Category: Block 1 – Cybercultures

“This first block will consider some of the over-arching narratives within popular ‘cyberculture’ which have driven our understanding of digital culture and its relation to education. It will begin with a course ‘cyberculture film festival’ and accompanying tutorials in Togethertube, connecting these with a reading which will familiarise you with some orienting theories of cyberculture. It will then link these to the notion of ‘technology enhanced learning’, considering how such representation continues to inform our understanding of the nature of education online.” From http://edc17.education.ed.ac.uk/block-1-popular-cyberculture/

From Blogs: The singularity

[spoiler alert] If we combine algorithmic culture and cyberculture, we translate our own atoms in to light particles capable of faster than light travel. The singularity where machine learning happens so fast it is no longer possible to measure it… thanks to Matthew via Eli for that entertaining thought!

Don’t talk in front of robots? 5-min drama from @guardian, worth a watch: https://t.co/P3tw4dgUYz Probing re. ethics, us & the end. #mscedc

From Twitter

On one hand, we fear that AI will follow us to the extent of the known universe to hunt us down, on the other, we work on connecting the human brain to merge with computers to “keep up” with advanced in AI. There’s a nuance in this that I haven’t picked up. To me, if I was genuinely scared that AI would be our ultimate downfall, then I wouldn’t go about plugging technology in to my brain. Perhaps there will be good and bad AI. Perhaps, come the singularity, some will choose the side of humans, and others will go rogue. Maybe the comic (and many movies) in the “Transformers” series may yet become valued as a highly prescient work of literature, where one side of sentient robots chooses to enslave humans, whilst the other chooses to work with humanity so it can be free…..

From Twitter: Not every bit of technological progress is a giant leap….

Are we looking at the next steps toward our fully immersive future in Virtual Reality?

From Twitter: Block 1’s artefacts

My Artifact#1 – Do Minecraft avatars dream of voxel sheep?

I “own” a piece of software for a while that I’ve never got to grips with. Today was the day. I had a great time playing with Adobe Premiere. Great fun. I’ll post up a bit more about my thinking behind the actual content of the production later next week, but I’m sure you’ll get the general theme given the wholesale lifting of a trailer from a certain well referenced movie about androids…..

Artifact #1

With apologies to all the sources I stitched together:

Minecraft world: http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/cyberpunk-map-bladecraft/
Minecraft resource pack: http://www.planetminecraft.com/texture_pack/mrshortees-bladecraft-x64-cyberpunk-resource-pack/
Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhJ7Mf2Oxs
Images used during the cinema scene via Pintrest: https://uk.pinterest.com/colin9068/future/

 

 

Pinned to Future on Pinterest

Meta: The following posts are supposed to be images of Cyborg, robots, political and environmental themes from the dystopian future view. IFTTT is suitably opaque…

Just Pinned to Future: Cyberpunk Atmosphere ****If you’re looking for more Sci Fi, Look out for Nathan Walsh’s Dark Science Fiction Novel “Pursuit of the Zodiacs.” Launching Soon! PursuitoftheZodiacs.com**** http://ift.tt/2l8EEDz

Pinned to “Future” on Pinterest

Toward my artefact.

Just Pinned to Future: The statue of liberty head lying down perhaps the old one when going through restoration. However the architecture of the statue’s head is very unique such as the fine strands of hair with the carved detailed lines. http://ift.tt/2l8x0sU

Pinned to “Future” on Pinterest

Towards my artefact, clones identified only by a bar code. Also the original author’s comment regards privacy and freedom strikes a chord, generally about perceptions of technology.

Just Pinned to Future: You dont need the barcode your license is already chipped and has REAL ID linked to it. We are not free http://ift.tt/2kbqdKK

Pinned to “Future” on Pinterest

The ubiquitous USB format still alive and kicking and just the right size to jack-in to upload some new learning, maybe. But clearly the addict is the subject here. Maybe we’re all enslaved to the information culture we live in.

Just Pinned to Future: “They said that once you had surrendered, once you were Bound, you lived normally. Free from the fearsome power in your blood and nerves and mind, from the stares and whispers of those born powerless. Binding made you free.” http://ift.tt/2l8DgAX

Image acommpanying an article https://thetiein.wordpress.com/2010/04/20/dream-woman-the-cyborg-manifesto/.

Pinned to Future on Pinterest

He looks human. Cyborgs in the Bladerunner universe are indistinguishable from humans when pictured holding a dove, with an ear cut off, in the rain….

Just Pinned to Future: Rutger Hauer Blade Runner (1982). Coolest character in the coolest movie ever. Time to die… http://ift.tt/2kHw0Lh

Pinned to “Future” on Pinterest

Just Pinned to Future: Blade Runner – brilliant movie: ”I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time.. like tears in rain…Time..to..die..” http://ift.tt/2lczjr0

From Twitter: Toward my artefact

Unable to access minecraft due to technical errors. I was planning on working on my artefact.

From Twitter: The Matrix

In the 90’s movie “The Matrix”, Neo enters in to a fully simulated virtual reality by means of having a spike jammed in to a fit-for-purpose socket on the back of his skull. To consider what is consciousness, Neo’s guide and mentor explains a few facts about this universe. This sort of immersion is a common theme in sci-fi, but it has relevance to learning too. Just plugging in to a machine to learn something is quite a compelling idea. I first remember this concept at secondary school when we read a book entitled “Devil on my back“.

From Twitter: Music and video for Block 1

We were encouraged to think about how music might relate to our themes