it was indeed strange. The second event happened under similar circumstances with me waking up in the middle of the night from a strange dream I cannot quite remember. It had been around the time of my brother being one so I was perhaps nine again. I woke up and thought I saw a woman in a gown holding a child so I assumed it must have been my mom coming in. But the problem was they simply disappeared after I leaned up. So being young I was kind of freaked out but now looking back I realize I had most likely been confused from waking in the middle of a dream state. So my mind, being generally active with imagination, simply continued on with a dream like daze as I was semi away in the dark. The events that happened were not materialistic because what I saw was not physically a thing. However, that does not mean, as Hufford concludes, that it is not necessarily rational. Our minds can make things real to us, it is simply one of the many mysterious wonders of it. Hufford is correct in calling these strange events rational because all of our minds have that strange capacity to manifest similar or radically different visions. Because it is comprehensible and a commonality for many to experience these types of events, though we all make our own conclusions on why, it justifies its rationality despite its lack of materialism.

-Connor Favre

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[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 8

I will be discussing how the automobile is a prime example of a political technology. Beginning with the construction of it alone can bring about a political agenda. Now to be fair to this technology, it is by no means purposely political. It was constructed in the early nineteen hundreds as an advancement to humanities capabilities to travel. It was not forged out of the minds of a political agenda but out of the minds of business profit and human advancement. Back to the development of the car though. In the construction process alone a multitude of political factors take place. Unions are one of the biggest examples. Workers’ unions formed as a means to protect the rights of workers because as many of us are aware the conditions when factories were first created were horrible, absolutely unacceptable by anyone’s standards today. So with the process of making the car, wages obviously become disputed time and time again as the economy shifts through the business cycles. Then comes the problem of further advancement in technology. There was a huge problem with rising unemployment because we as a society advanced to not need as many humans to construct cars. With the rise of our technology, the creation of robotic assembly lines limited the job market in the industry. This clearly brings about a huge political issue since policy makers focus on unemployment and inflation. So since it has been clearly established with my arguments that this is in fact a political technology, it should be deemed that this is a democratic one. It is not owned by the small wealthy minority, perhaps awesomely fancy cars are, but the mass produced ones that are commonly seen are not. Automobiles as a whole are acquirable by the masses and are utilized by so many. It makes an improvement of transportation to every American not just the elite and select. It is inherently a democratic technology because the masses are the beneficiaries as well as the businesses. Another political backlash of this technology is the emission of greenhouse gasses. This has led to countless regulations in emissions as well as a promotion of global awareness for the issue of climate change. With the vast amount of cars on the road in Mexico City, for instance, they regulate what days you are allowed to drive because the emissions there are too high. China recently has been experiencing severely poor smog in its major cities because of this. Politically, this has caused nations to band together in a global effort to reduce emissions, such as discussions at the climate talks in Paris this year or deals between the US and China. As a whole cars do present a lot of problems for the environment and safety of humans. However, they are inherently an advancement in our society that is currently irreplaceable. The downsides of cars can be regulated thoroughly and as we advance further they will become further reduced. There is no need to rid the world of cars because of their negative political and environmental effects. Overall the positives of its democratic political nature outweigh its negatives substantially.

-Connor Favre

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[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post  11 - Joshua Omlor

I think that religion is probably one of the most interesting memes. Yes the God meme answers fundamental questions and therefore finds prevalence, but it is still so much more resistant to change than many other memes. Often time’s one’s religious ideas are very hard if not impossible to change. Yet many other ideals such as lifestyle can change all the time. What makes the God meme so indestructible? I believe the God meme is so resistant, as the very meme itself was designed to protect itself and promote fertility. In terms of evolutionary fitness this gives the God meme a huge advantage. Most religions promote that you spread the word of god (selective pressures on fertility) and that if you lose faith or speak negatively of the belief you will be punished (selective pressures on longevity). Finally God memes incite their own imaginary community and encourages the subject to act through the word of God and not his own thoughts. These two aspects are extremely crucial as the first aspect creates a community. This community often becomes physical through sermons and members surround themselves with the same meme, decreasing their contact with conflicting memes. The second aspect ensures a better copying fidelity as the meme demands that it be transcribed through the holy writings than through the poor transcribing human brain. The last kick can be considered by the origin of the meme. The meme itself asserts that it is of a higher power incomprehensible to man. This provides a logical basis for why the God meme doesn’t necessarily fit into conflicting views, and effectively prevents it from further criticism.

               As we can see now the God meme differs from other memes as the meme itself contains preventative measures against scrutiny. Yet the God meme is not perfect. The fatal flaw in the God meme ultimately comes from no meme being able to obtain a 100% copying fidelity. This is because while the meme asserts that it be transcribed through the holy writings it still must be housed in the human brain to have any relevance. Thus when housed in the human brain while many preventative measures in the meme may stop major deterioration, the meme is ultimately subjected to opinion therefore mutated and not an exact copy. This is what leads to denominational splits as mutations may arise disagreements occur. As the splits happen the mutated meme now fights against other mutated memes as the meme still asserts it is correct. As more memes rival the same meme and many divisions occur the meme may eventually lose its demanding power and can cause an individual to dispose of it. This is another thing that must be addressed, the God meme is a very demanding ideal, and only under extreme circumstances could a God meme be implemented in an individual with preexisting conflicting ideals as these memes and logic would resist that energy demanding meme. This would give the individual evolutionary unfavorable circumstances as energy and resources would be dedicated to this meme. However, when instilled at birth with no conflicting memes and low logical connections, the brain is actually a more prime transcriber and the ideal will be more likely to be accepted. This shows that the brain is actually a very functional replicator except as the brain grows it transcribes and stores more memes. The brain then allows these memes to interact as opposed to computers and texts where data is stored separately on a hard drive or physically in space as in a book. It would be suggested that memes inherently resist and warp each other when in contact. This is evolutionarily favorable for the brain however as it can then keep the dominate memes and weed out the flawed memes. This also provides explanation for my child hypothesis. This is because since the meme was implemented at a stage of little resistance the transcription process is not adulterated by neighboring memes. Then since the God meme is such a self-protecting meme once established it is highly resistant to new memes that try and shape or remove it. It should be noted however, that under this hypothesis the god meme is only able to be fully self-protected once established in the subject. For this reason is why it is harder to be established later on in birth because at periods of no stress it is evolutionarily unfavorable for the subject to accept such a demanding meme and the meme cannot fully protect itself from other conflicting memes.  Thus as we can see the God meme is a very complexed meme.  While it may be demanding and thus resistant to change, it ultimately relies on the host to become powerful.

