Here's my cyborg
Cyborgggggg!
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April 28, 2006
The Feeling of Power
The Feeling of Power, by Isaac Asimov.
Whenever I took a math class, and I know I'm not alone in this, I would frequently bother my teachers with "why do I have to learn long division, or fractions, or multiplication, or what have you, when I could just use a calculator instead?"
"Because, Austin, it's important that you know how to do this one your own."
"But why?"
"Because I said so."
I'm sure my routine got old quick, however my teacher turned out to be correct. It's important that I know how to do certain things without the aid, or the crutch, of technology.
In The Feeling of Power, Isaac Asimov tells a rather short, but very prescient story about what could happen if we let technology take over and control too many everyday functions: we lose power. In the story, computers have become such a staple of everyday life that as a society we have forgotten how to do simple multiplication. Basic arithmetic has been replaced with little pocket computers.
Obviously, that's all find and good, and I doubt you could find many a third grader who would disagree that this sounds like a great idea. However, Asimov also touches on something that is already happening to some extent today, that being computers being built by computers. Computers are frequently used in the creation of newer and better machines, but we have not come as far as to allow computers to create other computers all by there lonesome. In the story there is a war going on, where each side is fighting with computers. One side fires missiles, their sides’ computers figure out where to fire to shoot the missiles down, vice versa, ad infinitum. Better computers get built on both sides, and there is a stalemate.
But along comes the lowly technician Myron Aub, with a hobby for ancient arithmetic, and soon they realize that people can be computers too.
As the President of the Terrestrial Federation said "Computing without a computer is a contradiction in terms."
Along with the discovery of this technician, this human computer, comes the discovery that computers used to be built by humans. Of course these were very simple machines, but their inner workings can still be understood.
Asimov created a world that could soon occur. Education in this country is terrible; many people are behind the curve on media literacy and computer skills. Pretty soon, computers will be building themselves and no one will know how to multiply nine times seven. Eventually, Aub realizes that his passion for numbers will soon help destroy human lives, instead of bettering humanity, and he takes his own life. Although a grand gesture of sacrifice and a demonstration of his beliefs, his death comes too late, and the power that he had has been shared with too many people. Soon there are planes in the works of human-computer run spacecraft, and even manned missiles. The ludicrously of this is apparent, but crazier things have been done.
Do check out Isaac Asimov’s wikipedia entry as well, pretty cool, with a great picture of the author: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov
April 25, 2006
Sarah Horton's Universal Design Site
Amy talked to us today about universal design in web development. We worked with a great website from a workshop she did last year with Sarah Horton of Dartmouth College.
Robot Renaissance
April 22, 2006
Seattle public, eat your heart out:
But does it fly? Is there drink service? Will the toilets still have that weird blue water and funny smell? Do I get just peanuts or a more substantial in flight meal?
April 20, 2006
Master of Reality
Here's a link to a little website I've created for my presentation on Philip K. Dick's How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart 2 Days Later. Please join me Friday at 1 pm for and find out why we are really living in AD 50.
http://academic.evergreen.edu/p/parjen08/progress/
April 19, 2006
Check out my blog
I linked an interesting article about Michael J. Fox, his experience with Parkinson's, and peoples reactions to it. It ties in very well with Waist High I think.
April 18, 2006
The wonders of the Google algorithm
1- Go to www.google.com
2- Type in the word "Failure"
3- Instead of clicking "Google Search," click "I'm Feeling Lucky."
I wonder how/why this happened? Very intriguing...
April 15, 2006
"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."
Ever since we watched Existenz last quarter, Austin's comment about the "concept of the organiic" in that film has stuck with me. I've been thinking about machine mimicking organic, like Yod, or Hal, or little David in AI, but also about organic mimicking or taking on machine, like the game consoles and bioports of Existenz, or Haraway's idea that we're all orga with mecha traits.
The reason 2001 got me thinking of this again is because...
...everyone in 2001 is eating. Not unlike the Eco novel, where the old guy eats all the time, in 2001 the monkeys eat, the Pan Am passengers and pilots, the astronauts, Dave after he's old. I'm thinking the constant eating can be read as a signifier for the concept of the organic being at work in this film.
In thinking about this, I've drawn in a couple of additional questions.
First, as someone asked during the discussion, where is the kind of cyber savior in this movie that we saw so unexpectedly in all those i-fi movies from last quarter? The religious or existential themes are plain, but where is the cyber sacrifical guy?
Second, the obvious question, what was the monolith supposed to be?
So, after a feverish night in which I dreamed I bought a mint condition 1968 volkswagon beetle for $400 - obviously a childhood fantasy awakened by seeing this film again - I've come up a theory for what this movie was actually about.
The aliens brought the monolith of knowledge/technology to earth to lift up a bunch of nit-picking organic monkeys and give them some new things to think about. But, because the monkeys were nit-picking organics in a cat-eat-monkey world with only one water hole to speak of, they turned the gift of the monolith to violence and bloody, bony murder.
But wait....does this make the dead monkey the cyber sacrifice? Did he die for the sins of the other monkeys who touched the (not forbidden but probably should have been) monolith of knowledge? Or was he just groceries, organic food, like his cousin that got eaten by the cat?
