Human Error Msg 3550: Brain is Full – Not Enough Resources

I don’t know what was more depressing. Reading Donald Norman’s article “Being Analog” and realizing that we are slowly but surely turning ourselves into machines, or not realizing that it was Noah, not Moses, who took the animals onto the Ark. And don’t get me started on the air plane crash survivors…

Every day, our lives are becoming more fixed. More mechanical. We wake up at a time “x”,then have “x” time to eat breakfast, “x” time to shower (if you’re into that type of thing), “x” time to make it to the bus to get to work, “x” time to work, “x” time to doze off behind the computer while your boss is in the other room, etc. There is always a shortage of time when it comes to our daily activities. The only time I personally feel as though I have “all the time in the world”, is when I’m reading a book on my bed at night, and even then I know I have “x” amount of time before I should probably go to bed. It’s similar to Taylor’s “scientific management”, where he decided to calculate the exact times it should take to do a certain task, and therefore screw over anyone’s chances of being able to relax at work.

I think what’s really frightening is the fact that no one has done anything to stop this. Rather than people going up in arms at the work place for having a tight-nit schedule, or people sitting back and trying to relax in general, we are doing the complete opposite. We are falling under the impression that its good to have a busy schedule, and to just sit around on a couch and “be lazy” is a waste of your time. But I don’t know about the rest of the world, but sometimes I wouldn’t mind sitting on the couch and watch the world go by. Instead we wake up, pick up our double mocha frappa cappacinos and go from point A to point B to point Z without ever stopping to smell the roses.

Sorry, I promised myself 1 cheesy cliche every post.

Furthermore, as stated in Norman’s article, it is becoming more improbable for one to learn everything there is to their culture because the amount of information related to it is beyond the learning capacity (and probably attention span) of a normal human being. If you think about it, it’s gotten to the point where knowing basic information isn’t enough to be a citizen of our society, you must now choose a specific field to study in order to even get a steady job. That’s why a lot of people these days are stating that a college degree is becoming the new high-school diploma. As the decades pass by, the amount of knowledge it will be necessary for people to know in order to function in their every day lives will be too much to handle. Which is why I’m going to start investing in human-implanted hard drives that act as added memory storage for our seemingly inferior brains.

As for the second article, I no longer think the Internet to be some form of “anarchy”. As we enter the age of Web 2.0, we are beginning to regulate the Internet just as we have done with every form of communication (except for hand signals, thank god). Soon there will be just as strict rules for the Internet as there is for TV, Movies and Radio. We are leaning more and more towards a world of no freedom, except for the occasional bathroom break, which we’ll spend checking our MySpace page, because our bladders can wait, but our Top 8 can’t. In the near future our ways of communicating shall be comprised of 1′s and 0′s, and our lives will be so blended with our technology that we will form a new species known as the Homo-Sapiens.org

Therefore let me be the first to say; 1100 0101 11101010 01010 01 10 11 01 1 01010. Word.

Discussion Questions:

1) With all of the new technological breakthroughs guaranteeing us that we would “save” time, are we really saving time, or is it just an illusion?

2)  Has technology made us unrealiable to survive on our own? If there was some giant power outage and no technology work, how long would we survive?

Libraries Are So Yesterday

   One of the general themes to the comments I’ve received from my post is that very few people in fact ever go to libraries anymore (except for when they need some coffee or a blueberry scone). I agree with this statement in that I personally have only traveled to the library to a) check out a book or b) race to the nearest computer and check something on the Internet that I was supposed to remember but still forgot (class locations, appointments, etc.) However I feel as though the library still acts a sanctuary to most students because it is the only place these days where one can get away from the noise of their every day life and actually get some work done. Several of my roommates go to the library every day to do their studying, because it is a better work environment for them. I think that hols true for a lot of people, and I think that is why libraries will be staying around for a little bit longer.

