Week 15 Carr 115-224

A point that Carr brings up towards the end of the book really hit home with me. People don't memorize anything anymore. We don't have to memorize texts or poems or anything really. We can just look it up. I'm constantly looking things up on the Internet because I just can't remember. I find myself going yeah and I saw that movie with what's her name...you know the one with the giant lips and all the babies...and then I realize I can just pull out my phone or get on my computer. I go on IMDB and oh that's right, Angelina Jolie! When I was younger we had to memorize things for school, bible verses, poems...etc and it was so stressful, but I could do it and eventually became pretty good at it. Now I have found that power is waning however. As soon as I memorize anything it stays for maybe a couple of weeks if I'm lucky and then poof it's gone. 

I can hardly sit down and read a book for a long period of time. As Carr says we have an "artificial memory". We have all these machines to remember for us now. We don't just rely on our brain.

When I read about the program that Weizenbaum invented that Carr talks about it kind of creeped me out. Thinking about a computer being able to connect with someone on that level seemed weird, but then I realized we're not far from that now with things like Siri who answer your questions and respond when you tell her she's doing a good job or not trying hard enough. 

Carr says that the human brain allows us to meld with a wide variety of tools. That they become extensions of ourselves like what McLuhan said about technology becoming an extension of the central nervous system. We have the ability to blur the boundary between the internal and the external, the body and the instrument become one. (296) I find this to be true. I mostly use my computer to write papers and blogs. My thoughts are transferred on to the computer. It becomes a part of me. My computer might even know me better than my close friends do. Sometimes I put ideas and thoughts on my computer's programs that I wouldn't dare tell anyone. I have also personalized my computer. I picked what I wanted on my dock and made my background a picture that I took on a trip.

Technology is progressing very quickly and there's always something new to buy. Carr says that we are running headlong into a whirlwind of progress and that our meditative deep thinking is suffering because of it. Will we lose are ability to remember altogether?

Week 14 Carr 1-114

Carr opens his book by talking about the computer from 2001, HAL. These days we seem to be more like HAL than the astronaut who shut him down and ended his killing spree. We are on a linear mission  to get from point A to B. It's more about the destination than the journey.
When computers were first being used people had a fear of a certain kind of computing. More associated with the government, computers were cloaked in mystery and no one was completely certain of their power.
One of the parts of the reading I found interesting was the progression from clay tablets to books. I knew a little bit of history about both but I never knew the chronological progression. I also thought his comment about the original pencil was cool and that it was just basically a pointed stick that had a flat end that could be used like an eraser.
When books were first mad they were so rare and precious that they were chained to the shelf (or maybe it was because the screamed when you opened them...Harry Potter anyone?) but that's pretty intense. They were also stored with the spine facing out so you could make everyone feel uncultured with your shelves full of the great thinkers of the time.
Another point I thought was interesting was the claim that the Internet is bidirectional in that we can send and receive messages through the same network. So does this mean that texting is also bidirectional? I mean we are technically sending and receiving messages through the same network especially if we're texting someone who uses the same mobile provider.
The creation of knowledge is private. People read to themselves instead of reading aloud. We can go on the Internet and find information about anything. We can teach ourselves and not even have to go to an educational institution. We can learn things without the communal aspect. Even when we go to school we are competing against each other. We have to succeed individually, we're not just working for the good of the community.
Not only has our learning style changed but our writing and reading styles have changed too. Changes in writing style reflect changes in reading style. Now there are things like cell phone novels, fan fiction that starts in online forums, and blogs that are turned into books. The writing style is informal and there is more of a dialogue directly between the author and the audience. The paragraphs are short because we skim things. We don't deep read anymore.

