Journal 7

We discussed the Kindle a number of times in class. It's like an iPod, but instead of music it holds books. It sounds impressive and all, but its uses seem limited. Some of the benefits we talked about were its possible uses for education. It would seem like a dream come true to have all my textbooks in one compact device, rather than have to carry four or five heavy books in your book bag. It could also save a lot of paper (should there be a complete transition). The Kindle also has a highlighting feature you can use to aid you in your studies. It truly is an amazing device, but there are so many problems with it. And no, I'm not talking about embodiment or the sensory pleasures of holding and reading a book; smelling it, touching it, or feeling the wind from the pages blow in your face. All of that is completely irrelevant. I've never heard of anyone reading a book because they like the way it smelled. The fact is, books are not embodied. They are nothing more than pieces of paper with text on them. The kindle, with a little work, could probably produce a fairly similar experience. So why is it that I don't support it? The answer is that it's just an unnecessary luxury with very few benefits and a lot of problems. What's the purpose of carrying an entire library with you at all times? There is no purpose for such a device to exist, even if it is pretty amazing. It's just another result of the "compact fad" that our current generation is consumed by. Also, they'd probably have to work out a few bugs over the first few years so you should expect various upgraded versions to come out. That's reason enough not to buy it because when you think about it, keeping up with the most recent versions just costs you more in the end. Another problem discussed was related to its educational uses. You can't sell software back to the bookstore, but you can return a book. There's no such thing as "new" or "used" data files so don't expect to find discounts on any books. Books are a big part of college education so when you factor that in, you might actually end up paying more. There’s also the issue over technical support. Not everyone's good with technology so you can expect some people to somehow break it or lose all of their files. I'm sure there are ways of backing up your files and storing them elsewhere, but you wouldn't expect someone who's not good with technology to know how to do that. Some people are going to lose all of their files and it would be a shame if they had to pay for them again. Plus, they might make you buy accessories to even be able to back up files or use other features, which is just more money taken our of your wallet. Basically, my point is that there are most likely some hidden costs. Many technologies aren't even built to last. They do that so that you'll keep buying their products over and over again and I believe that will be the case for the Kindle as well. Don't waste your money.

The kindle and the ipod

In class we have spoken a lot about the kindle. It sounds like an interesting concept however, I just do not believe this technology will ever be a huge thing. I know that it is almost impossible to get because it is sold out everywhere, which means it does have quite a popularity, but I think a lot of this is due to the hype that it is been getting not the actual product. In theory it is a great concept. Having all of your books at your finger tips sounds great, but is this really the same thing? I will admit that I have never seen a kindle. I have only heard about through our class discussions, but this just doesn't seem like that great of a thing to me. Having the texts of all these books is great, but can it really simulate an actual book. One misses turning the pages, and the indivuality of a book. I know I like to write and make notes in my books making each one very unique and special, I cannot see that the kindle can emulate this. Antoher downfall is all the books are just in normal font and they are all the same, one doesn't get the excitement of opening an old book. Some of the coolest books are the ones that are many years old. Nothing is like an 100 year old book. The kindle simply cannot provide this.
In advertisement the kindle is being compared to the ipod. I think this is more for selling than anything. I am an owner of an ipod and i love it. However I don't see the kindle as the same thing at all. Its one thing to have a music file, but a book file? I'm truly not even a huge fan of the ipod because of the lack of material substance. The only reason that I do like it is the convenience of having one. It is great for living away from home in the sense that I don't have to box up thousands of cds and bring them with me, I can just throw the ipod in my pocket and I'm good to go. Having an ipod with 10 thousands songs is nothing like having 3000 cds, just like having a kindle, is nothing like having a self full of books. In both the kindle one misses the substance of actually having the book or the cd. The only reason I could ever see owning the kindle is for the same reason I own an ipod, and that is convience. Even with this convience what would happen if say your kindle was stolen and you lose everything. This would be quite terrible. I actually left an ipod in a hotel room last year, and even though I called the hotel to inform merely an hour after I had checked out the ipod was gone, and so were thousands of songs with it. This is another experience that soured me to the ipod. I still also believe there is something to be said about having a large collection of cds and full book shelf. These things can never be replaced by the kindle and the ipod.

Buildings as Cultural Information

I was greatly interested in our discussion today concerning buildings as cultural information, a form of realized information, which is the process of taking an abstract design and have it come to life in the concrete world. In truth, this is what buildings are...information, a design or plan that was thought of in someone's mind, namely that of an architect, which was brought to reality in the concrete world. I thought also that it was interesting how different buildings were from realizing information through reading and playing. A building is something concrete in the real world. Although we can associate books with reading and a music CD with playing, these are not the direct form of information, but objects of the action. A building is the concrete result of the thought. The actual materials imitate the design that was in the architect's head.
The story of the Freiburg Cathedral is interesting, however, because the building turned out to be a different style than the original architect suspected due to the time it took to create the building...the styles of architecture changed. This contingency, or unpredictability is something that affects the realizing of information. I would disagree that architecture 'succeeds' when it fully realizes the original intent of the architect. The cathedral we discussed succeeded in a far different manner. Just because it wasn't in the mind of the original architect doesn't mean this building didn't marvelously succeed.
It is interesting also that when we look at a building such as the Freiburg Cathedral, we are informed about something, such as styles of architecture within a certain context that makes the information even more vivid and make sense to the learner.

