Week 9 – Writing the essay – Lecture Notes

There is a reading from lecture 4 that has inspired me more to explore the affects of cyberspace, the virtual 3D world;

Cyberspace

“A working definition of cyberspace might be: A conceptual space where words, relationships, data, wealth and power are manifested by people using Computer Mediated Communication technologies. Is it a ‘consensual hallucination’ or another form of reality? It might be a third order activity but it is real enough when you can make a living out of it. We must distinguish the virtual communities of cyberspace from virtual reality (interactive computer technology that creates the illusion of being immersed in an artificial world that exists only in a computer). While we may see these technologies converge in the future, they are still quite distinct at the moment. The technology requires more bandwidth …which will soon be available down Pay TV cable … as well as the development of software for the PC which is cheap and effective”.

It then goes on to mention that the about social network capital and the value between people in interacting… people we might never meet. 

Cyberpunk

In a sub-cultural perspective, I guess at one stage in my life I was considered a ‘Cyberpunk’.  Having an avid interest in Logical Progression digital music and going to rave light show party’s with trippy light shows etc.  This would of been apparent to Philip Elmer-Dewitt a writer for Time magazine.

Matrix

Has the world become similar to what is illustrated in the Matrix movie?  Well, this question is a very huge topic and it would of been a fantastic assignment to focus on.  People are becoming more reliant on the technology of today, especially for communication and labour saving devices.  In terms of the human race being a slave to the computer like in the movie, well, you could say that as a sub-culture, we have conformed to technological advances and if they were to dissapear, then there would certainly be a state of distopia.  I once experienced this distopia of no technology when sailing across the Atlntic for the first time.  It lasted for about a week and I found focussing on the beauty of nature helped me a great deal.  This should be practiced by everyone.

Technology and Mythology

In all fairness my interest in Greek Mythology is at a minimal but, the relation between this and the current technological advances are very interesting.  We now have the ability to actually create a virtual world, some what like Plato’s Cave to the Matrix and Prometheus the creater of humans to the creater of a virtual worlds avatar.

    Utopia and Dystopia

Guaranteeing people a safe hazardous environment inside the utopias virtual world creates and even worse dystopias world outside, in the real world.  A lot of points on this have been expressed in my recent assignment on ’The Damaging Affects from Socializing in Virtual Worlds’.  I basically think it has it’s pro’s and con’s but in the end, you must be more prepared to deal with real life situations. One possitive thing came to mind that I didn’t elaborate on was that disadvantaged people that have lost all their motor control system (unable to walk  or even move etc) could benefit from the ability to do these things as an avatar, only what would be the outcome in the real world… distopia!!!

Cities as Machines

The city leaves us thinking in a paradoxal that people work and live in the city as it gives an opportunity to make money to escape the city.  People have dreams of living in a house on the beach or in the country, will sitting in their office over looking the concrete jungles.

Technological change

This part of the lecture talks about the changes between the  First Media Age (centralised dissemination) and the Second Media Age (decentralised interaction).  The growth of communication has been so rapid since the Second Media Age has begun, giving people an opportunity to becaome a publisher to the hole world of internet users, as Bill Gates rightly predicted.  Where as in the First Media Age (ekectronic media age) we could only select a small amount of people to communicate to at any given time.

      

Modernism to Postmodernism

Task: Using a dictionary, we had to look up the meaning of these words and consider how the contrast between each pair reflects the shift from the modern world to the postmodern experience of something far more difficult and diffuse than ‘the world’.

Modernism	Postmodernism
Distance	Participation
Design	Chance
Hierarchy	Anarchy
Art Object	Happening
Creation	Deconstruction
Depth	Surface
Type	Mutant
Genital	Polymorphous
Paranoia	Schizophrenia
Metaphysics	Irony
Romantacism	Dadaism
Purpose	Play

Some of these words I hadn’t even seen before and when I looked them up the dictionary, they weren’t even in there, they were so discriptive.  So I used trusty Google.com.au and typed them in to find there meanings.As a result of this, I came to the conlcusion that the meanings from Modernism to Postmodernism are a evolving term used.  For example; Purpose, was at a the stage when technology was used for more practical reasons. Play, now is the stage where we have the resources to use technology at our lesiure.

Some of these words have a more complex meaning than it’s previous, like the symplicity of Genital to the complexity of Polymorphous.

Then we can understand the difference of Metaphysics and Irony, both Greek in origin and one is the body of an accurance in it’s pysical form to the Irony or what happens after the accurance of this object or meaning.

Other meanings are either tangible or intangible like Distance and Participation.

Some are logical and luck, like Design and Chance, but in the context of the question asked above i’m actually not sure.

Very challenging and I will try to remember the meainings of all these words as i’m sure a few will be dropped in the exam coming up!!!

Final thought on who controls the switch?

As myuch as we think we are in free world as a cultural perspective, we are still under the eyes of the government and other agencies looking in at every move we make, whether it be on the net or inside our second life as an avatar.  So we control our own switch, but there is a far bigger switch controlling us!!!