Did I really Say that?

In this week’s blog I am going to look at just exactly how we represent ourselves through social media with popular sites such as Facebook or, twitter and, how they relate to our everyday lives presently.

As discussed in a lecture people all over the world put these elements of; Family, Sub-culture, Gender, Class, Ethnicity, Nationality and Education have used in our lives today to create our identity which we live with today.  The majority of the things listed above can’t be changed about us like for instance; family. But, your family can be altered though to be viewed or represented in a different way to which they are normally seen. For example; you could visit your friend’s house and any time you would see his father he would look miserable. But if your friend’s father uploaded a picture on Facebook of him and, his mates in the pub on a Friday night getting drunk, you may start thinking of him in a different frame of mind which you had him in before. Facebook has the ability to almost create a different person out of you by the way you represent yourself on it.  As my lecturer Gavin Stewart, pointed out “We are more likely to upload pictures of us on sandy beaches in Ibiza then, us in A2 actually studying”. That statement has a major amount of evidence backing it up as, I have rarely ever seen pictures uploaded by friends whilst they are studying or reading a book.

It is very clear to see that on Facebook and maybe even twitter, people try to present fun side and more sociable lifestyle to what we originally may think.  I also think that we (myself include) get the sense of knowing you must accept someone as a friend before, they are able to see ‘your wall’ and pictures also allows us to relax and not care much about the pictures we upload. As well as knowing that our bosses’ or teachers won’t be able to see our party pictures allows us to show our ‘friends’ on Facebook, exactly what we've been up to.  Erving Goffman had an idea that “that all participants in social interactions are engaged in certain practices to avoid being embarrassed or embarrassing others. This led to Goffman's dramaturgical analysis. Goffman saw a connection between the kinds of acts that people put on in their daily life and theatrical performances. ” – The quote was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Life . This is also true as you should ask yourself what was the first reason why you created Facebook? The answer is most likely to be because your friend made it and, suggested you should too just so you wouldn't be embarrassed as the only person without it.

Our identities and how we represent ourselves’ seem to have a lot more meaning to it than we originally thought. As we are always becoming older and some more wiser we eventually grow out of certain things we thought we liked and, try edit them out of our lives and some cases unlike off Facebook. It maybe that we aren't creating a different persona on social websites and it just maybe that we are just being more revealing, on site like; Facebook and twitter because it is our own section where we can write or upload whatever we want, with the chance that a friend might hear it or see it as supposed to the real world.

My Way or My Way... Don't forget to click accept

My Way or my way… Don’t forget to click accept

Did you know upon signing up for World of Warcraft your chat may be “Your written communication may be subject to review, modification, and/or deletion by Blizzard Entertainment without notice to you. Additionally, you hereby acknowledge that Blizzard Entertainment is under no obligation to monitor Chat, and you engage in Chat at your own risk. “? I didn’t think so. Also “no one has the right to "sell" Blizzard Entertainment's content, except Blizzard Entertainment! So Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize any property claims outside of World of Warcraft or the purported sale, gift or trade in the "real world" of anything related to World of Warcraft. Accordingly, you may not sell or purchase virtual items for "real" money or exchange items outside of World of Warcraft. Please note that Blizzard is entitled to and will prevent any such illegal sales.” Now if you and your friend have struck up a pretty good deal that, just so happens to involve “real money” I don’t see where the problem is. That’s because there is no problem, “Note that Blizzard Entertainment either owns, or has exclusively licensed, all of the content which appears in World of Warcraft.” Blizzard Entertainment (owners of WoW)just want a slice of the pie which doesn’t belong to them which in fact isn’t true, Blizzard Entertainment have the rights to do what they please regarding your WoW user as it clearly states in their T&C:

Not only were the terms and condition dreadfully difficult and, long to read (hard to read due to the font being in blue on top of a black background which, made my eyes blur sometimes whilst reading.)I didn’t agree with all of the rules that had stated out and if I wanted to start playing World of Warcraft, there would be no way possible for me to negotiate those terms and conditions what so ever.

So what can we do? We all need to stand up and be united against these senseless ways of agreeing a contract presently. We can do this by conducting a peaceful protest march towards outside the House of Lords, where people all over the country can then air their thoughts out on what exactly they feel about just clicking a box to agree with hundreds of rules. There needs to be some kind of system that allows each and every person to come to their personal terms with the company they are looking to sign up with. We are all different in the world so why should we be allowed different T&Cs which are very reasonable between both us and, the company doing the selling.

When I was in my early teens I signed up to dozens of websites without even glancing at the T&Cs and thought nothing of it. Obviously I wasn’t the only one in the world to have agreed to something I completely didn’t read, many kids the same age as me or even, younger than I was have made that same mistake as me. To be honest though, how many children are do they think is actually going to be read through all of the T&Cs  and, fully understand just exactly what it means?  Blizzard know the vast majority won’t and the very few that do read it, can’t possibly do anything to change a rule even if they wanted to. We all need to voice our thoughts whether it is online, protest or directly said to the MPs change needs to happen.