In to great silence

In to Great Silence


The film of In Great Silence was very interesting because of how quiet the movie really was. The monks really live in almost complete silence there is a bell that rings that keeps track of when to stop what they are doing to prey. The only real sound that you hear in this documentary was the bells, the closing of the Doors, walking. There is no verbal communication between the monks they walk by each others and they just nod to say hello the only time they speak around each other is when they are signing their preys the silence is almost ear and weird at first but you adjust to the silence of the film and you learn to watch it a little closer. Like what we were talking about in class on Tuesday, we discussed how to reach silence and how hard it is to find it in our society with all of the noise pollution in our society. In the monks community they didn’t have this noise pollution that exists in our everyday life or just in our community compared to the monks. It was said in the chapter on noise that one of the only please on earth that you can reach complete silence in the dessert and that is almost a dead silence nothing there, but in this film these monks village is located in the mountains far away from society. The silence from where they live dose has this dead silence besides that noises form doors, bells and also things like nature. You hear this dead silence because the monks have little to no conations to society like electric the cell phone, video games stuff like that the have old forms of technology and that is all they need to live on. They have mostly candle for lighting the only real form of modern forms of technologies they have is things like a laptop and some other electric things and outlets. There is only one laptop that I see but it’s the bear minimum, these monks need to escape from our so-called reality or should I say society. They need silence for their medication and preys to fully reach nirvana or be one with God. There are things that we as a culture could pick up and add I to our every day lives, everyone needs to look back and reflect as the monks do in this film. It could help everyone to become better thinkers.

Blog 7 : Kindle

The other day in class, we were discussing the idea of the kindle. I have never used or seen one before, but I don’t think I would like using one. The only exception would be textbooks for school. I think in that case, it would be highly beneficial to be able to just download your reading materials to the kindle, and not have to carry all the books around. Having said that, I would not like the fact that you can’t physically go page to page, and see the pertinent information in which you highlighted. I know that sometimes when I’m taking a test, I can think of the particular page some information is on and it helps me think of the answer. That would not be possible with the kindle. I guess when it comes down to it, the only thing I would like about it is the fact that it would be efficient as far as space is concerned. Like many people have said in class, I think there is something in having the actual book, as compared to words downloaded on a screen. The ability to hold the book, and go through it page by page, is something that I see as an important part of reading. Everything is being engulfed by technology, but the physical book, is something I wish would stay the way it is.

Kindle

Recently in class we discussed the kindle which is on sale from Amazon. The kindle is a wireless device which stores books, magazines, and other reading material. The kindle is suppose to be for reading what the Ipod is for music. I do not believe that the kindle will take off as a substitute for a book in everyday society. I feel this way because most people only carry one book at a time and read that book over the day or week. This is different from the Ipod in that people will listen to many songs a day. The kindle is supposed to be similar to that of a book, without the glare of a computer screen. However, unlike a book you can not really turn the page and get the textual feeling of the books, you can also not highlight, or skim the computer screen to look for an exact page. I imagine the kindle would be like a computer screen and you would have to scroll down or insert a specific page number. Another problem with the kindle is like the Ipod or other musical storage devices it can crash. If a kindle crashes you could loose all your books.
Some of the pros of the kindle is that it would come in handy is to allow students to carry a smaller amount of books. The kindle is also suppose to have a feature which allows the student to look up words like in a dictionary by clicking on ones you don’t understand. The kindle might also cut down on the amount of books produced and therefore save paper. However, I picture a scenario which involves game systems. Nintendo had a Nintendo 64 system and then they came out with the game cube. No more games were made for the 64 system and you had to buy the game cube to get new games (but the old 64 games would not work). You might have to buy different kindle systems in the future and loose your material if something breaks.
For the time being, I would definitely prefer a stack of books to the compact kindle.

Blog 7

The kindle has become a big seller in today's materialized world. The kindle shows how technology is surrounding us. The hope is that the kindle will be the ipod of the book world. Personally, I would not invest in a kindle. I believe it would be pointless for me to carry it around all day and maybe only read a few pages of a book. I also prefer having the material copy of the book. The kindle sounds like a great investment but there are so many things you can do with a tangible copy of a book. You can look for and find quotes, you can highlight important parts and you can give books as a gift.
The kindle does have some pros. It is suppose to not hurt your eyes and you can carry multiple books with you in your pocket. Another pro of the kindle is that you can click on words you don't understand and it will give you a definition.
The kindle is a good idea but it doesn't have the same qualities as a real tangible book. I would much rather have a library of books than a kindle in my house. Real books seem to have a certain quality of intellegence to them.Overall this is another piece of technology that is being incorporated into our everyday lives.

Journal 6

After watching a portion of the movie, "Into Great Silence," it was interesting to see how people could still live in silence and did not have to depend mainly on technology. The monks in this french monestary were interesting in the fact that they didn't even have much verbal communication, unless it was in prayer or during the induction of the new members. The only forms of technology that were kept at the monestary were simple forms such as axes or saws. There was one computer in the office, probably used for paying bills, but other than those, a majority of the things were natural. Their light mainly came from the sun, not lamps or light bulbs.
After reading Picard's writing on the radio and how it has stolen silence from society, it was interesting to compare what he wrote to how the monks lived. Picard stated that, "There is no more silence, only intervals between radio noises." In the case of the monks, it was just the opposite, there was no noises, only intervals between silence. He also states that radioi noise is constantly penetrating everywhere, yet in the case of the monks, it was not. The movie itself was nice because of the inside look into a world of silence. It was peaceful to watch and see how others can live completely without information constantly bomarding them.

Journal 5

Throughout the next reading, the idea of media and information is examined. Technology definitely affects our information and how we process it. With the help of technology, we have so many more different opportunities to obtain information. Yet, this also means it is harder to get away from the constant flow of information. Technology has affected us so much that it would be very difficult to go back to anything different. Picard recognizes the radio and its affect on society. He states that it ruins one's ability to enjoy silence. It is very hard these days to experience absolute silence, nearly impossible. He also states that with the radio, you have no presence, but only signs, therefore we don't experience reality, but merely signs that are disconnected from reality.
Another technology often taken for granted is writing or books; we often forget this as being a form of technology just because it is not an ipod or computer. Plato states that writing is inferior to live dialogue. When reading something from a book, you only have one perspective, whereas if you are having a conversation with the author, you have two different perspectives and can ask what the author meant. With writing, there is only one voice present, unlike in live dialogue where you can bounce ideas off one another and ask questions with answers. Being live gives a person that experience of presence and unpredictability, whereas, a book is always predictable and always the same.

