Techonolgy: The Augmentation of Human Intellect

This weeks articles were a bit difficult to fully understand in their ideas, but this is what I gathered from the readings.

In "AS WE MAY THINK", by Vannevar Bush, he talks about how during the war scientists used technology to increase man's physical power to defeat their enemies. But it wasn't physical power Bush was really interested in, it was our mental strength. How to use technology to increase our intelligence and way of life. "For many years inventions have extended man's physical powers rather than the powers of his mind."
He used many examples and I thought that some of his predictions of how future technology would be were rather accurate. He predicted that "dry photography" would soon be real and common place in cameras, with the number of pictures that could be taken becoming almost limitless, as well as the speed in which they were developed.
Bush goes on to speak of how technology has and will continue to shape our way of life by making things such as the gathering of information easier. How much we can learn will be affected by technology, and so in effect he believes that technology has helped shape society.

In "AUGMENTING HUMAN INTELLECT: A Conceptual Framework", all the authors seem to lean towards the same conclusion, that in the past technology has mostly been used to increase mankind's physical power, but that the future is how technology will increase our mental capacity. The readings here talk about how the human intellect can be augmented to increase its mental capacity to learn. "By 'augmenting human intellect' we mean increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation, to gain comprehension to suit his particular needs, and to derive solutions to problems" states Engelbart.
They also talk about each individual layer and piece of an object or framework, which is much more in depth than most people would ever think of going into. They use the example of a computer.
"When one looks at a computer system that is doing a very complex job, he sees on the surface a machine that can execute some extremely sophisticated processes. If he is a layman, his concept of what provides this sophisticated capability may endow the machine with a mysterious power to sweep information through perceptive and intelligent synthetic thinking devices."
On the surface a computer gives us a 3d image of whatever information we typed in and allows us to communicate and find information easily and quickly. But underneath its outward shiny casing are RAM, sound cards, graphic cards, microchips etc, that are all connected to a motherboard so on and so forth. And going even deeper into the next layer are the tiny bits that make up the microchips etc. A normal person would not be able to explain how each layer works, but an electrical engineer could explain this, while a computer programmer could explain that, and the list goes on. So from their perspective, the smaller bits and pieces that are just as important,if not more so, than the end result.
At the same time it's such technology that has been taken for granted and helped shape our society. I think they all agree that we have shaped ourselves around our technology, enhancing or augmenting ourselves with it to increase that which we can understand and do.

A Brisk Morning Blog

A little bit about me:

My name is Clayton, and I graduated from St. Edward's University in December of 2006 with a degree in English Writing and Rhetoric. I've always liked to read and write, and I hope to one day write a best seller. My favorite genres are science-fiction and fantasy. Ever since I was a kid I've been reading tons and tons of books about space, mystery, and magic. I think I started reading such books because as a kid I got bored easily and these amazing stories allowed me to take a brief trip to far away places and unimaginable worlds, giving me a break from the mundane.
Computers are also of great interest to me, especially the internet. I think it's so amazing how far we have come in terms of technology in just the last 20 years. I can't even imagine how much it will change in the next 20 years. The internet almost appears to be a living organism that grows and evolves with every day. I hope that by taking this class I will learn even more about the working of mass media communication and how it is evolving. It looks to be a fun semester.

My Take on New Media-

To me, new media is a very broad topic, consisting of many forms, that link people together and allow them to communicate with ease. Internet blogging, emails, Facebook/MySpace, podcasting, interacting software, gaming, etc. are all examples of new media to me. All these allow people to interact and talk with each other from all over the world in a way that 20 years ago would have seemed impossible for most people. We have come a long way from the massive old punch card computers to the newly released Macbook Air, the world's thinnest laptop. "In 1833 Charles Babbage started the design for a device he called the Analytical Engine. The Engine contained most of the key features of the modern digital computer. The punch cards
were used to enter both data and instructions." Today, computers contain much more functions, memory, and power, and are a fraction of the size of the first computer.

Manovich's definition of new media is “computer technology used as a distribution platform.” His thoughts parallel my own as he believes new media to be a broad subject as well. Manovich goes into deeper discussion on how commercial uses and advertising online have allowed new media to branch into something bigger. "Commercial culture (in other words,
culture designed for mass audiences) has played a more progressive role in adopting and experimenting with new media," says Manovich. "Without commercial culture we would not have computer games using Artificial Intelligence programming, network-based multimedia, including various Web plug-ins which enable distribution of music, moving images and 3-D environment over the Web, sophisticated 3-D modeling, animation and rendering tools, database-driven Web sites, CD-ROMs, DVD, and other storage formats, and most other advanced new media technologies and forms."

After reviewing the assigned readings I've come to understand that new media has grown even past my original broad view. Web advertising, such as for movies and such has increased dramatically in the last few years, and is sure to continue to do so.