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[writingtechnogenesis]

My friend the skunk

I want to talk about this picture because I think it's pretty unique. I didn't take it recently, but still wanted to use because I don't think anyone will use one like it. One day earlier this semester when I was walking to practice. When I crossed through some bushes I noticed this little guy. We both stood still for about 30 seconds until I decided to whip out my phone and snap a picture. As you can tell it’s a skunk. If you want to be technical, it is a Mephitidae. I had to look that up…  Skunks are mainly indigenous to places throughout North America. They also have some presence in South American countries.

I would absolutely call this guy natural and wild. This isn't one of those instances where it isn't clear i.e. a plant placed by a human or a piece of gravel on a trail. I'm fairly certain this guy was wild considering he assumed a defensive stance. Also people don't typically have pet skunks. He might've sprayed me had I tried to get closer. Skunks might not seem ideal to have around campus but they do serve a purpose. They are known to eat small rodents, which act as pests in gardens and farmlands. This is important to recognize because skunks generally have a bad representation. This is mainly attributed to their horrible defense spray. They are also often assumed to be rabid for some reason, but that might be a stereotype of all wild animals. For these reasons mentioned it would probably fit into categories like "useless" and "pest." One important role I found that they have is that they are scavengers. They clean up dead birds and other small animals so they work as nature's clean-up crew.

I don't know what environments are ideal for skunks, but they seem to fair well both in rural and suburban areas - aside from the fact they often get killed by cars. If they can find shelter, they can adapt and live about anywhere that has insects, plants, and small rodents. Aside from the vehicular deaths, they can adapt to most environments. After looking around I couldn't find any examples as to how human projects are shaped by the presence of skunks. I guess we can assume that they don't have a negative impact on humans or human activity.

[writingtechnogenesis]

Archive of Feelings

My midterm project is about cellphone and I want to analyze the archive of messages sent through cellphone. I would like to compare different feelings generated when people sent messages using cellphones in the past and the smart phones nowadays. The feeling might be biased because these are what I feel and can not represent others but my feelings may be somewhat representative among people of my age.

I got my first cellphone when I was around 14 and the cellphone at that time are all designed with keyboard for people to text messages. Also the cellphones had very limited memory space and people who wanted to store more things in their cellphone would buy extra memory disc to insert in their cellphone. I remembered that it was fun for me to text messages in my phone and there were word limits in one text message so I have to express what I want to say in a few words or I have to pay extra money for it. Because I don’t have much money back then, I would consider my words and sentences in order for them not to exceed the word limits and then sent them out. Just because of that, I never deleted any of my messages until they use up all of my storage space. What I would do then was looking at the content of the messages again and decided which ones I would like to keep and which ones I would like to delete. So whenever I need more storage space for my new messages, I have to delete some old ones and I struggle to do that every time because I want to keep them so that those memories about me and my loved ones could be reminded by those messages when I read them again and again.

However, things have changed after smart phone was invented, with large storage space and no word limited in one message. There are hundreds of messages in my phone right now and I seldom think of reading them again. I think this is because I seldom think over what I want to say in the message as I grow up and life just get busier and faster.  I don’t feel upset anymore when I accidentally delete those messages or lost my phone. I kind of feel bad about that because my feelings about my loved ones are just not as much as when I was a child. I tried my best to keep the memories about my loved ones in the past when there’s little memory space in my cellphone but now I don’t cherish them anymore with much more memory space on my smart phone. We extend the memory of our electronic devices and our own memory in our brain shrinks. How ironic it is…

-Yunqing Liu

[writingtechnogenesis]

Final though

Blog posts are like free writings regarding a certain topic. I have never done such kind of homework in any of my writing class. Usually we are not able to see what our classmates’ writings are like. With this weekly blog post, sometimes I could find some inspirations in what others wrote although I know that I am required to do the work on my own. Being able to see what my peers write from their perspective and based on their life experience, I find that not everyone would think the same as I do. So I appreciate this homework because it kind of broaden my horizon, not only in terms of writing styles, but also in terms of life experience. The most impressive blog post regarding this should be the one about spirit experience. I have never encountered with such experience and neither do my friends around me. So it is much fun to see my classmates writing about their experience and also their opinion on the experience.

Another thing about the blog post that I like much is that although there is a topic assigned for every blog post, the topic is quite open for us to write. I did not struggle to figure out what I am going to write so much because there are many things in my daily life which I could talk about regarding the topic. One example should be the one asking us to pick a living creature on campus and talk about its role both in the human society and in the nature. Another one is to record a sound and discuss it. These activities make me notice many things that I would ignore in my daily life and make me reflect on people’s life under modern technology compared to the past when people could still lead a happy, even a happier life without so many technologies. These thoughts often arise when I am writing my blog post but it is kind of ironic that after I have done the writings, I will go back to my high-tech life and it is hard for me the get rid of those technology. Speaking of this, the blog post about having a day without a modern technology might be the one that has the most impact on me because I chose to go without my phone for one day and everyone knows that college student cannot leave their cellphone. At first, it is a little hard for me because I have developed the habit of checking my cellphone frequently. But then I gradually adapt to that and started to think about my childhood when I did not own a cellphone and still had much connectivity with my friends. I missed the life back then but it would be hard for me to lead that kind of life in an era when everyone is connected with cellphones.

