Musings

Ideas from the class:

podcasting (use in education)

youtube (compedy video)

skype (online class)

art in multimedia and advertising - flickr

performance (writing, blogging, etc.)

 http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/archives… - The Daedalus Project

Second Life

Interacting with medium and audience - streaming in both directions / live performance on facebook

Alice - programming tool (very simple)

e-commerce (ebay)

improv everywhere

The reading from Licklider made me wonder if we have reached the point of symbiosis with computers. Much of what he described has occurred, including a computer network connecting multiple individuals and their work. A symbiotic relationship involves dependence of both parties on the other. In today’s world, it seems obvious that we rely heavily on computers. Many youths today can’t make change at a retail store without looking at the numbers on the register. What do we do when we can’t remember the name of the song we just heard? We Google it. How do we remember birthdays? Facebook or a computer calendar. Does anyone even remember their grandma’s phone number anymore? If your phone suddenly disappeared and the internet was down, how many people would you lose contact with? These questions make me wonder if we are as dependent on computers to function as computers are on us. Here’s the scary part. As technology advances, will we ever get to a point beyond symbiosis because the computer has surpassed us? It may come when computers have a way of making other computers. At that point the human creator becomes irrelevant. Just a thought.

Information overload. It’s a concept that becomes more salient every day. As technology advances, human-kind has more information at their fingertips than God. While reading As We May Think, a simple thought from Bush gave me pause. “…This sort of catastrophe is being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential,” (p.37). I began to think of all the pieces of information I keep in my head at any given moment. I remember the names of psychologists, directions to work, the date of my boyfriend’s birthday. Countless bits of knowledge are stored up there. How many more things would I remember if I dispelled of all knowledge of Britney Spears, who just got divorced in Hollywood, or the entire theme song to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air? Even more tragic is that I can recall these tidbits much easier than a news story that I read yesterday. As information flows faster than ever before, do we have a way of filtering out the unnecessary? I’m not quite sure. ADHD may be an attempt to deal with the hyper-speed of today’s world. The common addiction to the media (especially Hollywood) would lead one to believe that people crave the continuous flow of information, however ridiculous and unnecessary. Maybe we need the surreal to deal with a world that we are beginning to know too much about too quickly. Even if this is the case, I think Bush is right. The few innovative and truly noteworthy achievements of today are lost in the unending barrage of the information wave.