What are we thinkin about?

Paul Butler
Third writing assignment
Internet Studies

What Are We Thinking About When We Think About Computers?
Have you ever watched an old sci-fi from the fifties or watched movies like The Matrix, Space Odyssey: 2001, or The Fifth Element? These movies often represent some general opinion of contemporary artists and movie makers about what the future will be like for the people of the world and it is always usually a world that is dominated by technology and a seemingly dismal future. Computers have played an important role in the storylines in these movies. They can be the ticket to the survival of the main characters of a movie or the decimation of the entire world’s population with the click of a mouse or the squeeze of a button. Let us examine some movies and other various media in which we can derive an opinion on what people have thought about their world and computers.
In a college setting it is typical to view certain movies such as the Space Odyssey: 2001 and several others to educate individuals on the way that humans view the future and the roles computers have in shaping them. I will use Space Odyssey: 2001 to illustrate the Kubrick’s idea of what computers can accomplish when given enough power. In the movie Hal, the ship’s computer, becomes a good friend with the captain of the ship and endeavors in such personal interactions such as complimenting the art of the pilot of the spaceship and also playing him in the game of Chess. At first it was thought by the crew that Hal was there as at tool to help in their mission. As they depend on their own human intuition their efforts are soon thwarted by the logic of a computer. Hal decides that the human crew is incapable of completing the mission that it set out to do and assumes control of the ship and the mission killing crew in the process. Eventually the captain figures out to deactivate the Hal. Hal becomes apologetic as he knows his fate is certain. One could almost find pity in their heart for the artificial intelligence as it begs for forgiveness and attempts to repent for its sins against the crew. This situation shows Kubrick’s and the typical humans concern for the well being for humans as computers play an ever evolving and more involved role in the way humans live, research, and play.
We as humans have previously thought of the computer in the past as a complex tool for the calculation of things but as time has brought us to the present we see computers as, “concerned with simulation, navigation and interaction (Turkle 19). She argues that computers fifteen years ago were more for the programmer and that computers of the present day are directed towards the average consumer for the management and entertainment of our personal lives. If you can recall back to the early nineties you might be able to remember those dark screens with the cursor flashing awaiting you every command. This is, however, not the reality of those who are young adults of present they might have a faint recollection of Windows 95 as being the premier operating system that one could acquire for his or her own personal computer. Massive tower units and boxy monitors are also fading into history as the consumer can now have the latest technology in the palm of their hands that allows them to watch videos, check e-mail, and browse the internet
When Kubrick was creating Space Odyssey: 2001, he imagined humans as traveling space with the accompaniment of their computer. The computer represented almost another human on board, one who had feelings and who could be tyrannical if given the opportunity. I doubt that most Americans, years after the film was made, thought of their computers as friends in the human sense. Computers are a way to make life more convenient for people who must communicate, market, and shop at a rapid pace. No more catalogs and paper mail for most. Online quickness, buy everything and sell everything with ease just by clicking your mouse!
So how dependent are humans on their computers for the operation of daily life? I would consider myself to be pretty dependent from the use of electronics, especially computers, but as I review my day I see that no matter what I am always connected in some way to computers. In the morning the first thing I look at is my cell phone. Who called? Did I miss something? Then I make my way to class, but not without checking my e-mail first, of course. If on my e-mail I see something about a comment on my Facebook I then feel inclined to browse that. It is all a waste of time. At work I sit and usually mull over website after website. By the end of the day I found that I have been stuck in front of the screen all day.
Chances are that my father’s daily routine was much different than this. He probably read the paper every morning and called my mother from the land line phone wherever he happened to be. Computers in his time were filling entire rooms and were only friendly to scientists and computer programmers. Now they are geared to the public. The reason why? Some guys down at Macintosh decided to create something for the normal consumer that would require them to look no further that the screen on their computer. This is something Sherry Turkle refers to, in her book, Life on the Screen,” as “interface value.” Since we have been taking things for interface value we have grown to see the relationship between the computer and the human mind and this has in the past terrified some but the bizarre nature of a machine and human having any sort of relationship has become quite the norm ( Turkle 23). In the future we may make more movies that depict the post-apocalyptic terror that computers have wrought or maybe we will make a movie or write a book that depicts some sort of strange sexual relationship between a man and his beloved computer.
Works Cited

