Monday, November 16, 2009
Google is making us REtarded.
I do agree that "What Taylor did for the work of the hand is what Google is doing for the work of the mind" because of the quickness it has added to our lifestyles. Taylor looked for ways to speed up the way humans operated they're daily lifestyles, while Google has offered instant answers for whatever questions someone can think of. Google has even become a verb, for instance someone will tell you to just "Google it" whenever there is an answer that you don't know. People can look up anything they wish and copy anything also from any site Google can produce. Copying whole essays and using Google during class has become more popular. They no longer have to think for themselves because it has become a means of convenience to just type in whatever you please. I wouldn't say we are becoming stupid, because after all these people still have to think of the questions to ask. I do say people have become lazy though because they do not venture into books or think up their own answers to these questions that they have. Google has branched itself into every aspect of people's lives now with tshirts, homepages for internet users, and of course the famous Google site. Seriously the guy that created this probably wipes his booty with 100 dollar bills. Insanity, I tell ya.. Haha sorryy for the mental image. Anywayss, oh yeah I forgot, you can text Google too if you didn't already know that. Yes, its made an impact on our cellular devices as well, my friend. 46645 or GOOGL is the number to text for like.. Business addresses and such. All in favor of who use it.. Ha, guilty. It has replaced paper research and made instant gratification that much more accessible, and the resulting product is none other than future generations of laziness and ignorance. Sad, sad day..
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Post modernism - What does it all mean?
I believe that there has always been a correlation between knowledge and power, but recently times have indeed changed. Regardless of how smart you are, power is instituted by popularity and media now, not the ability to build mass contraptions for the good of humanity. Power is based on numbers. The more votes that can be pulled in, the more CD's sold, the more viewers for a TV station. I think that's what we're heading toward to be honest. It isn't necessarily the quality of the person, the work, the machine; I believe its the efficiency and what can be brought forth in the shortest amount of time possible. Yes, bigger is always better in most cases, and this theory was definitely kept in mind when new computers, iPods, and other technologically savvy devices were developed. Yet, they keep improving, why? When will we be satisfied? When, if ever, will humans seize the need for the split second gratification that has enveloped our society and morphed it into a postmodern idealistic world? The numbers keep growing, but what does this say? Is this good, bad, a sign of turmoil? Must we stop or continue on with this need for statistical comparisons that are used to constantly "improve" our way of living? We recently talked about deconstruction in class, and in a way this is what we are leading up to here. Numbers are being tossed and replaced so quickly, there is no foundation or basis to be politically criticized or argued upon, if I may paraphrase from Postmoderism. The world seems to turn a little more quickly on its axis these days, and we're all going to have serious migraines if all this improvement gets out of hand, if it hasn't done so already.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Cat's Cradle :)
So far, I like this book collectively. Kurt Vonnegut is a simplistic genius. There aren't really any pictures in this one, so that kinda sucks, but the imagery is priceless. Like when the youngest son is describing his father when he shows him the cat's cradle, how horrid you know? Vonnegut is so crafty when it comes to thinking out of the box, so right brain. The father I believe is a reflection of his thinking, that abnormal detachment that you don't find in most people. I mean, the guy is building an atom bomb and couldn't care less about the uses of this invention or the amount of deaths that will occur once its used.
For instance, "What is sin?" is a definite red flag that this guy has a screw loose. He's amoral. I wouldn't say careless, because it does seem that he has feelings and the potential to care about something by the way he treats that piece of string to make his cat's cradle. I wonder what the cat's cradle symbolizes. It's a support system for a cat.. Yeah I got nothing. I have to keep reading. Anyway, the layout Vonnegut has plotted so far is funny, in my opinion. There's a midget, a bug fighter, an estranged bomb maker, and a sister that has "3 kids", and a guy that is super fascinated with all of it. It's like a reality show. So clever. These all must symbolize something. The bug fighting son is a small scale representation of his father, D said that in class. The father sees absolutely nothing wrong with his son's activity, even though it is something many children do. But, when he hits his sister and she's screaming? He does nothing about it, and better yet, its almost a transparent occurrence to him because its like he never saw it at all. Strange.