Journal 4

In the past chapters, Borgmann speaks of an "ancestral environment." This environment is actually the original or natural way of information. He gives the equation for information which is a person being informed by a sign with respect to a thing in a context. The thing is considered reality. All of these are components or parts of information. He also mentions how you must have coherence, order and vividness. This may mean that one must first recognize the signs, in which must be in an order or a context, and then that must have knowledge about the context and the sign in order to really experience it. Borgmann also points out the importance of context. If the context is not correct for a particular sign, then we may not be able to recognize it. If you see something that is usually visible in nature, it's natural setting, and you place it in an office setting, for example, it will be more difficult to recognize it because it is out of its context.

The Kindle

The kindle is like an IPOD where you download songs, but you download books to it. It claims to be exactly like reading because it looks and reads like real paper. The main advantage is convenience. You can take it anywhere and with a touch of a button download a new book and start reading. Though this sounds great there are downsides to this new technology. What happens when you are in the middle of this great book and it just turns off?? If you are really into the book it’s going to be very upsetting. Also you are not going to get the same sensations you would get if you were reading it from a book in your hands. There is no turning the pages or the smell of a new book that bring important aspects of reading a book. I believe that when reading from the Kindle you will not read the text the same as reading a book in your hand. For example, I would rather print text off the computer and read it. It is easier for me to make corrections on a paper I wrote when it is physically in my hands rather than fixing the corrections on the computer. In class it was discussed the idea of wanting physical copies of the books one love to be very important. This is important for people because if for some reason the kindle crashes you still have that old copy of your favorite books. Another important aspect of having books is the ability to lend to others a book that you read. This aspect can not be accomplished with owning a kindle because you won’t be able to pass your kindle from one person to the next and hopefully have it returned?

Journal 6

After reading Stuart Sim, I found myself agreeing with a lot of his concerns. We do need to do something about the noise, but we can only take small steps. He pointed out some minor contributions in the UK, but the major problems lie in industry and noisy work environments. Sim pointed out the link between noise and modern corporate capitalism. I hadn't really thought about it before he brought it up and I do agree with him; however I don't feel it's a good idea for him to show too much distaste for it. I respect Sim's efforts, but I feel that many people would just be too offended by his remarks to capitalism and would no doubt ignore his wishes. That aside, his other statements were very interesting. He spoke of how even musicians are worried about increased noise. This statement reminded me of "musician's earplugs." They're a special kind of earplug that basically lowers the intensity of the noise without actually taking any of the quality away. They're great for musicians doing live performances and are a sign that there are ways that we can use our new technologies to counter the existing noise of our other technologies. There are also more effective headphones that block out external noise while you're listening to music. I'd personally recommend that anyone with an iPod should throw out those puny little headphones because what happens is that you end up competing with all the other noise and you turn up the volume to dangerous levels to counter it. Headphones that block out external noise allow you to hear the music without actually blasting it in your ears. Frequent cell phone use is just as troublesome. Some people spend entirely too much time on the phone. It's unnecessary, expensive, and of course bad for your hearing so all you need to do is have a little will-power to avoid it. With so many other things out there, the best we can do is simply turn the volume down. If you have control over it, then keep it at a reasonable level and don't listen for too long. Of course, it's easy to tell someone to keep it down if they don't seem to do it themselves. This is what I tend to see with the older generations looking down at the younger generations. Our generation gets a rush out of loud music and sometimes it's just hard to let go. It truly takes an effort to make the change. I've been working on it for the past year or so because I'm starting to worry myself, but every now and then I can't help but crank up volume.

Library is so noisy

Last Tuesday we talk about how they is tranformation of the library culture. About ten or twenty years if you walk in a library barely anybody was making noise. If someone was loud the librian either give the person a warning or keep them. However, today's library culture is very noisy. If you walk in a typical library, you would heard noise everywhere. Some of the noise that you can hear can range from cellular phones to people talking.
The elimination of silence in the library has cause librians to accept this new norm. Today, I considered libraries as more of a social center than just a place for information for your term paper. I see it as a place to hang out for a few minutes before you next class rather than a place to study. It is difficult for myself to study for a test or read a book that I have to find other places outside the library such as my dorm room. I remember when I used to attend Geneva College in Western Pennsylvania, the school's library did a good job of enforce silence. One of the reasons is that the library was once a chruch and chruch is a place where you have enforce silence.

Journal 7: Reading as a Focal Practice

Today in class we talked about how reading is a focal practice, especially since our outlook concerning what is contained in books can change. An interview I found online with Albert Borgmann explains that a focal practice, "is something that has a commanding presence, engages your body and mind, and engages you with others." I thought of some examples, such as playing the piano being a focal practice. Focusing on personal reading, however, remained quite interesting to me. Just this semester I have experienced this reading scripture. I am taking a fantastic course right now called "Theology of Jesus Christ", and during this class, we are required to take some short online courses, and one of them is entitled, "Reading the Old Testament in the New: The Gospel of Matthew". Ever since taking these courses online, I read the Gospel with new eyes like I never experienced before. I find instances of the Old Testament being fulfilled in the New everywhere. Reading in this manner is an amazing focal practice. I must have read/heard these Scriptures hundreds of times before, and I got to the point where I didn't hardly listen anymore when I heard them, because I felt as if "I had already heard it before". I didn't realize that my worldview was about to change from taking this fantastic course. Because I changed, the way in which I read the Bible changed for me. I had to do a certain amount of work before I could properly understand the context of what I was reading. I had to put myself in the place of the contemporary authors of Scripture and imagine what they were thinking when this was written, and what background they were using and relying upon to understand the words and actions of Jesus Christ. In conclusion, I highly agree with Albert Borgmann about reading being a focal practice, and I look forward to rereading certain things I have already read with new eyes.