Anyway, the aliens realize how effed up things were likely to become after this beginning, so they came back to get the monollith. But, for some reason, they couldn't get it home, so they buried it on the moon. Then, when the monollith gets excavated by a bunch of glass-faced, meddling futurites, not unlike the Blue Fairy in A I, IT phones home and the former monkeys now running the Clavius Base on the moon decide to take it back to Jupiter.
Whether the ship actually carried the monolith, or just followed the radio signal, somehow the HAL 9000 touches it with his fingerless hands and he becomes evil like the bad monkeys of earth. That's why he all of a sudden starts defending his water hole and feels that he has to kill Frank by smacking him with a bone-pod.
But wait...does this mean that Frank was a sacrificial monkey for a second fall of man? Or fall of machine? Does HAL sacrifice Frank, or does Dave? Or was Frank just groceries, organic food, in HAL's terms and Dave's?
Anyway, once Frank gets killed, Dave returns to his nit-picking roots and fashions a screw driver from the femur of a cyborg savannah tapir and does HAL in with repeated blows. Then the aliens decide to let Dave go to heaven and make the cosmic hotel room for him where he can eat like the savage former monkey he is till the end of his days.
This is a sort of negative take, I admit. But it does raise questions.
Like, does the monolith become a golem for the aliens, creating a frankenstein monster of former monkey futurites? Or are the former monkey futurites the golem of the aliens, with an organic concept? Does HAL become a golem for the monkey futurites, or does Dave become the golem of HAL when he returns to his nit-picking roots within HAL's memory chamber? Could HAL be the cyber sacrfiice? And, thinking about Eco, why did Dave start with HAL's memory chips first?
An entirely different, more positive take - that the aliens implanted the monolith as a big spermatazoa into the womb of the earth so that the star child at the end could eventually be born. I guess this would mean that, while the monolith was buried - where else? - on the barren moon, the aliens would have been on birth control. Then when the future star children find the monolith on the moon and cluster around it like a bunch of nits on the back of a monkey, the monolith/cyborg-spermatazoa phones home and sets a return of the prodigal monkey in motion. The organic concept would function here, too, especially if at the end, when Dave dies in the hotel room a very old man, the monolith is revealed to be a room service menu.
Okay, I can see this is going south in a hurry. So never mind.
I highly recommend the Wikipedia articles on 2001 and Existenz.
April 14, 2006
Leary, Huxley, Zappa, and Tipper
Timothy Leary's Declaration of Evolution
Leary's Wikipedia page
Leary's call to mutation is lovably vague. He absolves us of all responsibility except to be kind to each other and enjoy life, which is pretty typical of what I know of his writings and declarations. Leary's interest in the cyberspace and the internet is well-known. To him, virtual reality was the place where we would all be at last truly free to pursue happiness and knowledge.
Aldous Huxley's Poppy & Mandragora
Huxley's Wikipedia page
This essay appears to be a response to the League of Nations' move to crack down on the opium trade. Rather than focusing on preventing access to opium poppies, Huxley implores the reader to consider the reasons why people turn to drugs and drinking and to approach the problems of substance abuse from that angle rather than creating a black market through prohibition.
Frank Zappa's Statement to Congress 9/19/85
Zappa on Wikipedia
Zappa insists that each parent have individual say over their childrens' access to music and insists that government regulation and labeling will harm people who are not children. This reminds me distinctly of the battle in public libraries over CIPA which has resulted in wholesale internet filtering for everyone in many libraries and forces government employees to act in loco parentis at the behest of the most conservative members of society.
What these articles have in common is that they are calls for cultural change guided by personal values, and are written by people whose views on media creation and consumption are legendary. All three are responses to proposed legislation (or, in Leary's case, a response to cultural attitudes and rules already in place as well as potential new restrictions) coming from viewpoints outside the mainstream. All three involve to some degree the clash of science, cultural values, and societal mores. All three address the periodic witch-hunts that occur at a governmental level as a response to societal trends that threaten to upset the status quo. Leary seems confident that we can just drop acid and hug each other and grow vegetables until the government goes away. Go team!
Huxley and Zappa, in particular, ask us to examine more closely why we need to amputate parts of our culture:
From Zappa's statement:
"The PMRC proposal is an ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years, dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design.
It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment Issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation. "
From Huxley's article:
"The League of Nations advocates prohibition, which is like advocating the surgical excision of the pustules as a cure for smallpox. The only rational way of dealing with the drug and drink problem is, first, to make reality so decent that human beings will not be perpetually desiring to escape from it..."
It is interesting to consider the way that the frontier of the internet has played out in light of these long-standing struggles for cultural enlightenment. Was the internet supposed to be that acid-laced garden plot where utopia was going to grow with loving guidance from hippie cultural heroes? Is it a cheaper escape than opium? Is it governable by the Christian right?
In what ways has the increased personal freedom of the internet actually resulted in enlightenment and cooperation and sane governance, and in what ways has it damaged people and/or culture?
April 11, 2006
IQ Facts
The first Experimental Psychology tests were performed at the University of Pennsylvania around the year 1890.