For instance, "What is sin?" is a definite red flag that this guy has a screw loose. He's amoral. I wouldn't say careless, because it does seem that he has feelings and the potential to care about something by the way he treats that piece of string to make his cat's cradle. I wonder what the cat's cradle symbolizes. It's a support system for a cat.. Yeah I got nothing. I have to keep reading. Anyway, the layout Vonnegut has plotted so far is funny, in my opinion. There's a midget, a bug fighter, an estranged bomb maker, and a sister that has "3 kids", and a guy that is super fascinated with all of it. It's like a reality show. So clever. These all must symbolize something. The bug fighting son is a small scale representation of his father, D said that in class. The father sees absolutely nothing wrong with his son's activity, even though it is something many children do. But, when he hits his sister and she's screaming? He does nothing about it, and better yet, its almost a transparent occurrence to him because its like he never saw it at all. Strange.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Brave New World essay building
I think that the handouts D gave us are really going to help with my essay. This book has been crazy, from what I've heard and the small amount that I've read. I can't believe someone would make up something this backwards.. But really, how backwards is it? How wrong, well different, would it be for me to think that our worlds, in some aspects, are similar? The savages are like us in that they strive for individuality, sure, but our society also loves conformity and being the hypocritical contradicting so-called "liberals" that claim this individuality. Like the pregnant woman in the book, when someone looks especially out of the ordinary, or even slightly, do we not look at them differently or automatically assume that they are not like us, that there is no possible way that they are "normal"? Yeah, you see? I don't understand it either. Maybe this hypocracy has been taken to extremities with BNW, maybe this shows that these people are really, really striving for conformity, just like we subtly are, its satirical exaggerations speak for themselves thats for sure. That was a lot of commas, but you understand.
For my essay, I'm going to build on how important it is that we keep our individuality flowing and plentiful, to be found everywhere and expressed by everyone. I think humans are humans because we act as humans, not as mechanical robots. Humanism is expression, behaviorism, unpredicting, and to change any one thing that fits the human criteria is fatal to this needed individuality that is the fuel to our society's growth and circulation.
I can use those handouts because they explain the fatalities of revolutionization. Sure, some things becoming obsolete are much needed, but human nature? Come on. We aren't machines and we aren't animals. Even animals shouldn't be forced to perform under these restrictions because its just simply.. Unethical. Live and love as humans should, but don't use it as an incentive. It is fuel for the body's mind and soul, but these aspects of life are not all that we need for survival. No, we need much more.
For my essay, I'm going to build on how important it is that we keep our individuality flowing and plentiful, to be found everywhere and expressed by everyone. I think humans are humans because we act as humans, not as mechanical robots. Humanism is expression, behaviorism, unpredicting, and to change any one thing that fits the human criteria is fatal to this needed individuality that is the fuel to our society's growth and circulation.
I can use those handouts because they explain the fatalities of revolutionization. Sure, some things becoming obsolete are much needed, but human nature? Come on. We aren't machines and we aren't animals. Even animals shouldn't be forced to perform under these restrictions because its just simply.. Unethical. Live and love as humans should, but don't use it as an incentive. It is fuel for the body's mind and soul, but these aspects of life are not all that we need for survival. No, we need much more.
Monday, September 28, 2009
For things that cannot be explained, legends, narratives, and myths are created to explain events that are beyond scientific measurement. When an occurrence cannot be quantified or proven, like a belief or the story of an ancient mythological creature, stories answer questions that others have, and these stories can live through many more generations. Cultures create stories that may differ even though they may be about the same subject or person. Determining the way a person acts, such as what qualifies the traits of a student, teacher, or parent cannot be scientifically quantified, therefore people create narratives based upon what they see or what their environment molds these people into.
Lyotard breaks down the barriers of beliefs and narratives that foretell the reason why things happen the way they happen. Postmodernism puts a quantification to everything, destroying these grand narratives that had once been created off mystery and seemingly elderly wisdom. He says that knowledge will cease to exist unless it can be minimized to simply computer knowledge, meaning scientically quantifiable, straight forward, and factual information that does not thrive off of questioning or derive from a story or narrative.
Narratives can marginalize minorities and their discourses because certain narratives have been created through those discourses and have remained within that society of people. Mexican cultures have narratives that explain happenings and situations to children. Even though the ancestors weren't there to see these happenings take place, the narrative makes up for the loss of their presence and that narrative can still be taken for its truth. These stories remain within these communities and, therefore, marginalize them because it has been made a part of their culture.
Computer technology and efficient productivity is the representation of the world and what it is becoming in Brave New World. Lyotard presents the argument that the world will cease to function without this preciseness, though Huxley claims quite the contrary with his satirical exaggeration of this make believe world. These differing opinions, or conspiracies, whichever you prefer, make for a great argument based upon whether imagination and narratives is the DNA of our universe, or if preciseness and efficiency will create a happier, more desirable world to reside in.