The Internet is clearly becoming our information gateway, as it allows accessibility to almost any form of media or text while being conveniently located at our finger tips. No longer do we have to walk around giant mazes of books in search of a certain piece of information. Rather, we now sit in our chair and do the walking with our eyes, glazing through website after website. It will be interesting what the next decade will do in changing the functions of libraries and how students go about gathering research. Maybe by the time we have kids in school, libraries will be a thing of the past, along with rap music, Pokemon, and walking uphill to and from school.

Searching For Dummies: A Guide to Finding Information for the Internet Impaired

    Step 1: Go to www.google.com

Step 2: Enter information you wish to search for

Step 3: Click on “Google Search”

Step 4: Wait 0.06 seconds (+ or – 0.01 seconds, depending on what your searching)

Step 5: Find answer

When I read the first article, “We Have the Information You Want, But Getting it Will Cost You,” I had this itching feeling that the author as well as the sources used in the article had never heard of a “search engine”. Then, after checking the date in which the sources were published I realized that a) most of them were from the late 80′s and early 90′s, and b) the article itself was probably published in the early 90′s. I then concluded that they in fact had never heard of a search engine, especially one such as Google. Had they heard of Google, I doubt either article would have really been necessary, as the search engines of today have made finding the answer to a question remarkably easy.

For instance, if I wanted to know the distance from the Earth to the Sun, I would google, ” Distance from the Earth to the Sun”, and…

0.07 seconds later, at the top of the search list, there is this quote; “Earth — Distance From Sun: 93,000,000 Miles”. It took me less than a second to find my answer, because search engines like google, msnsearch, yahoo, etc. have created a way of organizing information to best fit what you are looking for. Now back when the articles were published, they didn’t have this type of technology yet for the Internet, so finding information was a lot harder. But now it’s as easy a clicking a button and waiting for the page to load. You no longer really need to take into account the criteria that is discussed in the second article, as searching engines do a lot of the filtering for you. This is not to say that it can still be difficult to find certain pieces of information on some of the webpages that are given to you (like giant text documents that span pages long, and your trying to find the word “biology”. In that case, the “cached” feature from Google becomes a gift from god).

So how is my life affected by information? Well, the basis of my life at this moment is based on me learning  new information, as it has been for the past 14 years. My whole education for the most part has been focused on memorizing and applying new information (although more of the former than the latter). I have never been the biggest fan of my earlier education because I feel as though I learned a lot of information I really didn’t need to learn. I don’t know the statistic off the top of my head, but I’ve always heard that you only use about 20% of the stuff you learn in school later in life. So why learn the other 80%? Because they need to keep us busy for 12 years, that or they just love to fill our brains with useless info. I still believe that every day I learn too much information, but what matters is learning how to filter the information into stuff you need to know and stuff you can let go right over your head. I would say about 95% of every day info can go right over your head.

I think there is an excessive amount of information out in the world wide web, but I believe this is a good thing, because it allows people to go out and learn about things they actually are passionate about. Best of all, they can now do it from the comfort of their own seat, rather than having to go to the nearest library.

Discussion Questions:

1) What downfalls (if any) have come about since the introduction of Google and the advancement of search engines?

2) Has the Internet become a replacement for libraries? What does the accessibility of most scholarly documents on the web mean for the future of libraries?

Long Walks on the Beach Anyone?

    For my podcast proposal, I wish to discuss the topic of online dating. With dating sites becoming more popular every year, there seems to be something about online dating that adheres to the general public. Furthermore, it is changing the dating scene in general and acts as another example of how every part of our daily lives is slowly moving to the Internet. This also is affecting how we communicate because with online dating there is less face-to-face communication, which is interesting due to the fact that most people want to see what their date looks like.

Therefore, I will discuss in my podcast several of the sites, including eHarmony.com, Match.com, HotEnough.org, among others. I will also do research on how online dating is effecting our communication skills and how it relates to the bigger idea of digitizing our everyday events. Of course, this whole thing will be kind of a farce as I plan to make it as satirical and humorous as possible.