The Binet-Simon test was developed in 1905 to help the French government identify retarded students in need of alternative education.
Classic formula: IQ = Mental Age/Chronological Age X 100.
A normal intelligence quotient (IQ) ranges from 85 to 115 (According to the Stanford-Binet scale). Only approximately 1% of the people in the world have an IQ of 135 or over.
Half of the population have IQ’s of between 90 and 110, while 25% have higher IQ’s and 25% have lower IQ’s
Hi IQ Societies Factoid: The highest IQ was probably held by William James Sidis (1898-1944). His IQ was 200+.
April 06, 2006
Definition of a Geek
According to Webster's dictionary-
1. A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.
2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.
3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre acts, such as biting the head off a live chicken.
But where's the definition we've been studying?
The new age Geek, is a person who spends their free time on the computer 'socializing'.
Interesting?
Very.
According to this article, while I was 'geeking' out (The word Geek can be used as a verb to describe someone's action to sit online and read mail, news, chat, and otherwise waste time in front of a keyboard.) at work I ran across a particularly interesting article.
Myspace Continues to Grow Despite Criticism
Could this mean that over 67 million people (and growing by 250,000 a day) are 'geeking' out everyday?
Yes.
According to Craig Jackson's article Geek: a definition the new age Geek is technically adept and has a great love of computers and technology in general, but are not necessarily programming enclined.
Is Team Intern, Geeks?
Yes.
And I say that with the utmost affection.
We love computers. We've been studying them for two quarters, and have become heavily involved in learning how computers interact with humans. We have learned some basic programming, we have learned CSS and created our own websites, and we have launched a fully functioning 'Geek' homing beacon aka Project Wiki.
Are we hardcore Geeks?
No.
Some of us did go to our highschool prom. We still function and spend time with each other in social settings (like Jake's) while hardcore geeks do not. We also socialize with others outside of our 'geeky' network, instead of exclusively hanging out with ourselves, and on occassion we drag our outside friends to watch comic book movies such as V for Vendetta.
The unwritten geek credo states that originality and strangeness are good, and that blind conformity and stupidity are unforgivable.
This is a key element for people applying to Evergreen's daytime programs. Whilst taking nightclasses, I noticed an alarmingly high number of 'regulars' those, that functioned in the real world and only used a computer for work related socializing. However, daytimers seem to cling effortlessly to the idea that the more 'originality' and 'strangeness' you display, the more of a 'Greener' you are.
'Greener' = Geek?
Maybe.
Janet, welcome to the dark side.
A geek too, is a step up from a 'Nerd'. Do not confuse the two, as Geeks will state proudly that Nerds wear pocket protectors, taped glasses, and plaid shirts. Not silken ruffled pirate shirts, or renaissance gear.
Example:
Nerd Icon: Steve Urkel
VS
Geeks dressed as Jedi at a Geek Convention
I rest my case. So, lesson learned? If you have the choice to date a Geek or a Nerd, go with a Geek. They sure do get out more often, even if its just with their Geeky friends. Plus, they dress snazzier. High waters or Jedi cloak?
I can't tell you my answer to that question.
Etext Article:
Windows on a Mac
How far have we come since those heady days of eating LSD and dreaming up the Macintosh?
Is poor Steve squirming over this? Or is Bill?
April 04, 2006
Segway moto-rally, 2006!!!
The Official Vehicle of Team Intern
Spring ahead into fun!
http://www.villagevoice.com/screens/0520,dibbell,63940,28.html
Dibbell disses the HuffPo, ooh, snap. There's nothing like a blog fight.
Here's some irony. He writes that HuffPo contains "such witticisms as 'Here DeLay, gone tomorrow,' " The title of Dibbell's most recent blog post: "DeLay to DePart". Personally, I think the former is slightly better.
In other news, Dibbell's blog is really boring. Take that, blogosphere.
Segway? Seg-Whatever
Dude you guys, I think that Segways are kind of sweet. Do you remember when they first came out and all the newspapers were all like OMG REVOLUTIONARY INVENTION and the press release was like WILL CHANGE LIFE AS WE KNOW IT OMG OMG and so the Segway was kind of a letdown, because it didn't really change life as we knew it unless we were postal carriers in Seattle or dot com millionaires because there still were dot com millionaires then. Um, so I guess on reflection I don't really think that Segways are that sweet. In fact I'm kind of pissed off that I made room in my brain for a LIFE ALTERING INVENTION that ended up being teh suck.
When I Get My MLS
I hope I get a spear, such as this, as featured in Librarian: Quest for the Spear, which we will be viewing week ten (featuring our favorite celebrity nerd, Noah Wyle) (Okay, maybe my favorite is Keanu, but whatever.)
You can call me "Ultra Laser"!!!
Dearest Blogosphere, I am saddened by my lack of interest in contributing to you. I promise, really, I am trying to change. I really do appreciate you for all that you are, I just have a hard time committing. It's like Google Romance said, "To find true love you must first reverse the index" and I'm gonna do just that. Just know that I care-even when we're apart, I feel your presence.
radkel09, out.