Lyotard breaks down the barriers of beliefs and narratives that foretell the reason why things happen the way they happen. Postmodernism puts a quantification to everything, destroying these grand narratives that had once been created off mystery and seemingly elderly wisdom. He says that knowledge will cease to exist unless it can be minimized to simply computer knowledge, meaning scientically quantifiable, straight forward, and factual information that does not thrive off of questioning or derive from a story or narrative.
Narratives can marginalize minorities and their discourses because certain narratives have been created through those discourses and have remained within that society of people. Mexican cultures have narratives that explain happenings and situations to children. Even though the ancestors weren't there to see these happenings take place, the narrative makes up for the loss of their presence and that narrative can still be taken for its truth. These stories remain within these communities and, therefore, marginalize them because it has been made a part of their culture.
Computer technology and efficient productivity is the representation of the world and what it is becoming in Brave New World. Lyotard presents the argument that the world will cease to function without this preciseness, though Huxley claims quite the contrary with his satirical exaggeration of this make believe world. These differing opinions, or conspiracies, whichever you prefer, make for a great argument based upon whether imagination and narratives is the DNA of our universe, or if preciseness and efficiency will create a happier, more desirable world to reside in.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Brave New World and its extremities.
Okay, I'm gonna collect all of my thoughts here and spit them out in random order. So.. I guess progress and efficiency has become the central core of a thriving, seemingly and distortedly improved society that has abolished meaning, and I say meaning in the most general connotative form of the word. Before I go into anything else here, let's backtrack a bit.
First of all, what is meaning? What is there to compare to that will aide in defining the meaning of something? In my opinion, meaning is when you declare that an emotion has been brought about by a given event or occurrence. When human emotions are stimulated, meaning is created and can then be used as a comparison to what a meaningful life or meaningful situation is.
In Brave New World, meaning is abolished when emotions are destroyed and time is altered to begin on a certain date, the time Ford was born. With the assembly line the central focus of existence, the satirical exaggeration of what life has evolved into spins out of control and creates an image of productivity and efficiency, which has made "taking in the moment" and slowing down time to reminiss upon times of happiness completely obsolete.
BNW has this twisted conspiracy that happiness is forever cycling, and keeping everyone "happy" is the way life should be..lived? If that could be classified as living. I'm not saying that the way current society, our society, is the correct way to live or that it is the only way to live, but it is what I have to compare to so I'm just gonna run with it here. Every emotion possesses its compliment, happiness and sadness, love and hate, etc. Without the expression of one, the other becomes unknown. Who are these absurd people to define what being happy is if they have never been sad? If events never occur that bring about excitement, smiles, any gesture of derivative of happiness, then how they compare is beyond my realm of understanding here. I feel like I'm ridiculing a world that is not my own, and just because it is not my own, it becomes wrong, which is supposed to make my opinions of them right? I don't see the logic in this, I feel like a 1984 citizen, ridiculing the unknown because I have never immersed myself into someone else's body of water. We as humans are completely subjective regardless of how much we try not to be. Out of instinct, it is who we are and is instilled in our every fiber and strand of DNA. From my perspective, I see family as the sun and all other aspects of one's life the revolving planets that orbit, evenly spaced, creating a solar system that is one's existence. Forget existence actually, it is our life because it possesses meaning. BNW believes family to be the antithesis of society. To have a family means that others, all others in the world, have been excluded from a family's unconditional bonds. These bonds create the barriers between every person that exists in our world. We are walking bubbles, and invading one's bubble is an invasion of morals and family values. BNW has popped all of its bubbles with a giant needle and then used that needle to craft an assembly line that, I guess satisfies, the needs of acceptance by everyone and eliminating any private space or unconditional bonds that one could possibly possess. How this author came up with this is beyond me. Touche.
First of all, what is meaning? What is there to compare to that will aide in defining the meaning of something? In my opinion, meaning is when you declare that an emotion has been brought about by a given event or occurrence. When human emotions are stimulated, meaning is created and can then be used as a comparison to what a meaningful life or meaningful situation is.
In Brave New World, meaning is abolished when emotions are destroyed and time is altered to begin on a certain date, the time Ford was born. With the assembly line the central focus of existence, the satirical exaggeration of what life has evolved into spins out of control and creates an image of productivity and efficiency, which has made "taking in the moment" and slowing down time to reminiss upon times of happiness completely obsolete.