To support us and get control of our lives’ again checkout our website: www.mytermsandyourconditions.com . No T&Cs to be read here, ‘just be yourself’ is our small print. Twitter and Facebook both are using the same cunning T&Cs where you have to read a long list of their terms and conditions so we neglected to use it. As we read Facebook’s T&Cs we found out that; “For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License)”. That is clearly stating that they own everything we post up on ‘our’ Facebook wall also including our pictures, messages and videos. So you might be thinking “okay I don’t like that, I am going to delete my Facebook account”. But think again here’s the rest of rule 1 and rule 2 “This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others). ” So even when you try to delete your account you can’t. And just who exactly is the backup files for if our friends can no longer view them? A lot of questions need to be answered for so please, join us today to put an end to these irrational rules which are playing with our lives from a simple tick of a box.

Our website: www.mytermsandyourconditions.com

References from:

http://en-gb.facebook.com/legal/terms

http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/legal/wow_tou.html

Digital Mind

In this week’s blog,I will be looking at robots and artificial Intelligences (A.I.) across the world today and, try to find out why we make them and what it means for society on a whole. Firstly I have to look at just what exactly the two terms mean; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) define robots as; “Robotics is the study of robots. Robots are machines that can be used to do jobs. Some robots can do work by themselves. Other robots must always have a person telling them what to do.”- Reference from: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/robotics/home/what_is_robotics_58.html. It is really strange that before deciding to use NASA’s definition of robots I search the internet and, many different websites and companies had different terms and definitions for the word robot. This just shows that they is many different types of robots out today, not as people may think they look like but they all do many different things. But one thing that was clear in all most all definitions of the word is that, the robots’ main objective is to work for or, with humans.  The term I understand to define Artificial Intelligence is “The theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.”- Reference from Google dictionary. Robots and A.I. generally have the same job in this world which is to serve humans or, assists them in their needs but, for how long? Every year scientists are progressing into making these machines smarter more intelligent and maybe, they will have equal rights to us or even more important than we are if, it their intelligence continues to progress.

There are many different types of robots that roam the earth and parts of Space in this present time. The vast amount of robots that are present in today world as I mentioned before, make it quite difficult for us to give the word a precise definition of the term. Due to many science fiction movies we all have an idea of just what we think a robot is, due to us being bombarded with Hollywood’s ideas and imaginations. Before researching my thought of robots had to come across looking like; Robo Cop, The Terminator, look like the robots in I, Robot or even, Transformer cars. All of the examples just given either look like a human or function by themselves very intelligently. However there is much more to a robot than just its looks, for example NASA use their robots to send them to Mars to gather information about the planet. Also there are robots that design to counteract and defuse bombs and explosives at war, to avoid human fatalities.

As you can see from the images above neither one of the images appear to look like Hollywood’s idea of what robots look like but, they are still considered to be robots. Which obviously draws me to think that many things in the world today can operate in the world today using its own intelligence, to assist humans in day to day life such as; Satellite Navigation systems, Siri on iPhones and, machines that use voice recognition. Robots are amongst us very much today and we hardly notice to them for what they truly are.

On the other hand Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) is considered to be “It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable.” Reference from:  http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/whatisai/node1.html.  Artificial intelligence tends to have the appearance of human beings even possessing skin like material to protect their circuitry.  Having witnessed various forms of artificial intelligence on YouTube I find them rather disturbing on how, amazingly they seem to resemble human being and some traits they have learnt. My thoughts of A.I. are that if they progress to a certain level that is beyond human intelligence, what happens next? An extract from Wikipedia also details this more: “Artificial Intelligence is a common topic in both science fiction and projections about the future of technology and society. The existence of an artificial intelligence that rivals human intelligence raises difficult ethical issues, and the potential power of the technology inspires both hopes and fears.

In fiction, Artificial Intelligence has appeared fulfilling many roles, including a servant (R2D2 in Star Wars), a law enforcer (K.I.T.T. "Knight Rider"), a comrade (Lt. Commander Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation), a conqueror/overlord (The Matrix, Omnius), a dictator (With Folded Hands), a benevolent provider/de facto ruler (The Culture), an assassin (Terminator), a sentient race (Battlestar Galactica/Transformers/Mass Effect), an extension to human abilities (Ghost in the Shell) and the savior of the human race (R. Daneel Olivaw in Isaac Asimov's Robot series).