Blog 6 : Into Great Silence

Seeing the film on Thursday really opened up my eyes, and gave me a completely different view of the word silence. If you’re like me, it is hard to remember the last time you experienced complete silence. Silence is hard to come by these days, and with all the new forms of technology it will only get worse. Between cell phones, ipods, and computers, we have come up with plenty of ways to disregard silence in our lives. The movie was interesting because it gives you a look into the lives of people who basically, live in complete silence. One particular scene from the movie stands out in my mind. Two of the monks were getting dressed in their uniforms, and they were literally standing inches away from one another. They weren’t saying a word. I can’t recall the last time I was standing inches away from someone I was familiar with and not saying anything. In today’s world, our lives are always filled with conversation, jokes, and small talk just to fill in that silence. You even hear people refer to the word silence as awkward, or they will say ‘that was an awkward silence.’ In our lives today, we don’t value silence. It was an eye opening experience to see the lives of people who put a great value on silence, and take advantage of the benefits silence can provide.

Blog 6

Today we live in a culture of noise. One of the main causes that further the culture of noise is cell phones. In todays world we can't go anywhere without seeing or hearing people talking on cell phones. Since we can always hear people talking on cell phones it is impossible to have a thoughtful reflection. In todays world it is impossible to get away from this noise, you can't even go into a public restroom without having people talk on phones because of hands free headsets. In the movie it seems only monks who choose to be silent and get away from our materilized culture are the only ones who can escape the culture of noise.
A second example of the culture of noise we discussed was the ipod. Now people listen to ipods not with headphones but with speakers for all to hear. This is a way of rebeling against making silence silencing.
In todays materialized world it is impossible to escape the culture of noise.

Can we ever have silence?

We have been discussing recently in class how much noise pollution there is no matter where you go. In public places there tends to be noise that you just can not avoid. When you go to a restaurant there is usually music or even the television being played in the background. This can become a problem because it takes away from people having quality discussions around the meal table. When my dad watches television during dinner time it tends to annoy me. It seems like he is so into the television set that there is little communication between people. There also tends to be noise where there was not before. This is because of the contribution of the telephone to the onset of noise pollution. It seems like people are always talking on their cell phone. This occurs even in the library...a place which is ment to be quiet and a place of academic study. In todays society we are confronted by noise every where and the question that I ask is if we chose noise. Like I mentioned earlier my dad watches television during dinner. Even in our cars where we are in control of the local environment people play music on their radio. In todays society it seems like we almost embrace the noise and prefer the lack of silence. Not to many people go to the movies to see a silent film or a film in another language (where we need to interpret what is happening). Also, when there is silence it sometimes tends to make people uncomfortable. If the people around us are not talking we tend to think there is a reason why, as in they do not like us. In todays world it seems like there wil never be true silence again and this is the path we have chosen.

Monastic Living

Watching the film on Thrusday made me recall my visits to the Abbey of Gethsemane, and the Abbey of Saint Meinraid. While neither of these monasteries require their monks to take vows of silence, they still hold silence in a high regard. The silence I was able to experience at these places is unlike the silence of life at home. It is a stillness. Maybe this is why it's so hard to experience this kind of silence in our society. Our society is constantly moving, as where the monastic experience is to slow down be still and contemplative. A famous monk from Gethsemane, Thomas Merton wrote in one of his books for one to try to go to a room with another person, and sit with that person in silence with no books or writing materials, and just simply be. The modern world is always about doing this and doing that but not about simply being a human. I have tried this exercise Thomas Merton suggested. I only did it for a half hour but it was still very affective and relaxing. One realizes the sacredness of silence. I agree with Simon in that we are loosing this silence. As we lose this silence we also lose what it is to be a human.

"Noise Pollution"

Sim brings up many relevant issues in today’s society that he calls “noise pollution.” The array of noises that consume our surroundings are damaging our health and our quality of life according to Sim. Also he discusses the importance of thought and silence. According to Sim it is necessary to have silence in order to enhance our concentration and experience deep thought.
Sim alludes to important issues and I agree with him, but only to a certain point. I believe that silence is something that every human being needs every once in a while to reflect about life and learn about themselves. I think this is why I enjoy going to Gatlinburg to hike in the mountains where there is a form a silence that allows me to take in my surroundings and am able to get away from all the noises that occur everyday in Northern Kentucky. Another point Sim ponders is how a radio can be heard everywhere and is always making noise. One can listen to the radio every time one gets into a car, and many places such as, the gym, swim clubs, and sporting events involve a form of radio or music. There is not an abundant of places where one can go to endure silence and relax. Relaxation is a necessary component to ensure our physical and psychological life. I don’t believe that human beings have to acquire silence all the time or that our world needs to change because there is too much “noise pollution.” We as humans can find our own places where we can experience our own silence that will aid our health and life.

Journal 5

While discussing McLuhan, the idea that we are a multi-tasking society was briefly mentioned. I agree with this, but I do not support the multi-tasker. It's true that there is so much to do and so much that can be done at once, that it becomes very tempting to multi-task. The sad truth however, is that we are not machines and cannot efficiently perform multiple tasks at a single time. To embrace the multi-tasker is to say that we are happy with the mediocre. Why do things efficiently one at a time, when you can just do an average or poor job on all of them at once? That seems to be the mentality today. Now we have people talking on those little ear-piece phones, while his 4 kids are watching a Spongebob DVD laughing loudly, while playing cards on a little table in front of them, while the wife is fiddling with the CD player, while he's looking at a navigation system, while driving. We are not perfect and we are not machines. We have a limited capacity for attention and are incapable of efficiently doing something as important and 'dangerous' as driving with so many distractions nearby. It’s simply beyond us as human beings to achieve it. Just by talking on a cell phone (hands free or not), you are 20% slower to react because your attention is too divided. It's so easy to lose your life in a car accident and yet we continue to put useless luxuries into our vehicles and in other inappropriate places. People need to realize that just because our technology has advanced; it doesn't mean our basic human limitations have simply disappeared. Multi-tasking is a bad habit, not a way of life to be glorified.