I am not a fan of writing and still do not like write long papers, partly because English is not my first language and I assume it would be more difficult for me to write something than the native speakers do. But I still appreciate such kind of writing practice in my writing class because it does not make me struggle when I have to write.

-Yunqing Liu

[writingtechnogenesis]

Bitcoin: An Archive of Truth

by Burke Peters

What is Money?

In 2008, a person calling themselves “Satoshi Nakamoto” posted a thread to a mailing list on cryptocurrencies calling for a new form of money known as “Bitcoin” that detailed a new form of currency that broke ground in not just economics, but also pushed the boundaries of what we previously thought computer networks and cryptography could provide outside of their inherent purposes. To the uninitiated, cryptocurrencies are forms of electronic money, or money that exist only in electronic form (Mishkin, 58), that utilizes security techniques that reference a third party for payment confirmation and provide proof via cryptography. Most people are familiar with the US Dollar, a form of money called Fiat Money which means that it is usually denoted in paper currency that has the backing of a government (Mishkin, 57). Beyond that, the United States Dollar depends on the monetary policy put in place by our central bank, the Federal Reserve, and the fiscal policy of our government. The federal reserve attempts to attain a level of economic price stability as well as a few other goals such as high employment, economic growth, interest-rate stability, and stability in foreign exchange and financial markets (Mishkin, 317-319). The government enacts its fiscal policy primarily by drafting a budget and budgetary goals along with the implementation of taxes and other policy. Unlike the US Dollar, Bitcoin lacks the backing of a government, even more impressively it constitutes the first decentralized currency ever created (“White Paper: Bitcoin 101).

So, what is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is extremely complicated to most laymen. Most people have very little experience in Economics, Computer Science, Cryptography, and Networks yet alone all three at once. Nakamoto described Bitcoin as “… a purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash” that would bypass any need for a financial intermediary such as a bank or even an online financial intermediary such as PayPal. In order to understand Bitcoin it may be more important to understand the underlying technology that many believe may be more revolutionary than the currency itself.

There are many problems that Bitcoin has solved that other cryptocurrencies have so far failed to address. Bitcoin provides a work around for the common “double spending” problem that comes up when hackers figure out ways to trick systems into allowing them to spend their money more than once, effectively doubling the amount of money they have. Nakamoto solved these problems by recommending a system not based on trust. A system not based on trust in a central bank to maintain balance and not on the government and policymakers that enact taxes and fiscal policy. Satoshi achieved this by use of a “block chain”, a shared public ledger that contains every confirmed transaction in chronological order (“Bitcoin: How it Works”). Each user has a key that they can use to “sign” each transaction. This transaction takes place on the block chain network but will not be confirmed until a third party checks the transaction for integrity. This third party check takes place through a process known as “mining” that allows users to contribute their personal computing power to run the network. In return, a process that is often explained via a popular analogy. Suppose a robot is sitting in a room. Powering the robot is the miners computational power. The robot can see the miners but they remain anonymous to the machine. Around every ten minutes the robot points to a random miner or pool of miners and grants them a “block” to add to the chain that contains a certain amount of bitcoins for the miners to enjoy. This block acts as a refresh for the ledger, updating the chronology and the chain confirms this from their own records. In this way it is easy to see that it is almost impossible to fool the system since it relies on every source on the network to confirm via the robot. In order for someone to alter the information and the nature of Bitcoin would be to convice every single computer powering the network to accept the changes. Beyond this, the private keys held by each side of the transaction are intended to be just that, private, and are your only identification on the network. This process is automatically adjusted every four years of bitcoin operation with the growth rate halving with each cycle. This should allow the total number of Bitcoins in circulation to slow to a creep around 21 million units. Thus, mining is essentially just creating new blocks to add to the chain with returns determined by the rhythmic robot.

All this is to say that if I initiate a transaction with another person, that transaction will be recorded and verified by the block chain network’s miners, and will be posted to the public ledger. Once the new block is added, the transaction is confirmed and executed. This process is incredibly simple in comparison to traditional financial transactions that often require large amounts of behind the scenes processing and transferring that costs billions of dollars per year. These bitcoins are stored on various online wallets that allow you to store the units. It is important to remember, however, that without the private key to your wallet, those bitcoins will be lost forever.

Who is this mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto?

The creator of Bitcoin is still completely unkown and the person calling themselves “Satoshi Nakamoto” may or may not even exist. It may be one person or many. However, there are a lot of different clues that people have found hidden throughout the web. While online, Nakamoto claimed to be a 37 year old Japanese man, however, this is doubtful considering the lack of any Japanese in the underlying code. American computer security researcher Dan Kaminsky, having read the Bitcoin code and studied the currency, remarked that Nakamoto was either a genius or most certainly a group of people disgussing themselves as a single person (Jeffries, 2011). Nakamoto remains behind the scenes to this day, having passed on operations to a scientist named Gavin Andresen (Jeffries, 2011).

How Does Bitcoin Change Things?

So far bitcoin has seen a lot of popularity but not all of it has been positive. While the block chain technology and the decentralized structure have been touted as revolutionary technological advancements, many suggest the presence of a speculative bubble. The environmental impact of such a large amount of computing power sucking electricity in order to support the system is certainly cause for concern but compared to the alternative it seems trivial. Cryptocurrencies often have are much cheaper than the existing monolithic financial infrastructure that supports the modern world and I believe that it is inevitable that they evolve in complexity, security, privacy, and efficiency until they become legitimate continders either as currency or an online commodity. Many merchants including Amazon.com, Target, and even Subway have begun to accept Bitcoin as a form of online payment and many more continue to add support for the method of payment. Current Chairman of the Federal Reserve Janet Yellen has gone so far as to state that “The Federal Reserve simply does not have authority to supervise or regulate bitcoin in any way” (Russolillo, 2014). This is a huge step for cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin will remain the most dominant form of cryptocurrency for a long while if not forever due to the evolving nature of its underlying block chain technology.