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein considers a key issue in the ethics of artificial intelligence: if a machine can be created that has intelligence, could it also feel? If it can feel, does it have the same rights as a human? The idea also appears in modern science fiction, including the films I Robot, Blade Runner and A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, in which humanoid machines have the ability to feel human emotions. This issue, now known as "robot rights", is currently being considered by, for example, California's Institute for the Future, although many critics believe that the discussion is premature.[170] The subject is profoundly discussed in the 2010 documentary film Plug & Pray.” –Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence.  Though I think in the world today the Artificial intelligence that ordinary people of today witness it is still very vague in the world today or, very basic in how it works i.e. Eliza, ‘Eliza is a chatterbot computer application which gives you an impression that it is engaging in conversation with you when really, it is programed to respond to certain words that you input to keep the conversation going.’  But saying this what scientist are working on currently and aren’t very far from perfecting is only around the corner. Here are some videos I found on the web:

On a whole i think that humans can benefit from integrating with robots in our everyday lives' as they seem to be very useful and powerful tools in our lives' today but, on the other hand Artificial intelligence has a different effect for me. I do not see the need or the benefit for scientist to make A.I.  there are billions of humans on the planet today so, the need to make substitute human replacements bewilders me. 

Digital Body

In this blog I am going to discuss the most important aspect in our life which is; life itself.  Some scientists around the world are looking at the possibility of uploading the human mind on to computers for memory use like a hard drive or, even crazy ideas which I am going to talk about.

Mind upload is where a human uploads his or her conscious mind to a computer system where, the device would store or would operate as if it were a genuine human brain. “The computer would have to run a simulation model so faithful to the original that it would behave in essentially the same way as the original brain, or for all practical purposes, indistinguishably. The simulated mind is assumed to be part of a virtual reality simulated world, supported by an anatomic 3D body simulation model. Alternatively, the simulated mind could be assumed to reside in a computer inside (or connected to) a humanoid robot or a biological body, replacing its brain.” Reference from: Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading. Naturally to me that sounds crazy and out of this world and then, I thought who in their right minds would want to do that? Surely enough I got think of the slight benefits.

The factor of uploading someone’s whole memory to a computer doesn’t seem like such a bad idea if for example; a person is suffering from brain damage due to that, their mind is no longer operating like how it once used to. The convenience of having already stored that person’s brain on to a computer would be such a relief for the family and friends of the injured person. Also without our mind being in our bodies anymore and, the use of a computer processing information stored on a hard disk the capability of us becoming immortal is very likely. The computer brain could remain for as long as it can amongst us continuing to learn and improve as time goes on.

Even though I said immortality could be a benefit who would actually want to live forever? Watching everyone you’re close to die whilst you still live on won’t be very fun. Yes maybe you might make new friends and meet all your descendants, but surely by then you would have had enough of life by then. Another main factor of life that makes us all human is the uncertainty of death. We all have the sense of confusion and slight fear of dying as we do not know what, lays ahead for us after we go. Thereby by removing that element of fear of dying and, never living again surely dehumanising into fearless robot.  This then also makes you think who would want to live forever? I can only think that maybe just the rich and, famous would want to do it or even, could afford it but I can think of another reason why someone would want to.

Another aspect of mind uploading will be essentially how this new brain will work compared to the old one. Our minds’ are very powerful things allowing us to; think, remember, talk and, sense things around us. But the adjustment of mind uploading could benefit the users by “could potentially think much faster than a human even if it were no more intelligent. Human neurons exchange electrochemical signals with a maximum speed of about 150 meters per second, whereas the speed of light is about 300 million meters per second, about two million times faster. ”- Reference from: Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading. This would mean the encounters with super intelligent human being which leads into singularity.

“Singularity is the technological creation of smarter-than-human intelligence. There are several technologies that are often mentioned as heading in this direction. The most commonly mentioned is probably Artificial Intelligence, but there are others: direct brain-computer interfaces, biological augmentation of the brain, genetic engineering, ultra-high-resolution scans of the brain followed by computer emulation. Some of these technologies seem likely to arrive much earlier than the others, but there are nonetheless several independent technologies all heading in the direction of the Singularity – several different technologies which, if they reached a threshold level of sophistication, would enable the creation of smarter-than-human intelligence.”- Reference from http://singularity.org/what-is-the-singularity/. More of what exactly singularity is and means can be found on the link stated above.  What I think of a half-man, half-machine walking around is much undecided. I Say this because, sure it would be great having lots of helpful A.I (Artificial Intelligence) amongst us but, how long will it be till they learn too much and turn against us like in the film; I, Robot, (2004).

Whilst researching I came across a website that details key features that I agree with that, highlights why mind uploading would not be such a good thing: http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/6-reasons-why-y.php. Point 3 is a factor that I agree with strongly. Point 3 assumes that the energy demand is going to be insanely high is a very valid point. If everyone is uploading their minds to computer the world would surely be going against all energy saving plans, already in place.