Blog 5 : Sim

I agree with what Stuart Sim is saying in his work, “The Assault against Silence and Why Silence Matters.” I have never really taken the time to think about silence, perhaps because I don’t have any in my life. There are very few places we can go in today’s world where we come across near silence, much less complete silence. One line that stands out to me is when Sim says, “Thought is an essentially silent activity and is difficult to sustain in a noisy society – and certainly is likely to become superficial when competing with other stimuli.” (pg.39) I can’t remember the last time I sat in complete silence and just thought about different things. The only time my life comes somewhat close to silence is when I’m trying to study in the library, and like Sim argues, the library is becoming increasingly noisy. Towards the end of the chapter, Sim talks about how the desert is the opposite of the busy world most of us are used to. He says, “The desert reduces existence to its basics, encouraging us to reflect on those basics ourselves.” (pg.52) I agree with him that a setting like the desert is one of the few places around today in which we can think by removing all the distractions of an urban area. We don’t think about how much silence could actually benefit us. We too often take silence for granted, and feel like we’re missing out on something when we’re not technologically active. I definitely agree with Sim when he says we need to ‘turn down the volume of our culture.’

The Library in Today's Noisy Culture

Today in class we discussed how our society has become obsessed with noise. Background noise, or "white noise", seems necessary for us to function in our day to day lives. Think about it: When you're writing a paper or cleaning up your room, do you turn on the TV or listen to music, not because you want to watch or listen to something, but because you just want to hear something, anything?

Also mentioned earlier today is the fact that libraries are no longer sacred places in terms of silence. Having previously worked at a library I've witnessed this first hand and can confirm that, yes, it has everything to do with technology. From cell phones, to computers, to the fact that people are now checking out DVD's instead of books, libraries have become social hot spots instead of places of study and quiet contemplation. The more the technological realm intrudes upon that world, the more it gives way to the noise our world is falling prey to.

Weather and Technology

Looking out my window this morning, the picture is quite serene. I gaze upon snow-covered rooftops and a treelined hill where the winter chill envelops the frigid tree branches in the distance. This change in the weather, however, has "forced me" to use several means of technology before I have barely begun my day.
Early this morning, I awakened to my alarm clock only to run out to the family room and look at the school closings on the television, praying we were on the list...we weren't yet. Angrily I went back to bed until about an hour later, only to turn on my computer alongside my bed and check the internet list of closings...I see Xavier, The Mount, and a plethora of other schools having the opportunity to enjoy their day of freedom. I suddenly realize that Thomas More has a mere delay until 10:30, and I procede to call various people with my cell phone, wondering if this means we have our 10:00 classes.
I wonder what our lives would be without this technology in times or 'perilous weather' (sarcasm intended). It suddenly dawned on me that this morning, I have used nearly four elements of technology to try to improve my life and make it more understandable in the midst of chaos.
I wonder, though, am I really making my life simpler with such devices? Or am I merely complicating it with increasingly complex technological tools?
Have I lost touch with reality to the point where I can barely go outside for myself and see if the streets are clear enough for me to drive without getting into an accident? I remember the readings on silence we had recently, and I come to the realization that already 2 hours into my morning, I have filled my life with pointless noise. I recall the quote from our reading, Manifesto for Silence,"Far too much is being said and of too little consequence". This morning, the volume knob in my own personal world was turned up full-blast to the point where I missed the point of many things.
I look out the window again now and see a peaceful scene, and ask to myself, Why can't I make my life more life that?

MP3 vs. CDs

In class, we talked about Device Paradigm. Albert Borgmann mentioned Device Paradigm in the book. In the book, he stated that technology is in our comptempary life. Modern technology tends to take form in devices that are increasing accepted by the average consumers. I remember when the MP3 player first came out, I didn't imagine choosing a cd player over a mp3 for many reasons. First of all, the price for a MP3 player such as an iPod was very expensive of the time which I couldn't afford. Next I was used to the compact disc. Also if I wanted to listen music in my car from a MP3player I would have pay at least two hundred dollars to install my MP3 player.

I remember when my mother got me an iPod for christmas two years ago, I immediately abondoned the cd player. One of the reason why I prefer MP3 players over the cd players is that I can hold up to 7500 songs on my ipod comparing to a cd that can hold up to 20 songs depending how long each song is. Another reason is that having a MP3 player eliminates the cost of spending money on blank cd to burn. Also with a MP3player such as an iPod, I don't have worry about changing the battery every time the cd player ran out of power where you can charge up your ipod with a laptop. I learned that they are altenatives besides installing a two hundred dollar MP3 player in your car. At Electronic appliance stores such as CompUSA and Best Buy you can an itrip which is a device that you hook up your MP3 player to your cigarette lighter and play music off the car radio. I guess that you can compare this to Charles Darwin's theory of social darwinism.

Cell Phones in the Adirondacks

Our discussion of the backlights of cell phones being used as a replacement for lighters during the Superbowl reminded me of last summer, which I spent up in the Adirondacks, living in a tent, most of the time.  Very few cell phone plans actually get service up in the Adirondacks, unless you're willing to spend an hour climbing a mountain in order to make a call.  So cell phones became useless for us as phones, but my friends and I were able to find one use for them.

