I feel like the reason technology is so associated with things that are considered high-tech is because simpler stuff such as a book or as mentioned lighting a fire is stuff that has been around for ages. That doesn’t take away from the fact that they are still technological advancements though, they just so happened to be created way before we were born which is why we don’t associate them as technology sometimes. Same could be said though for modern day technology as in the far future they won’t be considered high-tech anymore. Another thing I realized a little bit later after writing this is that the same is with coding as well because new languages are always being created. As for the other reading the explanation of creating the work as well as the world, that is part of the reason I am doing a computer science minor as I feel like being able to create the functioning apps/website as well design the looks of them is what i'm hoping for when combing my major and minor. It was also interesting to see the comparison to objects.
Handmade webs definitely feel more personal as mentioned in the writing, it isn’t so cookie cutter and easily mass produced which is why a lot of websites that run on website creator websites such as Squarespace don’t feel unique. Because of this, a piece of personality that once was shown by these handmade websites are no longer there. Just like everything else, I believe that these website generators will eventually become obsolete though as eventually I believe ai might be able to do everything but unlike handmade webs which will still feel personal, these squarespace websites will be no different from the entirely ai generated ones.
The illustrations that go along with the reading make it very easy to understand compared to some of the previous readings. I also liked the reference to some coding/computer terms such as the world not simply being 1’s and 0’s which are basically on and off/yes or no statements. It means that the world can’t be simply created in a computer as the world is full of unknown factors where a computer can only do what it is designed to do. It also made me realize that something that I may understand doesn’t mean the computer will understand as computers can’t think for themselves really (unless ai keeps improving). Side note - I never really got why "Hello world" is the commmon phrase used when learning coding, was it like the first thing said by an important program or something?
The first thing besides texting that this website reminded me of was the help chat functions that would be used on some websites to seek help from customer service (something I’ve never used). This website definitely seems to target the same feeling of anxiety that can be caused by texting as the constant loud notifications and the waiting speech bubble that appears can be frustrating at times having to wait for the rest of the reading. I will say it is probably the most unique experience of reading we have had in this class. Something I didn’t realize at first was the changing of profile pictures in the same readings which makes me wonder are these supposed to be group chats or private conversations with one person?
Just like last entry too, Debt seems to also deal with modern day texting but in a different way. While it is stated that Debt is about the errors that people make, instead gives off a feeling of the same conversation happening daily with slight changes or how people may spell the same words differently when using texting terminology. It almost feels like each version is an alternate reality where the same conversation is taking place but slight changes in their lives has led to these different spellings. I would not be surprised if AI is able to do this exact same thing too as it almost feels like an AI generation of what a texting conversation may look like in modern times.
The first thing I thought of when I immediately opened the website was that the image was a simple directed graph which is something I learned the other week in my discrete math class. I also find it funny how the business elite were the ones who wanted to calculate the amount of resources on earth considering they most likely are using the most for their own companies and that their solution was to basically put a bandaid over a dam. “the common enemy of humanity is man,” is also an interesting quote I found that I agree with completely as it's even backed by history as humans have killed the most humans whether it be directly or indirectly, we are our own worst enemy. Also the statement about the cloud being someone else's computer could also be said for video games and servers as playing on a server is just another computer as well which kind of confirms the term “cloud” being a marketing term.
The first thing that stood out to me was this quote, “Our attention is over-extended, over-stimulated, and over-commodified, making us twitchy, unfocused, and, in a very crude sense, afraid.” which applies so much to today’s society due to social media such as tiktok which only makes our attention spans even worse. One thing I also want to note is how open the library is compared to many other ones I have visited, the paintings on the ceilings also make it feel more like a museum which I guess that is what a library is, a museum for books. I also found it interesting how the author misleads the reader at first about the train station as when most people think of the New York train station they think of the grand central terminal. “These massive systems haven’t differentiated between serving the needs of advertising and inadvertently serving the needs of propaganda.” Is also another part of the essay I found interesting as I found that social media has basically become a source of news for some and tends to also be very biased which is why it feels so much like propaganda sometimes. It is also something I talked about in my other class about certain apps on the phone being a time waster which some of the apps mentioned are also mentioned in the article.