To conclude I think that maybe the idea of mind uploading and singularity is taking technology a bit too far and that, if plans are successful by means of mind uploading, what lies ahead after that? We will no longer see the need to reproduce or even live in our normal lives and, will be trapped living in a digital world just like avatars. Computers will probably go on to become more significant than actual humans, which could be a real nightmare. Humans could lose all connections with our past and although, we might live forever and may turn out to be super intelligent, it isn’t being human and I think it is the most important of all regardless of any technological progress. Through the history technology, computer interfaces have become more advanced, smaller and smarter. I don’t think it should be the case that to better technology we ourselves should become the next interfaces for technology.

The New Cyborg Society

As you look around the world today it is very clear to see that the world we live in today is very dependent on technology. In the recent years we’ve become more accepting in letting our machines do a lot of tasks for us, and in return us(the users) becoming more free to do other things and, a bit more stress free. Mobile phones today are now completely different to which they used to be like back twenty years ago.  The freedom to now connect with your friends and family on Facebook, watch videos on YouTube, be updated with the latest news around the world and also, to be able to check up on your emails can be done at any time all via your mobile phone. So what does this mean? That we are more dependent on technology? Yes, but I have already given my reasons to think that so, what I’m going to be researching on is, Is technology using us? As well as, how technology is evolving.

A vital person in my investigations is Kevin Kelly born in 1952 is the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, and a former editor/publisher of the Whole Earth Catalog. I find that Kevin Kelly’s words and views on this topic will be extremely useful as, he has written articles and given speeches about this exact topic which will be very relevant to me. I am going to look at his views and thoughts about technology and dissect them to then write about what he thinks, about our relationship with technology today.

I’ll start off by introducing how I think that technology today is fundamentally controlling our lives these days, as most people today find it very hard to live without a piece of a technological instrument. Whether it be a mobile phone or a computer today, humans seems to be so attached with technology it raises questions like how much do we really need? Or, how badly do we rely on our technologies throughout the day?  I know the answer is a lot, as if you look around the whole world presently the answer is right in front of you. You are now able to complete asks which were once before cost time or effort such as; having a face to face conversation now, you can just chat on Skype on the computer with webcams, in the comfort of your own home and, still do what you need to do. Life is so much easier with these gadgets in our lives that I find it completely understandable why we keep coming back to these things. But in reality do we really need them? And how are these new technologies affecting our societies today?

The machines of today are of great understanding of our everyday lives and chorus. We have a wide range of different machines that can easily, recognise our face with only a few seconds. Something that was pointed out to me was that; before even completing your sentence on Google it already has the option up for selection. It is clear to see that the machine are taught very well in predicting what we are searching for, and in time when you try to search the exact same thing again it is on top because it remembers. Technology is becoming more intelligent everyday as we use it more and more. To me it seems like the more personal technology becomes; the intelligent and valuable I see it in my eyes for example; a Samsung touch screen smart phone has, a unique dot linking structure that, the owner of the phone has to repeat every time which then, unlocks the phone and enables it for use.  Most mobile phone use voice recognition now which is also a very clever feature which, use the owners voice to send commands to the phone rather than having to use the keypad. Another example of how personal features to technology such as; voice recognition, unique pin codes and intelligent search engines are very efficient and, become more valuable to our lives’. So to be honest I think right now the machines of today are learning from us and are, not trying to use us. Even though in my eyes technology is very advanced and there are probably hundreds of devices, which I don’t know about but I still think we have a long way to go before the machines start using us. My reason being that technologies that are out now for consumer purchase aren't ones that dictate our lives, they are merely ones that help us with our everyday lives. But something like the Google glasses could be one that could be really dependent on as people will use apps like; the map, communication features and other helpful things all effortlessly without thought. Google could just say for example; ‘For maximum performance wear glasses at all time’. And people would think it’s the right thing to do, and would slowly let the machine control its life style rather than just assisting people.

A video were Kevin Kelly talks about how technology has evolved is very interesting. His views of how technology is growing in correlation to man is clear to see in some stages.

I took down some points what he said in the video and thought they were very interesting and true. For example; How Kevin Kelly refers to organisms as hacking. What he means by this is that everything in the world today has been through a phase to get here today, just as technologies have.  This also leads into another interesting point that he mentions in the video that; every living orgasm living today has evolved to get here. This is true as too technology has evolved to become more entwined with our lives and, make it much easier to use for us. In the video he also makes a great similarity between technologies and, living organisms (just like us) have three key features about us which defines us are; Specialisation, Diversity and, Complexity. This is very true as you look across the world today you’ll find that the world has all three of these things noticeable for example; The specialisation in humans are for instance; we have different blood types and like specific things. This can also be seen in technology also, Kevin Kelly made a good example of how “hammers become more and more specific over time”. A final example is how diverse technology has become there are dozens and, dozens of machines all over the world and, even in your house. From the telephone, television and, air conditioning all what I just listed at least have another type of machine in the world that can basically do what that machine can. And just like humans we are obviously very clear to see that were are very diversity i.e.; colour of skin, hair, body size and sex. So Kelly’s point that technology’s evolution is very similar to human’s evolution is indeed highly relevant.