One of my friends got a job washing dishes at a hotel up there, and often had to stay long past dinner hours, 11:30 to 12:00, before I had to go pick him up (I was the only one with a car).  Our campsite (well, it was more of a firepit where we were illegally squatting) was half mile hike through dense forest from the car.  We bought a flashlight, but of course, I'd always leave it in the car.  Let me tell you, you haven't experienced true darkness until you're in the middle of the woods in the Adirondacks with no flashlight.  Fortunately, I did usually remember my cell phone, so I'd use the faint light my cell phone provided to find the path again, keep mashing buttons so the backlight would stay on and I wouldn't stumble over any roots, or confront a bear unknowingly (though apparently, you can smell them before you can see them anyway).

I always find using technology in a new way enjoyable: I'm sure the inventor of the cell phone, or whoever came up putting a backlight into the cell phone, did not have my predicament in the woods in mind, but I find the light the cell phone provided immeasurably more useful than using the cell phone for its "purpose" which didn't work in the mountains anyway.  I guess part of the joy is a sense of power over technology: I can reduce the cell phone to a simple flashlight with my absentmindedness in forgetting the actual flashlight, and these unlikely situations I seem to find myself in.

Journal 5: Post-literacy and the History Major

The philosopher Marshall McLuhan and his ideas were the topics of Tuesday’s class this week. McLuhan’s views on the ethics of technology are different and slightly more positive than those that we’ve already discussed (such as the theories of Ellul, Dreyfus, and Borgmann). According to McLuhan, technological progress and innovations create a fundamental shift in our society and culture. In viewing human history as more cyclical than linear, McLuhan argues that we human beings are moving from a literate, written, visual culture into a post-literate, oral, "global village" society in which individualism is dying and the book is no longer needed or wanted. All this is due to new technologies, McLuhan believes, which is shaping our experiences and the way we process these experiences cognitively. Because devices like the radio, TV, telephone and even the Internet emphasize learning through hearing instead of seeing, our society is being taught orally and not visually. This, in turn, is making such visual learning apparatuses as the book obsolete. Furthermore, McLuhan assures the reader that this technology and the changes it brings are inevitable, and so, we must try to adapt to it as well as we are able.
This point of view becomes problematic and frightening to historians and students of history (like me). If our society becomes completely oral, what happens to history? Historians today already have great difficulty analyzing and extracting facts from pre-literate, oral societies. If we stop writing down events, thoughts and stories, how will we keep track of what has happened in our past? Will history die? In McLuhan’s point of view, history and historians are no longer needed. Instead of being upset about that, we should learn to adapt to a world without history.
As a future historian, I do not want my life’s work to mean nothing. I am not about to accept the fact that history is worthless in the future. I’ve learned from my history and historiography that history is, indeed, very important. It reminds us of where we’ve been and helps us to learn from our successes and our failures. Everything we do today and will do tomorrow is effected by what we’ve done yesterday. History, then, is something worth fighting for, in my opinion.
I will take McLuhan’s advice in one way: I will not be upset by this disturbing trend, but instead, I will adapt to it. In an oral society, history can still be kept alive. It does not need to die. With the recording technology we have today, historians can recite what they know and what they believe into a recorder, and in this way, history can be kept alive for generations. Indeed, without the written word, history is impaired, but it need not die. We, the historians for the future, can adapt to and take advantage of the technology of today to keep history alive in a post-literate, oral society.

Journal 4: "Clay"

In class, we watched two stories in a video series called Robot Stories. The first we saw was called "Clay," a tale set in the near future involving controversy over the use of technology to ‘secure immortality.’ In the world of "Clay," it is possible to download oneself and all of one’s thoughts and memories into a computer/the Internet before death, insuring ‘life’ eternal. By the time the story takes place, it is illegal not to be downloaded before you die. For one man, the protagonist of the story, an artist, the issue of being downloaded is very controversial. Being informed that he is dying himself, he is told that he needs to schedule an appointment to be downloaded. Although his son tells the artist that it is immoral not to be downloaded, and his wife, already living in the computer world, wants him to join her in cyberspace, the man cannot be persuaded. In the end, he allows himself to die naturally, without being uploaded into a computer. It appears the man chose this death because he realized that the self that is downloaded into the computer is not the same as the embodied self. The Internet changes the person, he thought, as evidenced by his wife’s more peaceful, loving nature while in the computer (which differs greatly from how his wife acted while embodied). Human nature seems to be perfected by this downloading, and the artist did not like this at all. ‘It’s not real,’ he appeared to believe, and he did not want to live a life without touch.
On the issue that "Clay" brings up, at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, I completely agree with the man who lets himself die naturally, although for slightly different reasons. First of all, how can anyone be sure that the uploading of his or her thoughts and memories (and even consciousness) into the computer creates oneself within the computer? The being within the computer may say, "Yes, I am _____, who just died. I now live in the computer." Yet, how can we be sure that it is the same person without actually experiencing downloading ourselves? This ‘you’ on the Internet may have your thoughts and memories, but can it really be you? Did you consciousness really slip from you when you died into the computer? Again, one could never know this until it happens to them, and at that point, there is no turning back. Obviously, this idea of downloading is not such a sure way to gain eternal life after all.
Let’s just say, though, for the sake of argument, that the downloaded self really is you, and that the changes of the self within the computer can be attributed just to the process of being downloaded. Now you are in ‘digital heaven,’ if you will. However, what does this do to religion and spirituality (which is still important to many of the world’s peoples)? If you are stuck within the Internet (which is, essentially, on earth) for the rest of eternity, how can you ever go to heaven/nirvana/etc? Is your ‘soul’ in the computer, and if so, do you become some cyber-ghost, not really living in this world or the next? Who would chose this ‘half-life’ on the Internet over eternal happiness with God(s)? I guess the uncertainty of whether or not there is a God would cause some people to chose to be downloaded. However, I believe I would chose not to spend eternity (or however long computers last) on the Internet if I had even the slightest chance of everlasting, spiritual happiness with God. Even if I am wrong and no heaven awaits, at least I will not have to stay for centuries on end on the computer, seeing but not touching, smelling, or feeling anything.