Check Out the Rims on My Hovercar

“In the world of tomorrow, we shall drive cars that have no wheels, and make food from heat-ray ovens that are powered by nuclear radiation.” – Anonymous

This isn’t an actual quote from anyone, but whenever I think about all those old films and radio spots that probably aired around World War II, I always think about these crazy guys dressed in lab coats throwing out preposterous ideas about gadgets that never saw the light of day. Not only that, but I always imagine them still living today, sitting around their retirement home somewhere in Florida and thinking “Wow…we really had no idea what we were talking about.” Compared to today’s society, whose obsession with wanting to know, “what’s next”, has led to what seems like an entire industry bent on predicting the next big thing, the earlier days look as though they were just shooting in the dark.

A personal space ship that can also go underwater? Seems possible.

Which is why I found it so frightening to read “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush. This guy basically predicted the personal computer, from its ability to store information while performing tasks to digitizing most forms of media. The example he used with the bow and arrow sounded very similar to the process I use every day when I’m websurfing and trying to find some information on the Internet. Searching through magazines, newspapers, encyclopedia databases, all within the comfort of my own home and with one machine. It is truly remarkable that he was able to stretch his foresight in predicting some of the inventions that use on an everyday basis.

As for what I envision the Internet to be like in the year 2045?

*throws on lab coat and huge pair of bifocals*

I imagine a network so advance that everyone has their own personal Myspace page, taken to the extreme. This site will no longer have just your favorite band, color, or top 8 friends, but every piece of information about you. It will be fully customized by you to the finest detail, and will be your gateway into the information highway. Companies will spend their days transforming their advertisements and products to your liking, and the individual will be the archetype of any consumer. Furthermore, all forms of media will be accessible at a touch of the button, and it will all be free (well, included in your monthly credit bill). Books, music, movies, television. It will no longer be shown on televisions or movie theatres, because your computer will act as a TV, projector, stereo. You will rarely ever have face to face communications because you’ll be too busy updating your profile page and sending messages to your friends who live across the hall. And of course your computer will just be a chip that is implemented in your brain, which is energized from the consumption of caffeine. Therefore Starbucks will become a world power stronger than the United Nations. That is the future, so get to know it.

Moving on, I found that the article, “Technologies of the Third Mediamorphosis” emphasized something that I have recently started noticing more and more, and that is our inability to be patient. As it stated in the article, the introduction of the first railroads led to speed being a requirement in everyday communication. This has been blown out of water with the introduction with the Internet and how we continue to want faster connections and quicker results. Personally I’ve noticed that if a website doesn’t load in 10 or so seconds I start to get frustrated and wonder what the hell is wrong with the connection. To think that in the near future even a couple seconds will seem like an eternity is scary, because soon we will no longer know what it means to be patient. Our necessity for instant gratification is getting out of hand, and technology is only making it worse.

This necessity for instant gratification somewhat relates to the last article, “Networks of Remediation”, which talks about hypermediacy and the entertainments ability to transfer ideas from one medium to another. In the article they used the example of the Batman film series, and how they (the entertainment industry) wished to have you watching the film while wearing Batman clothing and eating Batman sponsored food (which by the way sounds delicious). I think we allow ourselves to be surrounded by the same images and become highly sensitized because seeing/hearing/eating these images are familiar to us and we are always looking for something that feels familiar or the same. Furthermore, I believe this over-sensitization is due to our fear of not being “hip/cool” and therefore forces ourselves to buy anything that is considered a trend or fad, because these things have become familiar and “normal” to our society. This in turn leads us to always wanting information now rather than later, which subsequently leads to newer technology to help improve these instant results. Of course, these improvements only makes us want to know whats hip sooner, and so on and so forth.

It’s like that quote by Fat Bastard in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me,

“I eat because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I eat. It’s a vicious cycle.”

In our case, we’re desperate to be cool, but never cool enough to stop caring.

A vicious cycle, indeed.

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