Today cyberspace is a well-known and widely used term. Millions of people are logged on to cyberspace every day interacting. The idea of cyberspace has inspired many films and books. The one of the most famous films “Ghost in the Shell” and “Matrix”. These films are from the 90tese, but the term cyberspace emerged ten years earlier, in the 80ties, with William Gibson. Gibson has become one of the best know science-fiction writers, with works like Neuromancer and Count Zero.
In 1984 was Neuromancer published. This book had n huge impact on the science-fiction ganger. Neuromancer is about a Case, a cyber-space hacker that has damage to his nervous system, which makes it impossible to enter cyberspace. He gets an offer to hack for a person, in exchange for his hacking abilities. Do we see a similarity from Gibson’s world in Neuromancer, and into today’s society with the World Wide Web?
The ganger is called “cyberpunk”. Cyberpunk explore the cyberspace and its possibilities in the years to come, the possibilities in a technological universe that has no earthly boundaries. Here lies a key factor in science fiction and cyberpunk, to free your self from the normal life and entering a new world of virtual reality. In the 1990these Gibson’s cyberspace was on the verge to become a reality with the World Wide Web.
For many this has come as a relief, it becomes an option to their “failed life”, a second chance to make it right. In The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace, Martha Wertheim writes about the eagre to look for a better life in a better world. For many, cyberspace is such a tool. Like religion is for others. Looking at today’s society, most of the users of cyberspace (World Wide Web) us it for information and social interactions. Not as a new world, where you become another person.
But today we see some persons live another life in cyberspace in a way we see in Gibson’s Neuromacer. They want to live their whole life in cyberspace. The idea of cyberspace has probably also influenced many musicians. Cyberpunk and electronic music has strong links. A young hacker from England said in an interview to NRK that he and his buddies always listened to the same music when they were hacking. He mentioned Underworld as one groups. This croup play intensive electronic music that makes you float into your own world, in a way like rave music at rave parties. The music is used as a tool to close out the world when being in cyberspace.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Machines and Humans
In ”The Aesthetics of Disappearance” Paul Virilio look at how our perception of the world and the society has being changed by machines and technology. A key term is speed. Virilio means that speed is essential to understand our world. Do we look at today’s society is it all about time. “Time is money” is one of the most famous quotes known. This gives a description of what drives us and what’s important. The earlier machines had one task, that was to increase the in transport and in the factories. Today we have countless technical devises to help us through the day.
Virilio says that we are victims for the machines speed. We see today that the world shrinks and becomes smaller as a result of the increasing speed through communication and transport. Also called globalisation.
Further Vrilio say that there is no stable fundament left in the society because information is speed and duration does not exist any more. In this post modern world destabilize the know time and space terms, like: present/past, real/unreal and close/distant. The basic know terms become outdated.
Virilio has a pessimistic view on the evolution of machines and its place in the world today. Without the machines our society would probably be light-years from were we are now. It would be harder to live and we would also not live as long as we do now. But his criticism is more about how dependent we has become of the machines and we have integrated them into our lives. This makes us vulnerable and it creates a whole new view on life. I agree with Virilio. Looking forward in time I look at a world where the machines/technology totally controls us. We live through the machines, not with the like we do today. The machines potential blind us. Technology and machines are not in it self, dangerous but uncritical use of is unfortunate.
Virilio says that we are victims for the machines speed. We see today that the world shrinks and becomes smaller as a result of the increasing speed through communication and transport. Also called globalisation.
Further Vrilio say that there is no stable fundament left in the society because information is speed and duration does not exist any more. In this post modern world destabilize the know time and space terms, like: present/past, real/unreal and close/distant. The basic know terms become outdated.
Virilio has a pessimistic view on the evolution of machines and its place in the world today. Without the machines our society would probably be light-years from were we are now. It would be harder to live and we would also not live as long as we do now. But his criticism is more about how dependent we has become of the machines and we have integrated them into our lives. This makes us vulnerable and it creates a whole new view on life. I agree with Virilio. Looking forward in time I look at a world where the machines/technology totally controls us. We live through the machines, not with the like we do today. The machines potential blind us. Technology and machines are not in it self, dangerous but uncritical use of is unfortunate.
The ‘Memex’ machine and ‘hypertext’
Hypertext is highlighted words or images on the Internet, that when clicked on opens a trail of linked information. Hypertext is images, text and music.
Vannevar Bush created the idea of hypertext in 1945. In the book ”As We May Think” he described a machine that used hypertext. We see that hypertext is not a new term, when looking at how long the World Wide Web has existed.
The hypertext machine was called ‘Memex’. This was a machine that you could store information. Like a library, and link the information you wanted together, creating a new collection of information. So could the ‘Memex’ machine be called a computer?
When creating the ‘Memex’ machine he took inspiration from how the human brain functioned. You could say that the brain is the world’s first computer. He wanted to create a more logical way to store information. In ‘As we may think’ Bush describe the machine like this, “A memex is a device in witch an individual stores all his books, records and communications, and which an individual mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory”.
So there are strong lings between Bush’s ‘Memex’ machine and today’s modern computers. It is a place to store information and that hypertext is an important tool in that to read on the World Wide Web. Thanks to hypertext it has become more easily to retrieve information. The use of hypertext is still developing making the web more effective.
Vannevar Bush created the idea of hypertext in 1945. In the book ”As We May Think” he described a machine that used hypertext. We see that hypertext is not a new term, when looking at how long the World Wide Web has existed.
The hypertext machine was called ‘Memex’. This was a machine that you could store information. Like a library, and link the information you wanted together, creating a new collection of information. So could the ‘Memex’ machine be called a computer?
When creating the ‘Memex’ machine he took inspiration from how the human brain functioned. You could say that the brain is the world’s first computer. He wanted to create a more logical way to store information. In ‘As we may think’ Bush describe the machine like this, “A memex is a device in witch an individual stores all his books, records and communications, and which an individual mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory”.
So there are strong lings between Bush’s ‘Memex’ machine and today’s modern computers. It is a place to store information and that hypertext is an important tool in that to read on the World Wide Web. Thanks to hypertext it has become more easily to retrieve information. The use of hypertext is still developing making the web more effective.
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