Bitcoin in the Future

Our class has covered many important features of technology and how societies and individuals interact with them and bitcoin along with it’s archive block chain tie in with a few common themes we have discussed in this class. Bitcoin has found a way to become more integrated within our society by making things much simpler and more efficient than existing money forms, albeit with it’s own unique drawbacks foremost of which is the lack of government backing which would provide the most legitimacy a currency can hold. However, the decentralized structure is inherently designed to avoid this issue so Bitcoin can continue to exist alongside fiat moneys such as the US dollar. This has may have important consequences considering that while Bitcoin barely even registers as a threat to the US Dollars hegemonic power, that is not to say that with the current rate of technological advancement and the natural passage of time, these new forms of currency could pose a threat to the all powerful fiat money. As technology expands its scope with sensors creeping into almost every object, it is possible that cryptocurrencies could expand their uses beyond what we currently consider for money to provide additional benefits potentially including social and local currencies that create entirely new economic dynamics.

Forsters short story “the Machine Stops” describes a science fiction post-apocalyptic world where people live underground in honeycomb houses, all needs provided by a great machine. The story follows characters that either experience or relate to someone’s escape from the clutches of the machine. When the machine eventually fails, killing all those within it and leaving our species future in the hands of the few still on the surface, Forster expresses concern for humanities ever increasing reliance on the technology we create for ourselves. Even in the early 1900’s when the story was published, people were worried about lack of forsight when so aggressively adapting new and evolving technologies that we may only have a small understanding of. While these criticisms are valid (he makes this point well himself) I do not believe that bitcoin represents the sort of technology that forster warns us about, rather it moves away from reliance on humans in a way that diminishes the negative aspects of human nature such as greed, high-risk behavior, and crime. While current monetary technologies rely on trust in the overarching system to hold value, Bitcoin achieves this with mathematical proof. With the onset of technology such as block chain and bitcoin along with the ever increasing power of computers as Moore’s law continues to hold true, it is not far off to imagine a world where an entire economy could be contained within a system based off of this technology. This imaginary system seems to be where cryptocurrencies and the spread of the internet are heading and does seem to inhabit the idea of a machine propping up a fundamental part of society. The most fundamental reason why online currencies have not been adapted by all is because the underlying telecommunications infrastructure is costly and many cannot afford computers. With internet availability spreading at an impressive rate and the continual drop in computer cost, a Raspberry Pi is just $5 (“Raspberry Pi: The $5 Computer”), the days where systems such as these exist only in science fiction books are fleeting.

An important part of Dawkins book, “The Selfish Gene”, describes evolutionarily stable strategies, or strategies that when adopted by a society, natural selection will keep that strategy in power unless there is an overwhelming external force. Interestingly this is similar to how Block Chain technology handles changes, by only accepting them with nearly unanimous support. Beyond that, online currencies may become the new trajectory of money once Bitcoin has time to mature and evolve. Once these new money strategies improve to the point that they can dominate over existing money forms, they will overtake some economies, greatly reducing the power of those in charge of the existing dominant fiat moneys.

When we add power into the discussion, Hebdiges “Subculture meaning of style” is important to consider in its discussion of symbolic forms of resistance against hegemonic power. Bitcoin and the resulting black market exchanges, that pop up as a result of Bitcoins anonymity, are most certainly designed as a rejection of the current state of currency based economies especially the political and central authorities guiding them. Hebdige further discusses class, race, and socioeconomic conditions of subcultures and these aspects will always be tied to money and the adaption of a dominant e-currency will challenge certain aspects of power that different classes take advantage of, particularly the resulting revolution in the banking industry that so heavily favors specific subsections of society.

Author Statement

Bitcoin has become incredibly interesting to me as a student of both Economics and how systems work. I have developed a particular interest in market transparency, emerging markets, and the technology sector as a result of the new and exciting things we can do with computers and networks. Having researched effects of price transparency on insurance bargaining in the health care industry, it was interesting to note that every transaction made via bitcoin was recorded on a public ledger that could only be changed with overwhelming odds. This allows for considerable transparency for the currency, much more than for any other currency that I am aware of as every single transaction must be recorded. While we have yet to see the results of our study, I’m sure it will prove an interesting comparison when considering the flawless proof of work that is the block chain. Beyond that, the technology sector is only just beginning to establish itself in areas outside of high tech, the internet, and computers and make it’s way into various other industries and forms, providing new and wonderful new tools for humans to utilize.

Technotext

Bitcoin being entirely a web-based technology I thought it was relevant to post this article to the internet for others to see. Ideally, I would have liked to integrate in an option to mine for bitcoin while you read but this has proved difficult in my limited time. There are pools of miners that you can join on any device that allow you to receive bitcoins in extremely small increments (I’m assuming you don’t own a supercomputer). You have already made the first and most important move (well, I sortof forced your hand) of acquiring a general understanding of bitcoin, and I hope I have done a sufficient job of that. There are three primary ways to obtain bitcoin once you have set up an online wallet. First, you can exchange some currency you own such as US Dollars from your bank account for some quantity of bitcoin that holds an equal value. Second, you can sell a good or service in exchange for bitcoin (and if you are an active vendor I strongly encourage you consider this option) and the third option has been previously mentioned, mining.

There is one quick and easy way that doesn’t require much previous technical knowledge and is freely accessible by anyone with a mobile phone or tablet. This method is by downloading the “Free Bitcoin” app from the Google Play Store or, oddly enough, “Bitcoin Free” through the App Store. These apps are virtually identical and both grant you an extremely small amount of bitcoin, provided you have a wallet. While you won’t be able to really buy much with such a small amount, it is interesting to see the technology in action in this format. If you would like to mine in more depth on a personal computer I encourage you to explore the internet and learn more about Bitcoin by visiting the numerous forums and online communities that are always engaged in heavy discussion on the topic.

