This week I have been continuing making my way through the reading list for Block 1 and further exploring cybercultures.
I enjoyed our second group session on Togethertube and initially I found the viewings a little harder to make sense of compared to last week. However, after watching them a few times I noticed some similarities between them. The majority of clips demonstrated machines/robots communicating in a human like manner and being capable of humanlike independent thought – certainty far more advanced then the binary operation usually associated with them.
I’ve also spend some more time in thinking about the impact technology has had on life and culture. I’ve been considering old ways of life and how they have been modernised by use of technology. Some tasks have been made more efficient, some quicker, some cheaper, some have replaced people all together.
I have been giving some attention to virtual reality and how our senses can be manipulated to have better than life experiences. This was inspired by the Sterne reading and his example of sound being overlooked in favour of virtual artefacts in the creation of virtual worlds.
Furthermore, I have been reflecting on some of the issues surrounding equality and inequality as a result of cyberculture. It is quite overwhelming to think of the influence technology has had over just about everything and scary to realise some problems we have created in pursuit of digital excellence.
Hello Stuart, thanks for a very clear weekly summary. And well done this week for tackling the course readings and weaving the ideas into your blog.
‘I’ve been considering old ways of life and how they have been modernised by use of technology.’
My eye was caught by your reference to ‘old ways of life’ and wondered whether you needed to unpick this a bit. I’m not immediately disagreeing but if you could perhaps link it to a particular bit of content from your blog I’ll follow it up there. I’ve been enjoying reading (and commenting) on different parts of your blog just now so perhaps I’ll find the connection (as I did with your references to Sterne and also to digital inequality). However if you could do a bit of ‘signposting’ that would help a little bit (and means I don’t miss out on reading something you’ve been working in).
Again, thanks for the weekly summary which looks like a good record of what’s been happening in your lifestream this week.