BNW has this twisted conspiracy that happiness is forever cycling, and keeping everyone "happy" is the way life should be..lived? If that could be classified as living. I'm not saying that the way current society, our society, is the correct way to live or that it is the only way to live, but it is what I have to compare to so I'm just gonna run with it here. Every emotion possesses its compliment, happiness and sadness, love and hate, etc. Without the expression of one, the other becomes unknown. Who are these absurd people to define what being happy is if they have never been sad? If events never occur that bring about excitement, smiles, any gesture of derivative of happiness, then how they compare is beyond my realm of understanding here. I feel like I'm ridiculing a world that is not my own, and just because it is not my own, it becomes wrong, which is supposed to make my opinions of them right? I don't see the logic in this, I feel like a 1984 citizen, ridiculing the unknown because I have never immersed myself into someone else's body of water. We as humans are completely subjective regardless of how much we try not to be. Out of instinct, it is who we are and is instilled in our every fiber and strand of DNA. From my perspective, I see family as the sun and all other aspects of one's life the revolving planets that orbit, evenly spaced, creating a solar system that is one's existence. Forget existence actually, it is our life because it possesses meaning. BNW believes family to be the antithesis of society. To have a family means that others, all others in the world, have been excluded from a family's unconditional bonds. These bonds create the barriers between every person that exists in our world. We are walking bubbles, and invading one's bubble is an invasion of morals and family values. BNW has popped all of its bubbles with a giant needle and then used that needle to craft an assembly line that, I guess satisfies, the needs of acceptance by everyone and eliminating any private space or unconditional bonds that one could possibly possess. How this author came up with this is beyond me. Touche.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
This ties in with 1984, in my opinion.
I'm not sure if you guys even see my posts when I write them, but I am at least doing my part. I hope I get credit for this.
Anyway, Orwell's novel, 1984, is most likely one of the most twisted and distorted creations to be placed on parchment and printed with ink. Oceania is considerably the epitome of what could happen to our society if we continue to feel the need to reform text books and manipulate history in a way that is tasteful for young readers and our future generation. The totalitarianism is a representation of what our board of education wishes it could be, but the nation has not yet declined to that level of, in my opinion, ignorance. The ignorance of these leaders to want to obliterate what is clearly the genetic makeup of their being, their present, and the shaping of their future will soon destroy any reason for life to make sense, to fit together like a puzzle. With no right or wrong, no true or false, I guess everyone is entitled to believe whatever they choose to believe. Oh wait, Oceania has leaders that make those decisions for them. Freedom will forever be constricted until humanity diminishes into nothingness.
Do this. Take away the tyrannical Big Brother and all of his mindless followers and settle yourself in our society and see what you're left with. In reality, 1984 is correct in saying that if you choose to believe that something is correct, hypothetically it will be correct. What is truth? Who determines what is true? I see that mathematical equations and scientific experiments will give definite answers to a certain extent, but when it comes to life and all of its abstract concepts that float beneath our atmosphere, who then determines what is truth? I could pull any thought from the air and declare some amount of truth to it, however much I may decide, and that will be as complex as it becomes.
"This is not all I have planned today for this class session, we will continue this tomorrow." - David Menendian.
Anyway, Orwell's novel, 1984, is most likely one of the most twisted and distorted creations to be placed on parchment and printed with ink. Oceania is considerably the epitome of what could happen to our society if we continue to feel the need to reform text books and manipulate history in a way that is tasteful for young readers and our future generation. The totalitarianism is a representation of what our board of education wishes it could be, but the nation has not yet declined to that level of, in my opinion, ignorance. The ignorance of these leaders to want to obliterate what is clearly the genetic makeup of their being, their present, and the shaping of their future will soon destroy any reason for life to make sense, to fit together like a puzzle. With no right or wrong, no true or false, I guess everyone is entitled to believe whatever they choose to believe. Oh wait, Oceania has leaders that make those decisions for them. Freedom will forever be constricted until humanity diminishes into nothingness.
Do this. Take away the tyrannical Big Brother and all of his mindless followers and settle yourself in our society and see what you're left with. In reality, 1984 is correct in saying that if you choose to believe that something is correct, hypothetically it will be correct. What is truth? Who determines what is true? I see that mathematical equations and scientific experiments will give definite answers to a certain extent, but when it comes to life and all of its abstract concepts that float beneath our atmosphere, who then determines what is truth? I could pull any thought from the air and declare some amount of truth to it, however much I may decide, and that will be as complex as it becomes.
"This is not all I have planned today for this class session, we will continue this tomorrow." - David Menendian.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
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