References

Dawkings, Richard. The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1989. Print.

Hebdige, Dick. Subculture, the Meaning of Style. London: Methuen, 1979. Print.

Forster, E. M. The Machine Stops. New York: Halmos, 2015. Print.

Nakamoto, Satoshi. "Peer-to-Peer Directory System." Legitimate Applications of Peer-to-Peer Networks (2008). Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

Mishkin, Frederic S. The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets. Boston, Mass.: Pearson, 2016. Print.

Russolillo, Steven. "Yellen on Bitcoin: Fed Doesn't Have Authority to Regulate It in Any Way." Moneybeat RSS. The Wall Street Journal, 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

"White Paper: Bitcoin 101."White Paper: Bitcoin 101. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

"How Does Bitcoin Work?"Bitcoin. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

Jeffries, Adrianne. "The New Yorker’s Joshua Davis Attempts to Identify Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto."Observer Innovation. N.p., 10 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

"Raspberry Pi Zero: The $5 Computer - Raspberry Pi."Raspberry Pi Raspberry Pi Zero the 5 Computer Comments. N.p., 26 Nov. 2015. Web. 17 Dec. 2015.

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post #2

One of the main ideas from McLuhan’s “The Medium is the Massage” that I found quite interesting is the idea of certain things being extensions of our bodies. McLuhan says, “The wheel is an extension of the foot, the book is an extension of the eye, clothing, an extension of the skin…” this is a concept I would have never thought of before but it interested me (p.28-32). I think McLuhan was really onto something with this that we use material items to extend parts of ourselves. There are examples of this all around us such as a blind man using a cane as an extension of his arm to feel where his is going or kids wearing headphones being an extension of the ear. Something else that I think people use as an extension of themselves is news media, whether it be on the television, internet, or in a newspaper. I believe people use news media as an extension of their brain. This idea may be stretching what McLuhan was originally going for but let’s think about it. You see so many news articles and stories today that contradict each other, Fox news reports one story while CNN reports a totally different version of the same story. Which story should you believe? Typically whichever one supports what you like is the one you will support but that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice. What people don’t seem to understand or maybe just don’t care about is that news stations are clearly biased and they don’t always report the truth but yet they believe whatever the news tells them. But why? I think it’s because rather than do their own research and form their own opinion they would rather have it be done for them. In this way people aren’t using their brains to form their own thoughts but rather taking on the views of whatever news channel they just watched, making news media extensions of the brain because it is doing the work of the brain for them. Another aspect of McLuhan’s book that caught my attention was the idea of this “global village”. McLuhan writes about the “global village” being the way in which everyone is connected due to technology, I am not sure how true that was when he wrote his book but it is definitely true today. With the creation of the internet came connection to people all around the globe. There isn’t a person you can’t get in contact with in some way by using the internet. This is an amazing but sometimes scary thing. The advantages of this connectivity is that people can learn more easily about other cultures, gain quick access to information, and connect with friends and family from anywhere. But with those advantages come some disadvantages as well. Just as easily as you can send a picture or post it on the internet, someone else can find it and it may not be the person you want it to be. Another issue is personal information. Not only can your photos be found by someone you don’t even know but your personal information such as your bank accounts, email, social security number, and address can be found too; all it takes is someone to be skilled and want it bad enough. But overall I think the internet was one of the world’s greatest creations and I honestly would have trouble surviving without it.

- Tyea Miller- Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

blog post #1

Before I started college I used to do a lot of writing that was just for myself since I started college I just haven’t made as much time for it. I find writing to be a great way to let out emotions that you wouldn’t have another outlet for. For me I like to sit down, especially on a bad day, and just spill everything I am feeling onto the paper. I have pretty bad anxiety which just really started for me about a year ago when I began getting semi frequent anxiety attacks.  Writing along with meditation is something that helps me control that anxiety. If I feel very anxious one morning or I know I have a big exam or presentation coming up that will trigger an anxiety attack then I like to get out a notebook and just write how I’m feeling about it. Letting my emotions just flow onto paper is pretty easy for me especially knowing that I am the only one who will ever see it, it is simply therapeutic. I guess because of the way I use writing you could say I am dependent on it because without it I am sure my anxiety would be much worse. One thing I am not so fond of is writing papers over a given topic which I cannot give an opinion on. It’s one thing to be given an essay topic you don’t like or agree with and being able to state that in your writing but it’s another when you are expected to write only what is instructed to you. I had to write a paper over a book in my freshman English course. I really enjoyed the book which was a fictional tale taking place during the Holocaust but the problem was that rather than allowing us some creative freedom my professor would make us structure our papers just as he said. I got a C on most of my papers that semester because the things I was forced to write was not something I was interested in. I haven’t been required to write an essay for any classes other than this one in a while so I would say that most of my writing takes place in text messages but haven’t been texting quite as much lately either. I would say that most of my writing take place in my notebooks where I am usually taking extensive notes for a class. A technique I always use in writing is to just jump into it. I don’t like to plan things out, make an outline, and pick out the topic of every paragraph. I like to just start writing without a single clue what I’m doing. I think unplanned writing is the most raw, you’re more likely to really say what you’re feeling and thinking and in the long run that can get your ideas going pretty fast and before you know it you’ve got a paper. I think a lot of people don’t like writing because they associate it with notes and essays but writing whatever you want to write really isn’t so bad.