Week 13 Marshall McLuhan film and 246-359

Although this film was really trippy and made me never want to read Poe's The Descent into the Maelstrom it did bring up some interesting points.
It helped me understand Marshall McLuhan's beliefs and teachings.
The 4 questions that reveal the future of technology that were addressed in the film particularly helped. At first no one believed McLuhan. (I'm not gonna lie, I was skeptical at first too.)
What will this thing enhance?
Something that made life bearable was enjoying our rich world. McLuhan studied the trivium: logic, rhetoric, and grammar. He originally trained himself as a grammarian which I never would have guessed but after hearing about his life and what he did it actually seems like a logical place to start.
What will this tool obsolesce?
What will it replace?
It was possible to create new worlds over night with electric lights. The electric world obsolesced the visual world. No more distinct dark and light. There were lights on even at night. People could go out at night, could stay out later.
One of McLuhan's main tenants was that media is an extension of the central nervous system. Understanding the media group helps you understand other disciplines because all technologies are language and technology is the center of everything. Technology gives you insight into all the languages and disciplines.
After McLuhan has an operation to remove a growth from his brain he lost 5 years worth of memory. He lost so many of his precious thoughts that had made him famous. This operation prompted him to study the hemispheres of the brain.
What will this tool retrieve from all the things you've lost?
What could McLuhan's brain retrieve from all the thoughts he'd lost? Could he get them back?
Speech retrieves old adventures and turns them into stories that are more linear and organized than the when the experience was lived. Could McLuhan get back his memories through speech? Ironically enough McLuhan's books became less and less coherent and he preferred to talk ideas out.
He was part of the "Best Club" at University of Toronto. While his fame was growing his amount of critics was growing too especially in the 70s. He became frustrated and felt like people weren't listening to him which they should have because now technology is taking over our lives and we're having trouble doing things like talking ideas out.
How will your tool reverse when it's pushed to its outer limit?
McLuhan's fame waned after he came up with the laws of media. Apparently his tool was his fame and it reversed to its outer limit. His center was closed and his papers, a tool that could have helped him retrieve his thoughts were thrown out.
At the end of the book McLuhan addresses radio, tv, and film.
McLuhan says that tv fails to tackle hot issues and calls it the "timid giant". Even though we're free from censorship. Is tv still a cool medium? HD TV, websites, blogs...etc. People can now participate directly in shows and vote for contestants. Consumers become producers.

Week 12 McLuhan 123-245 and The Machine that Made Us

We watched a documentary about a guy who is on a mission to make a replica of a Gutenberg printing press.  One of the points this film brought up that I hadn't really thought about was that Gutenberg's bible ushered in the modern era, the Renaissance. It allowed people to share their ideas with a wide audience and helped increase literacy.
The guys who were making the press ran in to a lot of problems along the way. They only had a vague sketch of what the Gutenberg press looked like. They weren't even sure if the drawing was of a Gutenberg press. They had to rely on looking at similar machines like wine presses.
Another point I found interesting was that the printing press helped eliminate errors in text. It was very easy for scribes to make mistakes and they weren't going to rewrite an entire text just because they made one error.
Contrary to popular thought the first thing to be made with a Gutenberg press was not the Bible, it was actually grammar books and indulgences. I was always taught that the Bible was printed first so this was a bit of a shock to me but it made sense.
I really liked that this documentary not only showed how they made the press but it also showed them making their own paper. I've never seen paper made before so that was pretty cool.

Even though the printing press mass produced documents errors were still made. Sometimes the paper quality was bad, there were typos...etc. Human error. It was still people that were setting the type and not machines. Even now there are still errors because in most cases it's humans that are doing the writing.
One thing we talked about that I thought was interesting was how typefaces can have nationalism like Helvetica being the Swiss typeface.  They can bring countries together or divide them.  Helvetica was used by the EU to bring the European countries together. I think that the typeface used on the Gutenberg press brought countries together and divided them at the same time. While it could be used to spread ideas and bring people with similar thoughts together it also divided people like further dividing Catholics and Protestants.
Even people who are into new media still value books because they are expensive and hard to make. Although people still value books, new media has changed many aspects of our lives like sports. Baseball is the old and football is the new. Baseball is less enjoyable to watch on tv. It's a slower game and there's less going on. Football is also entrenched in war terminology and tactics which make it more intense and exciting whereas basketball is emulates current technology. I never realized how much it did. There's posts, picks, screen...etc. Football is starting to go the way of basketball. It's becoming less of a contact sport and the players are more spread out on the field. There are also many sports video games now. Like McLuhan says, these games are extensions of ourselves. We create avatars that look like us and we control the players. What will be next? A play called a tweet?

Week 8 Baron ch7-12, Terrablight

The most interesting thing we did this week was watch a documentary called Terrablight.  I had never heard of E-waste before I watched this.  I don't know where I thought computers went after we threw them away. I guess I just assumed they ended up in land fills or something.  The fact that E-waste is America's fastest growing waste amazed me. We go through technology so quickly and I feel like old computers could be put to a better use than just ending up in places like African lagoons.  It was so sad to see those young kids rumaging for scrap metal just to get money and they don't even realize how dangerous it is. We spend all this money on new tvs and computers to have huge gaming conventions just for it to end up in a heap in a developing country.
Another thing that got to me was when the guy was talking about the chemical leak caused by the IBM plant in Endicott NY. The company didn't even care that their carelessness led to people getting cancer and other serious illnesses.
I liked how the documentary incorporated hard facts such as: it takes 530 lbs of fossil fuel to make one computer and that the US generates more E-waste than any other country (this was especially interesting, if anything I thought it would have been China or Japan).
I also thought it was interesting that most of the old technology that ends up in places like Africa came from government agencies.
I wish that there were more recycling plants for computers and E-waste like the one shown in Terrablight.
One of the questions raised in class was can you recycle pens?
I looked it up and you could go through the consuming process of taking pens apart and recycling their parts, but certain parts will still end up in a landfill. However there is a program called Terracycle that will donate 2 cents to the charity of your choice for each marker, pen, pencil, or highlighter you recycle.