Blog 5

This week in class we had discussed McLuhan. He coined the term the "global village." In todays world the "global village" refers to the internet that connects everyone in the world to each other. The technology of the internet can connect everyone in the world to one large social network. This also shows social and political consequences of technology. People have recognized that the world has changed and they need to adapt to it. The world has gone from a book based culture to a post literate enviorment. Right now we are in the electric age. It is predicted that eventually the internet will gain self awareness of itself. If this happened it would be unpredictable of what would happen. If the internet gained self awareness it could cause mass chaos because it plays such a large role in our culture. In todays world the internet has become neseccary for everyday living in most peoples lives.

Perfection: Good Idea or not?

In the film Robot Stories the goal of technology was the perfection of downloading the consciousness of you. There are many reasons why this would not be a good idea, but in hindsight it sounds wonderful. If you could live forever with the ones you loved, would you be willing to download your consciousness? First off everything can’t be all good. If everything was all good we would not appreciate it. For us as humans to be happy we NEED to experience sadness. If we were not to experience sadness we would not be able to experience happiness. This is the reason everything can’t be all good because without the bad we can’t understand or experience good. If everyone is downloaded to perfection then everyone more or less would be the same. The identities of people could be lost. The personalities of people would be too similar. The goodness and badness that we except of people make people real. If someone was perfected they would not seem real and would not be believable.
What makes us human are the memories of our experiences. If we could download our software from our brain it would be you as long as we could keep our same memories. What if we could take away all the bad things such as fear or hatred this could be very positive, but we don’t know if it could be a negative. It could be if you remove the entire negative that you may not have a will to live or experience feelings of accomplishment. The cliché, “be careful what you wish for” may be true here. Without opposites then life appears not to be able to exist. In science, we have protons and electrons in order to have atoms. This can be compared to a baseball game. If you enjoy watching baseball then you would want all your players to get a hit, but your team needs to make outs in order for a game to exist. There needs to be a negative thing such as your team getting out in order to enjoy the game. In conclusion perfecting ones consciousness and downloading it may not allow life to be enjoyable or have feelings of satisfaction.

Device Paradigm

In class of February 7, 2008 we discussed the device paradigm. The device paradigm claims that modern technology takes the form of devices that are opaque in the way that they work. I have to agree that with regard to modern technology the vast majority of the population does not understand how the basic appliances that we use today works. I believe that there is numerous reasons for this, one of which being most of the appliances we use are not made in America. When is the last time that you have seen a television that was made in a place other than Asia? If we are not even building these technologies then how are we supposed to be aware to the way in which they function? Another reason that we do not know how any of our devices works is because there is so much technology that changes so fast. What is the point of learning how to fix one technology when by the time you learn how to fix that technology it is outdated? I also believe that there is two much information and knowledge about too many things that we begin to become specialized in that field. In modern society it seems like people know about there given field lets say science and little about another field lets say history. We are in a post industrialized society in which people are placed in interdependence with one another. Since each of us is specialized in one thing it can increase the output and effectiveness of that one thing. So in conclusion, maybe we are opaque to some of the ways technology works but we became specialized and more efficient at other things.

Is Not Being Downloaded Immoral?

In the film "Clay" the main character's son says it is illegal, and immoral not to have your brain downloaded. I've been thinking about this for about a week now, and it still comes to as something I can't figure out. I know this is just a science fiction film, but I can't help thinking what if this technology existed. The problem I run into though is if this technology existed I think it would have the opposite effect. People would see this new way not to die as immoral. Some people would jump to this as a new life, but other more conservative people would fight this all the way. It's like stem cell research is now, some people think its great, and others think that it is horribly immoral. I can never see this technology (if it ever is developed) being something that would be seen as so great by so many people that it would eventually become law. An interesting point was brought up in class that maybe it would be seen as suicide if one doesn't download, but the argument can be made that this isn't real life so how can it be suicide, if one is really dead anyway. I guess this technology would have to very real and make people incredilbly happy for it to get to the way that it was in the film. I also think there would be more people like the main character who can't except this as real. This brings about what does one do with these people? One can't take this person to jail because then they would die anyway and get what they wanted in the first place. Do they force them to download? If they do wouldn't the person still be in control and pull the plug because this isn't real?

Journal Entry 5

In class we talked about how download is not optional since it's apart of us. I guess what this mean is that downloading is one of the main functions when using the computer. Even since the internet and cd burners emerged, people are starting to download music off the internet. I remember when it all started in the early 1990's the website napster where u can download music for free. Even though, the famous rock band, metallica have to sued napster to get it shut down, there are more website offering you free music downloads. Even though, it is illegal to download music from the internet for free, there are some benefits of doing so. First of all, why would u spend between 9 to 15 bucks on an album that might sucks. I listen mostly rap music and rap music isn't lyrical as good as it was back in the day due to the recently emergence of a new hip hop genre called snap music. Another reason, you can find albums from these websites especially the classics what you can find in your local record store.
Another example why download is not an opiton when using your computer is that you frequently have to make upgrades on the softwares that you use. I remember early today while I was on my computer, a pop up window show up on my computer screen and said that I have 30 days to renew my Norton Internet Security or else it will expired. I recalled the itunes on my computer always harassing about every 2 months for upgrade. The purpose of upgrading through downloading is related to Charles Darwin's ideology of social darwinism where in order to survive you must willing to adapt to change.

The Value of Silence...