- Tyea Miller- Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post #10

I would say that my life has definitely been effected by my gender and I would assume it to be the same for most women. I would consider myself a feminist which for most people has a negative connotation but for me feminism does not mean that I hate men, it actually means that I believe in equality for both men and women. As a woman and a feminist I do not want more rights than men or for things to come easier for me but rather to have an equal playing field with men. It is fact that men and women can never be completely equal in every aspect, women will be better than men at some things and men will be better than women at others but as a society we should make things as equal as possible. There have been a lot of big steps for women toward equality in recent history such as a woman running for president or something that I found even more impressive, women will very shortly be allowed to participate in every part of the military including frontline positions. But with advantages such as being able to run for president and participating in any part of the military come some disadvantages of equality. This may not be a shared belief but I believe if woman truly want equality then it should come in all aspects of life not just the ones that benefit us. If women want real equality then they should be required just as men are to sign up for the draft at the age of 18. I also believe that with real equality comes consequences, such as women should not be able to hit a man without expecting to get hit back, by expecting not to get hit in return you are taking away your own equality by saying either that you are weaker and therefore should not be hit or that you have more rights such that you are a woman so you have the right to hit a man but he does not have the right to retaliate. I have dealt with cases of gender inequality several times in my life but never to a large extent. One example I can think of is at work. I work a job that is male dominated, we are responsible for setting up large events which means moving things like large tables and chairs around. There are occasionally materials that I have trouble carrying from place to place and when that is the case I have no problem asking someone on my crew to help me, man or woman. My problem is that most of the time I can handle carrying everything without a problem but yet I am constantly dealing with men that I work with asking to help me. I understand being a nice guy and wanting to help out but if I politely decline your offer and don’t appear to be struggling then please don’t continue to try and help me. In situations like that where a man feels obligated to continuously try to help me do something that I have made clear I do not need help with, it makes me feel as though he thinks that what I am doing is a man’s job and I am not as capable of handling it as he would be. Gender inequality is all around us and sometimes we don’t even recognize it but it is and will probably continue to be a problem, so woman and men need to take a stand and end it.

- Tyea Miller- Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

blog post #12

“To say that race is a cultural construct is not to say it does not exist; cultural constructs have an objective reality despite their reliance on human thought”, I would have to agree that race does exist even though it is a concept created by humans. In the United States we are very used to classifying people by race. You’re asked for your race on college and job applications, the census, social media, dating websites and the list goes on and on. Due to our use of race in so many things I don’t believe it is something we as a society could ever be blind to. However race does cause many issues for us here in America but they are issues we create for ourselves. Racism is a huge problem in our country from the police brutality cases that have been in the news lately to people being weary every time they see a Middle Eastern person out in public. We create these ideas in our heads about certain races based on hate and stereotypes. I will never understand how people can hate someone based on the color of their skin. Despite these issues we face when dealing with race I don’t think the answer is to eliminate race but rather change people’s perspectives on it. We need to teach children starting at a young age that while they should love themselves and the color or their skin, they should also accept and respect the color of someone else’s. In society race does create these “imagined communities” where people of the same race can share culture but with that being said people of all races should be able to come together as well. We may have different skin tones, different backgrounds, or different beliefs but we are all humans and should treat each other as such. We all experience the same emotions and deal with similar struggles. Because I believe this I do not believe in the black lives matter movement. While I think it is tragic the hate that has faced the black community recently and in the past and I do believe black lives matter but more importantly I believe all lives matter. Having hate for any race whether it be black, white, Hispanic, Asian, ect. is and always will be wrong. I think the race card project has done a good job of expressing this point. If you get on their website you don’t just see people of one race posting their stories but people from all around the world, of all different races. Not only that but this project has done a great job of just bringing light to the issue of racism in a productive and peaceful way that gets people’s attention and gets them involved. Another example of shedding the light on racism is the documentary “The Central Park Five” which displays how discrimination can ruin people’s lives. I just believe that racism could come to an end if everyone could just understand one simple fact, no matter what color your skin we are all human and we all came from the same place.

- Tyea Miller- Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post #13

Hufford originally states that he is neither an advocate of spiritual belief nor a skeptic of it but by the end of his article I believe he is leaning more towards belief in spirits. I believe in our modern society, especially in the United States more so than other parts of the world, we have this idea put into our heads of what is normal. From the time we are young we are taught right and wrong, good and bad, normal and strange. Teaching a child not to steal or fight is one thing but telling them what is normal behavior and what is considered strange is something I believe to be unfair. When it comes to believing in spirits and apparitions I think most people start out as believers even if they don’t remain that way. Most of us as children had imaginary friends or played make believe and many kids still do this today. When we were kids those things were real to us, our invisible friends and invisible places were our reality. As we grew older though we were taught that we should leave those things behind, they weren’t acceptable for older kids. Hufford says, “It has been assumed that a belief in the reality of any sort of spirit encounter could not be held by any well-educated and sane, modern person. But my own research, and that of many others, has shown this to be a remarkably mistaken notion. Not only the belief in but also the experience of, spirit encounters turns out to be very common in the modern world as elsewhere. What is less common— although this is changing—has been the willingness to talk about such things”, I believe our unwillingness to talk about spirits is due to the fact that just as Hufford says we are taught that no sane person could belief in such things. The sad truth is that based on Huffords research and things I have heard and read myself, spiritual encounters are happening all of the time and many people do believe but it’s not something that is socially acceptable to talk about. Due to this fear of being considered insane by society we are ignoring real happenings that could possibly change the way we perceive the world around us entirely. Not only could it change our perception but people who have had these spiritual encounters claim to be better off because of them. I read an article not too long ago by a journalist working for National Geographic. She was sent to Peru to stay with a native tribe, while she was there she participated in one of their rituals where they it around the fire and drink ayahuasca, a psychedelic drug used by some cultures to create a spiritual experience. While under the influence of this drug she said she say several apparitions and other things that were not physically in front of her. She described the experience as feeling very real, she even heard the apparitions talking to her. Afterwards she wrote in her article that she had been dealing with anxiety and depression but after her experience with ayahuasca she had not had any of those bad feelings and actually felt happy and peaceful. Experiences such as the National Geographic reporter’s are happening every day and some psychedelic drugs such as ayahuasca could be our answer to successfully treating or curing psychological diseases such as depression and anxiety.  We as a society need to stop filling our youths head with what is normal and rather let them decide for themselves, maybe then we can take advantage of the benefits associated with spiritual encounters.