On a whole technology’s evolution is going to continue and may even accelerate in the near future. Technology brings us some many good things in the world today that I feel, that I would be impossible for us to stop using it. The choices, diversity and options that it gives us in today’s world is actually a blessing to us all and, people will have no shame in repeating that. Also the more comfort we getting using these technologies the more I think, will lead into technology starting to use us and, won’t be long to technology has its own rights.

Does History Help Me Understand My Relationship With Technology?

In this blog I am going to identify going to identify key aspect in our past that could seriously help me see if, history has a major part to play in out lives’ today. There are various forms of technology today but, one of the popular forms of technology today is the internet. So In this blog I am going to look into both history of modern technology today in addition to, the origins of the internet.

Firstly I’m going to look at some interesting facts about how the past has shaped technology into today’s form. The earliest forms of technology were all used to help the military in combat or, assist the military in working out trajectory in some of their weapons (ENIAC). Before that even humans were referred to as computers, due to them having to do the calculations of what the computers then had to do. The human computers then were not, capable of working as fast as the computers managed to which in turn terminated the use of the human computers.  Vannevar Bush was another innovator in terms of early internet and computing in which he had concept of technology called the memex, which enabled the users to; store all of their books, communications, and records on to it whilst, also being swift and reliable. The memex in terms is relatively the internet as we know it today without it being, on a computer by means of the memex; allowing users to research upon facts and articles at will, search through books and store your information on it for as long as you want. So I am convinced that Vannevar Bush’s creation of the memex is what eventually leads in to the Internet being formed as we know it today.

Early signs of the modern internet was called ARPANET funded by ARPA/DARPA which was U.S. Military owned department of development of new technologies. ARPANET was primarily used by university students and, the U.S. Military, both groups used them to connect amongst themselves and share information. The ARPANET was fundamentally one big network that worked similarly to how the internet does today. But in 1983 MILNET separated from the rest of ARPANET network because, the U.S. Military need to have their own private network where their important documents wouldn’t be breached. So after that ARPANET and MILNET became two different networks being; ARPANET being used for civilians and, MILNET for military use only. ARPANET then went on to be the start which would later become the internet today.

As civilian became more familiar with computers the use of the internet allowed certain skilled people to manipulate how the computers can be, changed and to use it for other means. Hackers stood by certain codes which they all shared and thought; everyone should follow the principles which were; Sharing, Openness, Decentralization, Free access to computers and World improvement. All those points were included in Steven Levy’s book: Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revolution.  The hackers’ antics are those which many of us stand by today as we tend to; download music illegally, use bit torrents, watch free movies online and most people today are enjoy using a computer. Their point is also proven again as you can see how popular a site like YouTube is in the world today. If you had to pay or monthly subscriptions just to use the YouTube service, I think YouTube would be as popular as it is today. Obviously not everyone agrees to download music and software for free illegally but, for my generation it is very easy and very common to hear people say they download things illegally and, it started from the hackers’ ethics being passed down.

Up until the 1970s computers were mainly great big mammoth machines which apparently you had to drive to or in my lecturer’s shoes’ go on a school trip just to use one or see one. There was no sense of privacy when using them because they were just too big for someone to take in to their house.  We all thank God for the creation of the PC as it offered people back then the sense of owning state of the art machinery as well as, the personal freedom everyone wanted whist using a computer. Xerox Parc was a company that was founded in 1970 and are thought to be one of the leading innovators in the modern PC today. Xerox Parc is located in Silicon Valley in California, and these days are a subsidiary of Xerox Corporation. According to some reports in the late 1970s it was said that Apple Inc.’s Steve Jobs stole various ideas and, inventions that belonged to Xerox Parc. After a visit to the Xerox Parc in 1979 it was said that “Steve Jobs and a team of developers working on Apple's Lisa personal computer cadged a visit to Xerox's legendary Palo Alto Research Center and walked away with a sackful of secret technologies that it marketed before Xerox did. These included the graphical computer display that the original Macintosh made famous, the granddaddy of the animated, multicolored computer displays of today.” Quotation from: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/10/steve-jobs-xerox-parc.html. If this is the case the great apple company we all adore is false and should be seen for the cheats that they are. In addition to this, I have to ask why isn’t Xerox Parc as big as Apple today? Also if apple did steal from Xerox Parc why did they lose their lawsuit against them? Those are relative questions for maybe another time but, I think there has to be some true within the story.