Week 9 McLuhan pg 3-122

When I started reading McLuhan I didn't understand a lot of what he said.  His arguments are very philosophical and I don't always do very well with philosophy.  When we actually began to discuss it however it made a lot more sense and his arguments became more relatable.  I really identified with his statement about technology becoming a sort of appendage.  I always have my phone with me even if I am up at some ungodly hour and know no sane person will be contacting me.  It's pretty much become part of my arm.  McLuhan's concept of "self-amputation" was particularly interesting.  I went on a sorority retreat in North Carolina this weekend and anyone who didn't have Verizon didn't have service.  People were freaking out because they couldn't text their friends even though they were surrounded by their sorority sisters.  One of my friends went so far as to borrow my phone to tell her boyfriend she didn't have service and wouldn't be able to text him until the next day.  I actually like having times without technology where I can just get away and people can't get ahold of me.  That's one of the reasons I like going out of the country.  I can only communicate with people through email or Skype so I really only hear from my parents.  I studied abroad last May and the hotel we stayed only had wifi downstairs in the lobby and even that was iffy.  There were times when it worried me because I knew my mom would freak out if I didn't let her know I was alive every day, but after a few days I actually liked it. It was nice to just be able to enjoy a trip and not have constant updates about everyone's lives.
I didn't agree with McLuhan's argument that the globe is a village.  I feel like in some ways we are connected to each other, but in other ways we are still very separate.  Like someone said in class it's hard to communicate with people in places like China because their Internet is so censored.  I have a friend that goes to Clemson who is from China and she showed me what their version of Facebook looks like.  Over half the posts had been deleted and had a picture of a computer with a frowny face (very Asian) and a message that basically said sorry we had to delete your post due to inappropriate content.  There is also the language barrier we were talking about.  I can't figure out most Facebook posts from my friend in Georgia because they use a Cyrillic alphabet.

Continuing the theme of technology as an extension of our body, McLuhan said in this reading that we have to feed it and interact with it almost like our own Little Shop of Horrors monster.  Is it going to eat us if we don't give it enough blood sacrifices?
Technology is integrating more and more with our everyday lives. Even the names of parts of our machines are the same as things we use in real life.  Your desktop is now your computer screen and not just where you put your pencil holder and #1 Dad coffee mug. Your trash bin is virtual or I guess recycle bin for all the "green" people.
I like McLuhan's idea of acceleration and disruption.  It goes along with the idea that everyone has to be first now.  All the news stations want to give you the news first, all the gossip blogs have to be the first to know how much baby weight Kim K has gained... But does that mean the news is always right? Now not so much.  With the major news providers getting their information from unreliable places like Twitter they're having to do to a lot of back tracking and make a lot of apologies.  Unfortunately because of how we operate as a society now if you want to keep the ratings up you can't take the time to slow down and gets the facts straight before a story is released.  Not only is this increased speed of information and increased media outlets changing the news but it is also changing how police work is conducted.
McLuhan also explores the idea of the literate private individual.  You can have conversations now meant for only you and one other person whereas when people were in tribes there was only the sense of the group and how your actions would affect the group. Now we have an individual sense. We do things for us. As part of this individual sense we trust the text because we can't always bring the author out to explain themselves.
People used to say that all roads lead to Rome, but now it's more like all roads lead to each other through the Internet, all roads go everywhere. If one road doesn't work everyone else can still communicate. The new road is the cell phone tower.

Week 7 Baron ch 1-6

Moving on to Baron and A Better Pencil.  We are constantly posting on Facebook and Tweeting and texting and because of this our grammar has supposedly gotten worse...how is it then that there are still Grammar Nazi's lurking in the shadows.  People still correct each other's grammar in these forums and there are even those that send the grammatically correct text (gasp!).  There's even a Facebook page called Grammar Police that calls out people's grammatical errors.
The supposed degradation of our language is contributing to what Baron calls Teknofear.  This fear of technology taking over and destroying our lives has caused things like the Unabomber attack.  I think it is an irrational fear.  While we are getting more technologically savvy, people adapt and still maintain forums in which correct grammar must be used.
There are problems with this technology as Baron points out.  Once we send something we can't take it back.  Once it's out in cyber land it's there...so you really have to think about what you want to say.  On the other hand Baron says that we react to things quickly but with no wisdom.  We can respond so quickly that we don't think first. Even though we can respond quickly we are only human and want to avoid awkward conversations and miscommunications.  For these reasons people do actually think before they send especially if there in a situation where they want to make a good impression on someone.
I did however like what Baron said about the keyboard and not the pencil being the connection to our inner thoughts.  Basically everyone has a computer or at least knows how to type.  You don't have to learn how to hold a pencil or form letters. You just start typing and immediately your thoughts are on paper (using the term very loosely).