- Tyea Miller- Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post #15

When I first joined this class I was a little worried because I had read the syllabus and saw that we would have to write a short essay every week. I already wasn’t a huge fan of English classes and I definitely didn’t like writing papers for them so I wasn’t too excited about having to write an essay every week for this class. When we were told the first week of class that our weekly short essays would be in the form on Tumblr blog posts I still wasn’t too thrilled. I had only used Tumblr once or twice and it was solely for browsing other people’s posts, I never posted anything of my own. The first few weeks I struggled to get the hang of Tumblr, even know I’m not that great at using it, but after that it wasn’t too bad. Other than having trouble attaching my sound to the soundscape blog post I never had too much trouble with it. I actually began to enjoy writing the blog posts because it was a form of writing I wasn’t used to. Most of the writing you do in college is very formal, perfect grammar, perfect spelling, academic language, but the blog posts were much more informal and relaxed. When writing for the blog I felt like I didn’t need to be too concerned with making sure I was using all the right language, I just wrote what I was thinking. I used to keep a notebook where I would write short stories or poems or just things that were on my mind but I hadn’t done that in a couple years. After writing the posts for the blog it made me want to get back into that. I found that I really do enjoy writing just to write, not being told what to write about or given certain requirements.  My favorite blog post that we had to write for the class would have to be the technology retreat. Taking a break from technology is something I had been wanting to try for a while but without anyone making me I never seemed to make the time for it. After doing the retreat I realized how nice it was to get away from technology for a while and it is definitely something I would like to try to do more often. I also enjoyed hearing about what other people gave up for the retreat and the struggles they faced with it. It was nice to know that I wasn’t the only one who found it difficult to stay off social media or not watch television for a day. Overall I think the blog posts were interesting and definitely something I had never done for another class. Not only did I think the writing was more enjoyable but I liked how this was a technology writing class so the incorporation of social media into the class seemed to fit perfectly. After doing the weekly blog posts I would recommend to others who don’t like writing to maybe try just sitting down and writing or typing whatever comes to their mind and maybe it’ll make writing grow on them.

- Tyea Miller-Ruble

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 15

What I actually found most interesting when looking over the blog was one of my posts. I know it is to be expected to review someone else’s work and I will review the effectiveness of Tumblr as a whole but a personal reflection seemed in order for the final blog post. The very first post of the year was about our own personal writing styles and passions. I made it abundantly clear throughout the first blog post that I am by no means a writer. I made it clear that I do not have a passion for writing and not a particular talent for it. I still stand by that I do not necessarily have a passion for writing but something about it has changed for me. I think it really comes down to the style of writing highlighted in this class, the more casual, freer style. I have been trained and accustomed to the typical style of body paragraphs and formality that it took away from the joy in it. With the constant writing and reading in this class it has been a lot to keep up with but it’s different. Yes it is time consuming but it’s not like the huge essays focused on formality and citing; it is entirely friendlier to me and has given me a particular joy in the casualness of it. I have found that, unlike before, I do not need to stop from writing as frequently because I can flow with my thoughts easier when I am no too focused on the strictness of the piece.

           The changes within my writing philosophy illustrate the effectiveness of Tumblr in itself. Tumblr’s medium brings about the casualness in many of its bloggers because that is entirely what it is, a blog. It is what the individual is contemplating at that very moment, not what they were thinking then decided to edit a few times to make perfect. It’s a much truer depiction of one’s style and thought process as it focuses more on the belief and content over structure. Tumblr’s main source of effectiveness comes in its ability to bring about the writers freedom to express current opinion in a forum for many or few, if wanted, to view. This effectiveness also brings about a problem, ineffectiveness, within Tumblr as well. Tumblr makes it easier for many to write, but what it also promotes is that very lack of structure that also gives it an ineffectiveness. The casualness of our assignments made it less focused on grammar and organization. These are two fundamental parts to writing that are overlooked in the Tumblr medium and may have made my writing worse. I definitely did not proof read as thoroughly on these as I normally would and my grammar is probably subpar. My thoughts are far more scatterbrained because of the casualness, which could make my writing more confusing. Yet despite these deficiencies in the Tumblr medium, I by far preferred it over others because I view that freedom of thought and casualness as great ways to get people to enjoy writing more.

-Connor Favre

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[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 12

           The author, Gravelee, makes the argument that races is real because we make it. It is by no means biological in his argument. All race is is the varying amount of pigmentation in one’s skin cells. There is no definitive border and division like we so classify, biologically, but it is more of a spectrum. This essay he wrote is one I agree with far and above most of the other readings in class. There is absolutely nothing to distinguish race as a biological division between humans, similar to hair color or eye color or height. These are merely genetic code alleles that in no way make us any more or less human, yet we view it as so much more. We could care less about hair or eye color but when it comes to skin color we make a huge deal. Why? Simply because we as a species created the division within our culture hundreds of years ago. Perhaps it all started with the fear or distrust of different cultures, after all people of different regions always tended to be wary of others throughout history. Then what stuck was when people saw different skin it was such a blatant difference, being their whole body, as opposed to simply hair that it became a new form of distrusting different people. Honestly I am pretty ignorant on what sparked the initial thinking of “race”, perhaps European thoughts of superiority, and Gravelee does not necessarily lay out the answer for us entirely, but it is fun to brainstorm what could have caused such a strong trend. Whatever the initial cause of such thinking was, as Gravelee states, this ideology of race dividing us has caused us to actually make it a biological difference like Gravelee describes. It is real because over the generations we have enforced it as real, and this argument he makes is very compelling and I personally agree with it. If a society pushes for a difference or ideology for long enough, it becomes the reality of the situation. But here is the problem with how we treat it now: it is too divisive in nature. We need to be able to accept that there are in fact different ethnicities with a vast spectrum of skin tone. To me it is fine if we break it up into categories, as we do with hair or eyes despite them also being a spectrum, but what we need to do is treat it as such. Merely a way of description in the way we use these other alleles, nothing more than description. We do not purposely highlight to discriminate these other features because we have been trained to not view them as important; that kind of conditioning is what we need to instill upon further generations about “race” in order to overcome these divisions. This kind of blindness is easier for some, those who have been exposed to many different kinds of people understand we are more similar than different. Those who were taught and grew up in a more accepting, anti-racist or discriminatory setting find this easier. Having a change to simply viewing it as a meaningless description of an individual would be hard and would take plenty of time, probably generations, but it can be evolved into the norm like all ideologies can.