He topic of does history help me understand my own relationship with technology is a simple answer which is yes. With knowing our past we could never move forward and we as human beings tend to want to know, as much information as we possibly can. I find it very interesting that concept of the memex was virtually the internet and also, the creation of the ARPANET lead into becoming the global Internet has we know it today. I also find the dispute between Xerox Parc and Apple Inc. to be one that is very intriguing. I say this because the popularity of Apple at this present time is astonishing and, if it was to be confirmed the ideas and invention were stolen from Xerox Parc how people would react. I feel sorry for Xerox Parc as they just could compete with Apple anymore, which primarily cost them being a big company today.

What We Think About NEW Technology?

In this blog I am going to critically explain what technology is and, how much our society has adapted towards involving it in our everyday lives’.  Firstly I am going to start off by introducing the where the word derives from and exactly, what it means today.  Technology originally is of two Greek words which are;  τέχνη (téchnē), meaning "art, skill, craft", and -λογία (-logía), meaning “study of-“. – Reference from Wikipedia. The word essentially means then the study of something or even, the explanation of how a type of craft works.

Now if we take a look at what the word means today, we’ll find that it has progressed into meaning something that is of different usage. From my understanding technology today means equipment that is generally used in form of arts, communication, science and, maths which helps or assists human beings with tasks they need to accomplish. It is clear to see though that the word has expanded very much to its current meaning today, which has a correlation in how technology now is rising with many new devices that can operate many different features, such as; Aeroplanes, mobile phone and even, the internet. Technology is also considered to be the creation of gun, missiles, bow and arrow & bombs so, further in this blog I’ll look at the elements where people are against many forms of technology.

Many Humans today are very openhearted when it comes to owning technology. We seem to be very close to technology during all parts of the day even when we sleep. I say this because; in a lecture a show of hands were counted to see how many people sleep with their mobile phones at least a foot away, and the majority of the class put their hands up agreeing that they do. Although this wasn’t a full research, the results gives you the knowledge of our generation has adopted technology in our everyday lives’. We humans have incorporated an emotionally attachment with our devices which, seems to be adapted by all cultures in the world. This happens to be unique as in the world today there are so many differences i.e. beliefs, values, languages and ethics but the way we use our technology seems to be generally approved by mostly everyone in today world.

Though there is a small group of people that intentionally avoid using new forms of technology like the Amish communities. They refrain from using all types of new modern day technology such as; cars, telephones, internet and computers. All those I said play a major part of our lives today as they enable us to communicate with one another and allow us to maintain relationships with our friends and family.  So this makes me question do we actually need all this technology we have in this world if, the Amish seem to get along with their lives without it why can’t we?  Well I say that today most people view the Amish communities as being outdated and, basically behind us, those who comply with modern technology today. Nowadays we link technology with progress, evolutionary things that we enjoy using and, have the comfort of knowing the signs of new technology relatively mean we are heading towards the future.

The view of technology enhancing the world and making it a better place obviously isn’t shared by everyone. Two famous views of this are of Ted Kaczynski aka “The Unabomber” and Martin Heidegger, these two men question the use of technology and how it is destroying our World. I think that Martin Heidegger concept of technology was that it was dehumanising us in a way that: “Techne is the name not only of the activities and skills of the craftsman, but also for the arts of the mind and the fine arts. Techne belongs to bringing forth, to poiesis; it is something poetic” A quote from his book: The Question Concerning Technology and other essays page 294. From my understanding he is saying that we are not using the word correctly and, we destroying something which actually beautiful i.e; skills and the perfection of a carpenter making a wooden chair to now, many machines making it without thought. He also thinks that technology could lead into the corruption if the human race, when he queries that “its essence is mysterious” A quote from his book: The Question Concerning Technology and other essays page 309. He has made some relative points as today we can’t consider all forms of technology as good for instance; The use of calculators in an maths exam would be bad because, it is just telling us the answer which isn’t helping us learn or develop new skills. And the thought of Technology being mysterious is reasonable as we don’t really question why, all of a sudden we are bless with so many intelligent devices now but, still harming our environment greatly for example; pollution levels. Then The Unabomber argument goes on to be one that is talking about “The stronger that technology makes society, the less freedoms.” I agree with that quotation as it is very true because, in today’s life we have Facebook accounts, upload images, write about what we currently doing or talk about our favourite interests which is in turn removing all our privacy. So in the future if there was to be a rule saying we are not entitled to any privacy we really don’t have an argument as we have been, gradually living in a world without privacy for some time now. He also says “Technology destroys nature, which strengthens technology further.” Although I do not agree with the murders and the ways he put his ideas across I agree that, in order to build new builds or factories we destroy land or rain forests to strengthen our need of technology in the world. Unabomber quotations from: http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/the_unabomber_w.php.