Turkle, Sherry. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Vannevar Bush head to head

After having read the essays of Nathaniel Hawthorne http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/fw.htmland Vannevar Bush http://www.ps.uni-sb.de/~duchier/pub/vbush/vbush-all.shtml, one could be prompted to ask himself one question: is man better off to embrace the antiquities of life or to pursue the advancement of technology vigorously? Hawthorne relates back to the prominence that an open fire had in the lives of thinkers, priests, and other various persons. He argues that the invention of the air tight stove is just one of the newest technologies that are, in the future, to remove the true beauty of life. He embraces the unique, irreplaceable charm of a fire side. This lends one to think of Abraham Lincoln who was known, in historical literature, to have read by a fire side. On the other hand, we have the argument of Bush which retorts by showing that mans’ life has been advanced greatly by technology. He sought, through his invention of the Memex, to open the vast quantity of knowledge to those who were scientists and scholars. He envisioned man having access to all types of knowledge through one ultimate source. Unlike Hawthorne he saw technology as a progressive chapter in the lives of men around the world.Hawthorne would cringe to know that in a modern world, through the click of a button, anyone can access any sort of knowledge they want. On the contrary, Vannevar would be happy because he could think of his crude Memex as an ancestor to the World Wide Web. One could interpret Hawthorne’s opinion of his air-tight wood stove as a call for the abolition of those things that would divert a person’s attention from the things that matter in life such as a natural existence with desires for the things of olden. I myself can see the strain that computers and the internet can put on society. Men and women who devote hours upon hours with their face attached to a screen pouring over the latest notifications on their Facebook profiles. In a way, you can see the complete uselessness of the internet for some. For some it is a glorified way to socialize that leaves out the natural face to face communication that was previously required for simple transactions such as “hello,” or “happy birthday.” One wonders, “What then is the point of this monstrosity that is the internet?” Well, the internet in its infancy was designed to help the military operate things in the absence of telephones and other types of communication. However now, it is nothing more than a sophisticated toy for the multitudes to chat through, download music, and watch videos with.I wonder whether Bush would have anticipated such uses as those previously listed for such a grand tool as the internet. His Memex was nothing more than a complicated and loud machine which filed through cards in search for desired information. Despite its primitive design and insatiable loudness the idea of the Memex is directly in tune with the concept of the World Wide Web. Bush’s desire was to concentrate useful knowledge into one area so it could be easily accessible. This is certainly achieved in our time. All that is left is to convert the world’s books into characters on a screen, a feat which is in the works. Strangely enough, despite my distaste for computers and the internet, they are very much intertwined with my life and will be for the remainder of it. For this reason I must see the light in technology and its impact on human life. It does have it practical uses. I, for one, can access material which helps me in my research in academically related matters such as research papers. Also many things related to the internet have helped spur an entirely new economy which provides jobs for many. It also gives one the ability to compare and contrast different news sources. The internet is a constant reminder that the world is out there and it is exponentially evolving in the realm of technology.With this being said, I believe that Hawthorne is right in his assumption that a certain quality of life is sacrificed for the sake of technology. It takes the average person from the fireside and places them in a centrally heated and carpeted room. The internet has claimed countless hours of many who could have been walking a wooded path while inhaling a lung full of fresh air. Instead our pupils are burning while we stare at a glowing screen with the ashtray beneath it smoking and overflowing. Of course this is worse case scenario. Bush thought up a good idea with good intentions of generating the human mind and making knowledge and information more useable instead of hidden away in some remote location in an old dark library. I think that is possible to formulate a balance between the modern and the old, we’ll have to.

My history with computers and the internet

I believe that my first encounter with computers was during grade school. They were small ugly little tan colored critters that I did addition problems and other various academically related tasks on. Later in life during high school I came into contact with windows 95 equipped over-sized tower PCs. These were fun but constantly inefficient and slow to grasp the reins of the internet. We just played games on them. I finally had a computer of my own in 1997. There was no internet on this computer. It was magnificent in all ways except that I still just played games on it. After high school I avoided computers for long while but as I re-entered school to attend college I found it an absolute necessity to accomplish the daily tasks to which I was obliged. I do not own a computer these days but I utilize the one in the library to check e-mail and my bank account. I am thinking of purchasing a laptop soon.