The Global Mindset

For anyone reading this blog that's not part of the Multimedia class, take a look at this video, Kevin Kelly - The Next 5000 Days of the Internet, before going too far in. The meat of this post has to do with the topics Kelly brings up.

I was intrigued by what Kelly said in this clip. I had never taken the time to really think about how old (or young) the internet is, and it certainly didn't occur to me the huge amount of change that's happened in such a short amount of time. The first thing that he said that really struck me, outside of the brevity and reach of this relatively new invention, was his comment on our evolving codependency. I would go so far as to say that we've already reached a point of no return. Coming in right under 30 year of age, I've grown up with the internet for a little under half of my life. I know that I've been irreversibly changed by this technology. I use it every day. I don't use a phone book anymore, they're too slow. Dictionaries are antiques in my eyes. My goal is to ultimately "plug in" through a new career path. But I can go without it for a few days when the need arises. I see the addiction in me, however. I use it more and more. Almost all of my communication and outside contact happens through this window (touched on that one last week). And I see it even stronger in my younger siblings. They cannot live without it. Everything they have is plugged in. A cell connection is crucial for their existence. The web is their air.

Moving on, Kelly mentioned the Cloudbook concept. This isn't a far stretch. The technology already exists. There are hundreds of online disk drive companies who sell monthly subscriptions to virtually unlimited storage space on the web. There are companies, such as http://g.ho.st/ that already offer fully-integrated internet-based operating systems. All you need is a system that can access the web and you have your own personal desktop where ever you go. Don't like the idea of keeping everything online? Maintain a home computer and use a service like https://www.gotomypc.com/, which grants you access to your home PC from any computer anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Still don't like it? Wait a few years. As technology goes, size drops by half and power/storage doubles every two years. That means that in a very short time we'll have the ability to carry around pocket-sized personal computers. How will this work? Won't the screens be too small? The keyboards impossible to use? Don't worry. The screen technology already exists. Think projection TV. Keyboard? No problem. Use a laser-read projected keyboard, like the one here: Youtube - Laser Keyboard. You can buy it from these guys:http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/. Ultimately, though, the trending of easier portability and greater online storage or link-up ability will create a more mobile and plugged-in community.

Kelly mentions a possible downfall of this new system: the Web will own everything. Once the storage is moved online, how can you determine ownership? You end up with issues of public domain, copyright infringement, etc. I would like to add a different spin on this: Positive Marxism. If everything is thrown into a collective pot from which everyone can benefit, one possible outcome is greater equality and the collapse of the traditional local currency-based economies. This could lead to a freer sharing or ideas and technologies and a reversion of society to a fair-trade barter-like system.

Finally, at then end of his lecture, Kelly begins to analogize: he likens the growing web to a organism, compiled of millions of parts, each containing millions of cells, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Now, each of these parts is a community, and in each of these, we are the cells. The final thought that he leaves us with is existentialist: We are One. Tied together by this unifying factor, the earth, we are one. The internet is our connection to all the other segments, highlighting once and for all that humanity is not really a segmented entity. Our evolution as species has brought us to this point, created this technology and spawned this global mind, a collection of all our greatest accomplishments and failures, the racial memory of our entire species. As we continue to plug in to this artificial mind, our computing creates the synapses, with each of us a neuron, passing and spreading information from one part to another. With the earth as our body, and the web as our mind, humanity is reaching for that ultimate goal, its tenuous grasp so close. And as the fingers finally wrap around the prize, let it be known that We Are One.

Head in the Clouds

This week's assignment required us to take a look at our place in the internet cloud. After some thinking and sketching, and a bunch of procrastinating, I finally came up with a decent sketch of where the cloud and I sit.

As you can see, I picture myself as being integrated into the cloud. I feel that I'm pretty much wired in. My classes, work, play, and friends are all accessed through this medium. Most of my hobbies involve something to do with the web. 95% of my day revolves around working on, playing on, or otherwise interacting with the cloud in some way, shape or form. I don't much mind this, but it helps to put things in perspective. I do spend a lot of time around here, bumming from page to page, like window shopping at the mall. While this is a valid passtime, it certainly shouldn't be undertaken 24-7. But this is where I live. The graphics and web pages I create are made for this place, like art you'd hang on your wall. My screen is my front door - my closest friends live thousands of miles away, so we interact through online games and voice chatting rather than in-person activities or phone calls. From this little portal, my world can expand to the ends of the (e-)universe with just the click of a few buttons.

But being a cloud, or even just part of it is empty. By nature, you're hardly there, naught but a bit of vapor flowing through the sky, only to vanish when the hard light of day hits you. It's much the same for me. I spend so much time here, that interpersonal communication becomes hard. Granted, I've never really been good at verbally expressing myself, often finding it easier to write what I'm thinking when I have the ability to go back and change a word or think through my thoughts more thoroughly, but now it's near impossible. I can talk to people, but I find it uncomfortable and lacking. I like the lag time from comment to comment you can find on the internet in chatrooms or forums. You can decide who you're going to respond to, what you're going to say and how you're going to say it before it ever comes out. It provides you with that extra second of pause before you post that zinger that really seemed important when ThatGuy814 said that the sky was green, allowing you to see that the response you've just drafted is no better than his, and there's no reason to feed the trolls, as it were.

Well, being part of a cloud isn't always so bad, I suppose. There are always thousands of other droplets bumping around for you to chat with, quick, fleeting interactions providing that little bit of human connection via the front door on your desk...

Assignment - Week 1

Hopes, Goals & Anxieties

What are my goals for this class? Originally, I had thought that this was the Flash animation course (another course that I'll need for my Website Design major). Of course, this delusion was shattered the moment I stepped foot into the digital classroom. But this is not a bad thing. I've never been a blogger or much into the social networking stuff, so this will provide me with exposure to these aspects and allow me to broaden my digital horizon, so to speak. I'm hoping that this experience will help me to understand how these technologies work and will help me learn how to integrate them into my future web projects, which leads to my checking-in question for Lisa this week: How deep into the web coding does this course go? My sinking suspicion is that it doesn't at all, which will be a bummer, but I'll still stick with it (heck, I need to take the course anyway, right?).

I don't really have any anxieties about this course. I'm completing the majority of my major online, so this isn't my first class here, though it is my first real experience with many of the tools for the course. I've never really had any issues with learning new things, though, as long as I have the time and wherewithall to try. Given that this is a college course, it can be assumed that I have both, so this shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure that my techophile background will help out a lot here.

To my fellow students, I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to speak up in the discussion board. As I said, this isn't my first online class, and I've found that the best ones encourage a lot of online discussion. This allows us to bounce ideas off one another and really delve into the inner workings of the course. So share your insights, ask questions and answer your classmates. Don't be shy. Chances are that if you have a question or are getting stuck somewhere, there are others stuck in the same spot. By combining our efforts, we can figure out a solution and then we've all learned something.

Sean

Inaugural Post

Words go here,  but, then, that's self explanatory.  This is the first post for the class blog site, and I don't really have a lot to say... yet.  Give it time.  Gotta dust the summer cobwebs off, and then I'll get going with some more substantial posts and whatnots.