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.