The Google glasses is a revolution device which enables the user to interact with multiple technological features, just like a smartphone but is eyewear that functions as a hands-free device. The glasses will work as an augmented reality, head-mounted display (HMD) which will enable us to use it anywhere we would like to.

I would like to go into to detail on why I think Google decided to make these glasses and what effect it will have on the population on a whole. Firstly I think that the reason why Google decided to make the glasses is because; they are a well-known and respected company. The progress that Google have made in the recent years against all its competitors is extraordinary. It is the World’s most popular search engine by a distance and continues to adventure into different type of agendas such as; YouTube, Android Mobiles and Google Chrome web browser. So when I first heard that Google had been developing a new revolutionary device which works all by augmented reality and, is HMD function I did not write it off as I would of done if it was another company that was looking into making it.  We all feel that in the future we will be using technology like this on a regular basis so, for a company like Google to be making it now, it shows them as having initiative and the resources to make such ground-breaking and futuristic technology.

Another reason why I feel Google are making these glasses are to make money when they have been finished to sell advertising slots to companies to buy them. With such technology companies will pay a great amount of money to, promote their products to you which will probably be as big as television’s advertising. This also leads into collecting data about the user, as the amount of data which is collected would benefit the companies majorly. I say this because with enough data collected about us they will be targeting the right products to the certain customers they want. For example Google make a deal with facebook and the app is available on the Google glasses, the information we hold on facebook would be benefit the companies as, they would get to know us without getting to know us. This is all a marketing ploy as essentially Google would just be selling us in order to receive more money from marketing our information.

The glasses are really state of the art and different and, although there are products that can perform what the glasses can do, there isn’t any product in the world that works like the glasses do.  So I think people will embrace theses glasses just as how people buy the latest iPhone as soon as it is released because, they just assume that they will need it and the world is progressing into a new phase of technology. The glasses could in a few years’ time be the replace for the mobile phone as it could do everything it can but, wirelessly.  

In a vote in my seminar group we were asked what we thought of the glasses? Everyone in the class’s thoughts of them was negative including me but, I said that I thought that the public would still welcome it. I am pretty confident that people all over the world would buy the glasses because, even though the reviews in the class were bad. I say this because right now we have grown up with use or the need of the Google glass, so therefor we feel we will never need them. But the generation which are going to grow up and seeing this in shops and TV adverts will definitely see the need of buying one because, so far it can do everything mobile phone or even a computer can do on the move. So they will view it as being more practical than a PC and more convenient then a laptop. So that is my reason why I think it will work regardless of any negative feedback it may receive now. Once it is released people will question how they ever lived without them. The reason why I feel negative towards the glasses is because it is dehumanising making us much more lazier as a result and more reliant having to use technology in ways were we did not have to 10 years ago for example; Reminding yourself to buy concert tickets normally you would write it down on a paper or, people my age would just write it on your phone as a reminder to buy the tickets. But with the glasses you can instantly tell it to reminder you which in my eyes will become a very lazy trait.  Eventually people will seclude from using their memory in exchange for the glasses reminder system being so easy to use. This could lead to a chain reaction of all humans having brief memory capacity and being fully reliant on the glasses.

On a whole I think that new technology should be welcomed but humans should not rely heavily on it. We should allow it to benefit us in many ways such as; use of communication with loved ones around the world but, when we have to start submitting our own privacy or even human right just to use a piece of technology we should step back and, examine the situation as maybe it is getting out of hand.

iamPod

Convergences

In this blog I will critically explain the meaning of convergence regarding technology and, just how important it is for us all presently and in the future. From my understanding of the word convergence it s the meaning of; the coming together of two different types of technology for example; an iPod now has the ability to play music and, watch videos on it which brings the word into life. The importance of convergence in our technological life is clear to see in society today and, is gradually becoming a very significant part of our lives as I'll explain in this blog.

As discussed in the lecture there are four main concepts of convergence in digital media currently which are majorly significant to how the digital world is being mapped out for future dwellers, and those who use it today.  In this blog I feel that the use of various example and quotations will be very supportive in, explaining just how I feel convergences work and can be explained.