-Connor Favre

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[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 15 - Burke Peters

Being very aware of Tumblr but never having participated in any sort of online blogging, this class became my introduction to this tool of self expression. Writing every week has been incredibly fulfilling and I found it freeing to have something to discuss outside of my day-to-day concerns in a structured way. All of the topics where incredibly interesting and I found myself immersed in ideas I hadn’t previously considered and exploring the ones in which I had. It’s easy to get self conscious about writing, but a part of writing is sharing what you have thought and understanding that while it may not be a flawless argument or heavily cited research due to the limited nature of blogging, it opens us up to criticism and provides a perspective that spans an entire semesters worth of work. Being able to attach various forms of media was also unique and seems important to include especially considering the topic of the course.

When reading though the classes blog posts I was very impressed with the level of honesty and boldness in expressing opinions for all to see. Whether the students writing style focused on a free form blog style or a more structured academic approach, Tumblr’s format had the options to accommodate and almost every post I read was clear and precise.

The most enjoyable posts to me was Blog post 7 or the Soundscape collection and analysis. All of the sounds were unique in some way and it was interesting to see how each person took such a simple idea of recording a sound and analyzing it for its noise, silence, tone, timbre, amplitude, melody, texture, rhythm, or any quality they found particularly interesting and running with it. Sounds often go unnoticed and become a part of the “white noise” that constantly hums in the background everywhere we go. This project allowed each of us to tap into that and analyze it more deeply than we may ordinarily have and that seemed like a really worthwhile practice. Our surroundings are very important and often interact with us in ways we may not always be aware of and I think it is important to take some time and consider them on a regular basis.

The Tumblr format seems like an overwhelming success to me, especially considering the idea of an archive of ideas. As a class it is important to look at our own work relative to others and understand how we compare to our peers. Having our own blog posts or our own sites to post onto would gather too much attention on the individual and remove the perspective of the class that is important to have in a learning environment. It seems important to me that we remember that the blogs posted here are not dissertations, they aren’t term papers, and they aren’t our life’s work. We are here to learn and experience the world in a new and unique way and Tumblr’s group format that allows us to post through the writingtechnogenesis page is excellent for ensuring that our work is judged in a classroom environment.

[writingtechnogenesis]

Blog Post 2 - Tyler Whitlock

For those unaware, Reddit, the so called “Frontpage of the Internet” is essentially a news aggregate site. Content is voted to the front of this page  based on users deeming it good or bad (called upvoting and downvoting respectively.) There are hundreds of thousands of little communities called pages that are dedicated for certain topics. Some are broad like r/gaming which is supposedly dedicated to only content related to gaming (but related in this page is used extremely liberally.) whereas others are very specific like R/GlobalOffensive which is only for content related to a game called Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Reddit is extremely diverse with many people offering different opinions depending on the pages you go to. In my opinion it is great for many things like learning about new topics or immersing you in something, however it has many flaws as well.

Utilizing McLuhan is a great way for me to explain a bit about these pros and cons of Reddit, but funnily enough it also shows how these can sometimes be a problem. McLuhan talks about a “Global Village” where in the new age of technology the underrepresented and often unheard groups can finally have a voice because these things can be talked about or seen almost immediately (McLuhan 63.) This is especially true for Reddit, with the ability for users to create new pages you can see many created specifically to raise awareness for certain things and many posts created that give these members their voice. Many times videos of policy brutality towards minorities will be posted and users spurring others to contact their local police departments and figures of authority to voice their extreme dissatisfaction. Topics advocating for gay Marriage when it was still a heavy topic of debate were frequently seen on the frontpage. I won’t publicly talk about certain groups where I find this a problem because I feel bringing attention to them only gives them more attention which is not good but one advocates that the only way to get a girl in todays age is to, basically, be an asshole and be controlling. Clearly not okay in my book.

 Another topic McLuhan brings up is that these new technologies could create a unified mass of people McLuhan 69-71.) This is often the biggest issue cited with Reddit, and is even often parodied in certain pages. Often times members on Reddit so strongly believe the same thing to the point where it almost becomes ridiculous that some things become so similar it gets silly. Whenever a reddit admin (Ellen Pao) took control of a popular page on Reddit (R/AskReddit) because a user-admin quit due to said Admin not doing her job then did a horrible job the hatred was ridiculous. Almost every post on the frontpage of Reddit was something attacking her, just in different ways and got to the point where anything involving her being attacked was sent to the frontpage. This is problematic because the frontpage is supposed to be for the “best” content, but here it was just any content that involved hating Ellen Pao.

 Reddit is a great example of things that McLuhan talks about, but I feel like oftentimes especially in the sense of the “Global Village” they are usually regarded as a good thing. I think in Reddit we can see that there are exceptions to these topics leading to only good changes.

 References

McLuhan, Marshall, Quentin Fiore, and Jerome Agel. The Medium Is the Massage. New York: Bantam, 1967. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.