Today in class I was struck with the comments regarding silence. I would like to share a quote from a book I am quite fond of: Matthew Kelly's The Rhythm of Life.
Kelly explains, "I felt God inviting me into the classroom of silence...We live in a noisy world. People wake up to clock radios, listen to the news while they shower, watch television while they eat breakfast, get into the car and listen to the morning shows on the way to work, listen to music all day over the intercom, talk incessantly on the phone between any number of meetings...We need to stop the noise. Every thing great in history has arisen from silence...even great noise Beethoven and Mozart closed themselves off from the world and inhabited silent rooms for days at a time in order to hear things that no one else could hear".
I felt that this quote was quite appropriate regarding out discussion and upcoming viewing the the film involving the Carthusian monks, Into Great Silence. I am truly looking forward to viewing this film, which I feel will renew a sense of the silence I need to have within my own life. Matthew Kelly's book was especially helpful to me, as I try continually to find those moments of silence for personal prayer. Picard was right...silence has disappeared. It is continually filled with endless chatter and needless nothingness taken up space. Have you ever noticed how uncomfortable it would be if a professor showed up for class, and just sat there, staring at the class, not saying a word? We are uncomfortable with silence because we are no longer used to it.
The radio in Picard's writing is only one example of something that has filled the empty spaces with noise. Look at the cell phone. Now we cannot even drive without having a conversation with someone. Picard states it perfectly, with these technologies, "Everything is present, yet nothing is present". And so I ask, without the presence of the reality behind the noise, what is left for us?
We become totally different people, who no longer know the value of immersing ourselves in the classroom of silence.

Blog 4 : Borgmann

In chapter four, Borgmann discussed many different things that we take for granted in today’s world. He starts by saying that if we lost all of our recording mechanisms, our society would be ‘primitive and incomplete.’ I agree with him completely. It makes me think about all the different information one can store on a computer. For example, with the Excel application, not only can you store a bunch of different numbers, but you can highlight a given row and it will give you an answer to a number of different mathematical expressions in a matter of seconds. I’m sure there are a large number of people in this world who rely on that computer program alone to get them through their forty hour work week. The thought of scratching ‘tallies’ into bone in order to keep track of things seems ludicrous to us, but it was a reality to them. It also causes me to think about my job over the summer. I worked in a large warehouse, and every week we had to go through and take inventory. If it weren’t for technology, that process would probably take several weeks to complete. It is amazing to actually take the time to look back and see the hours that people of the past had to put forth in order to complete their daily activities. As for the class discussions, we were talking about spending a couple hours in the wilderness compared to in front of a computer. During the summer of my sophomore year of high school, I spent a week in Wyoming for a retreat. During this retreat we stayed on a ranch, where there was no television, no cell phones, and no contact with anyone but the people we were there with. It was an amazing experience and as soon as we left, everyone wanted to go back. Even though I couldn’t sit down and right out a list of things I learned, it still to this day feels like I learned and accomplished more during that one week than I ever could sitting in front of a computer. It’s hard to realize that life isn’t as stressful without technology until you actually spend some time away from it. Computers are great a lot of the time, but sometimes being away from them can be even better.

Ancestral Environment

Recently in class we discussed the ancestral environment and how there is a big difference between twenty-four hours in the woods and twenty-four hours in front of our television. The author suggested that being in the woods we are subjected to more information and that we are more aware because there is a sense of danger. I too feel like we are subjected to more information in the woods and that there is a completely different reaction to the wood surroundings. I myself love the outdoors; I find it fun to go camping and whitewater rafting. When you are outside, I think we pay more attention to our surroundings because it is different and exciting. When you are sitting in front of the television there are just a lot of commercials trying to get us to by stuff that we don’t need and mostly the same sort of shows playing. In the woods there is more of a feeling of what is going on. You can feel the wind, the breeze, the warmth, the sun, and so on. While watching television you are subjected to what is going on and don’t ever get to experience the sensations that you are watching. I believe that no matter how hard we try we can not fully mimic these sensations. It is like when you ride a rollercoaster you can get the sensation of falling; however, you can just say to yourself it is a rollercoaster it is not real. When you know that something can’t hurt you there is a different reaction than if you know something can hurt you (for example a man coming at you in a hunted house with a knife verse a man coming at you with a knife on the streets). The ancestral environment gives you this sense of real while the technological environment can never offer this sense of reality.

Journal 4

In this reading Borgmann the ancestoral enviorment, meaning the original setting of information. He also says that being connected to our enviorment gives us a sense of pleasure. In chapter three there was the comparrison of watching 24 hours of television and spending 24 hours in nature. According to Borgmann spending time in our enviorment and in nature will be much more fulfilling than watching television. I feel if you went out and did something amazing like climb a mountain or hike up a hard trail, that the sense of accomplishment would be a much greater feeling than watching television.
In class we watched the the film "Robot Stories". These two short films raised some veru interesting questions that we might have to answer in the future. One of the more important questions being, when can a machine be considered human. I think machine can be considered a person because of their ableness to adapt and evolve to our enviorment. Machines can't be considered human beings because of the differences in our biology. I think the "Robot Stories" film is accurate in depicting what will happen when artificial intelligence becomes a regular part in our society. I think people will treat robots as equipment for work and nothing more than that.

Journal 4

In chapter 4 of Borgman’s Holding on to Reality, he discusses how our memory was our primary source of organization before writing. According to Borgman, “if all ledgers, accounts, files, calendars, memos, letters, scores, plans, maps, data bases, and other records should suddenly disappear so would the order and coherence of our society.” Borgman refers our intelligence back to its original state of oral language. He explains how before writing, we passed everything on orally and although writing is very useful, it is merely an abstraction of spoken language. I assume that Borgman is worried that we no longer commit information to memory and instead simply remember where to find it. This is true in many cases, but only because the mind has a finite capacity. I believe that we still use our memory as they did back then where they bear witness and store information at its natural state. However, with the abundance of information that surely Borgman would agree exists in modern times, we must find alternatives in some cases to put our minds at ease rather than overflow it with information. So yes, in modern times we would have a very difficult time functioning without accounts, files, calendars, memos, etc. In this day and age, so much is expected of a single person that you must use these devices as an “extension of yourself,” as Dreyfus would put I, to be able to store all of the appropriate information in today’s world.