Technological convergence is a very noticeable media change in the world at present. Technological convergence is a progression of when two or more current technologies combine to make one new, different type of technological device. Each year this type of convergence seem to become more and more common resulting, in the most basic of devices to be able to accomplish multiple tasks such as; a digital watch. Most digital watches today have the ability to; time something or someone, activate a light in order to see the time in the dark as well as, being waterproof and, intelligently telling the time in other cities around the world. This seems to be very distant compared to the past when only a certain type of device could play a certain type of media, such as VCR could only play video cassettes and could not perform anything other than that. Saying that televisions, music players and game consoles have all evolved great amount from their original creation immensely. For instances games consoles such as; PlayStation 3  now has the ability to surf the web, interact with other players, send pictures, listen to music and play videos on just that device as well as, actually fulfilling its original purpose which is to play video games. Television have also adapted into doing more than just watching T.V, currently television are available for purchase which can surf the internet, stream  videos and rent movies, communicate with friends via Skype and have motion sensors to adjust volume up or down along with other functions. Technology has progressed  a large amount from the days when several devices where need to perform individual trades to now, just having one platform achieve most of the tasks single handily. The most popular form of technological convergence is by far the mobile phone. From once just being machinery that was made for having conversations, the mobile phone has advanced into a device which no longer has any limits. Mobile phones have now become “Tiny computers that just happen to make phone calls.” That is a quote from Gavin Stewart which expresses just how advanced telephones today, have now become. Mobile phones now as well as being used to call people work as; digital cameras, music player, accessing your emails, perform instant messaging services, video cameras, use the internet and much, much more.

Institutional convergences are when big companies such as; Time Warner and, News Corporation are great examples of convergences in this sector. Time Warner is a good example for institutional convergence rather than News Corp. as, Time Warner is merged with many companies as supposed to News Corp. owning all the companies but, they still do cross media sections like Time Warner.  The merge of several different media forms in an institutional sense is very interesting as, when company tries to monopolize the market in order to gain complete dominance. Time Warner possesses companies such as; HBO, Time Inc., Warner Bros. and Turner Broadcasting, it is easy to feel that there is no such thing as competition in the media. When companies merge it makes it much easier for the popularity of that company to grow and in return creates more profit which the company gracefully accepts. When Time Warner was merged with AOL it just showed how diverse a company could actually become and, the benefits such as being a television and film as well as owning a successful internet site. They could freely promote their new films or television programs online via AOL, in addition to going to the movies and watching trailers which may have been sponsored by AOL. As a final point the benefit of having an already successful company such as Time Warner being linked to another successful company like AOL, is beneficial as somehow people are using their product in different forms of media.

In some cases professional convergences are in order to create more of reputation or to in fact save a business. Though not a media company a great example of GSK (GlaxoSmithKline) is one where two pharmaceutical companies GlaxoWellcome plc and, SmithKline Beecham plc. Came together to form GSK and then kept the company alive. But in media terms professional convergence is shown like how MSNBC is television network but is also maintains internet services which execute the same content but, just on different mediums. This is just the beginning as many companies today, have spread a wide net upon various types of media from newspapers, radio, magazines and television. The advantage of this is that instead of fighting for the share of consumers which either just uses the radio or just watch television that could have material on all types of media to avoid fighting with other companies.

Cultural convergences are another way how popular media has become around the world. Cultural convergences have developed into how popular brands, beliefs and fashions spread across the world today. The way YouTube has become a global phenomenon across the world today, user finding it easy to upload each day via their; mobiles, tablets, computer or even game consoles. Also the recognition of Walt Disney around the world today is very easily noticeable as Gavin Stewart pointed out in a lecture. The Disney logo is widely recognizable everywhere in the world today due to the famous Mickey Mouse ears. This could have a major advantage in today’s media for any new programs, movies or franchise that embody the famous Mickey Mouse ears, instantly making it a recognisable and trusted brand.

 On a whole I believe that convergences in the digital life today is a very welcome effect on society today and that, the more we allow technological convergences to happen, the more we will be advancing into the future with each new device for sale. Media convergence is a big impact in our lives’ today even with the smallest thing we go through today such as; sending an email on your mobile, watching a video on your iPad or, watching television on your computer. The world has progressed so far from being really narrow mind devices to, now having mobile phones that can just about do anything we could possible want it to do. 

Brand New Blog

Welcome all to my brand new blog,

My blog is going to be about various intriguing topics that relate to digital media all over the world today. I hope to include very insightful analysis which will be primary and secondary research. The purpose of my blog is to regularly update it with stimulating blogs that, challenge the main topics of how digitally involved the World has become today and, where technology is heading to in the coming years with it changing every single year.

In making every blog I am going to make them as reliable as I can possible make it by explaining clear the topics which I am elaborating on, include references and quotes also including where I found them from, if possible include images or videos in the blog to make it more engaging for the reader and, include links to any site that contains useful material.

In this assessment I am looking forward to making detailed blogs as much as I can by including; facts and quotes from lectures to prove and, show my understanding of what was actually discussed in lectures. Also I will attempt to post up blogs each week, elaborating on the issues of the past weeks topics.

On a whole I think this will be an interesting assessment which I hope to intrigue all readers and answer all question in depth with relevant, evidence to support all my answers. I hope this has been an interesting introduction and I’m excited to get started.