Should I Throw My Computer in a Wood Stove?

Through this blog, I am able to communicate with far more people than we could not so many years ago. This blog in particular has made me a credible (or at least as credible as any other blogger) though untrained, journalist. I can actually publish any thought that comes to mind and have the potential to have thousands of readers. Professional journalist may feel the same way about my amateur reports as Hawthorne felt about the abomination which is a wood stove. In some people’s point of view, blogs may ruin the hierarchy of publication.

On the other hand some may feel that it is a revolution in journalism, writing, and art. You know longer have to struggle half of your life to get people to hear what you have to say. People with access to the internet have access to tons of information, and some of it is even useful. This blog and all blogs are just a part of the bigger scheme of exchanging information quickly, so that learning and creation are made easier. This isn’t exactly what was described, but ultimately I think it was the goal of Bush’s Memex.

To a certain degree I can understand both points of view. Although they were written in different times about different things, way before the internet was being thought about; they both have important things to say about technology.

Hawthorne insists that this new wooden stove contraption was ruining how we interacted with fire and thus nature. He had the idea that maybe it would take away that warm, fuzzy feeling we get by sitting next to an open flame. I can semi-agree with him in the fact that technology may at times lead us away from nature and that it may even make us perceive ourselves differently. I say “semi-agree” because I have never lived a life in a house where there wasn’t some managed source of heat, and I wasn’t around when the wooden stove was invented. So I can’t exactly see that particular object the way that he may have saw it, but I think that his ideology on technology is something that I can agree with. As a matter of fact I think it is something that we can’t avoid.

As we keep creating things that help make life easier, we get further and further away from the simple ways of doing things. I have never driven a horse wagon for hours on end just to get home, so I can’t very well know what it was like for those people who did to ride in a car (horseless carriage), for the first time. So I obviously won’t appreciate my car in the same way that those people did. Now, it is just an inconvenience to not have a car.

These things that we create seem to drive us further and further away from our natural way of doing things. I do agree that technology and the internet in particular have changed people and the way that they perceive things, but I don’t see them as something that will ultimately destroy us all together. Hawthorne got a little too carried away, or at least I think so.

In my opinion, the internet seems like the descendant of the Memex. In a way I guess it is, though the sharing of ideas and many people driven to share information easily and quickly. The main goal of Bush seemed to be making learning more accessible and more efficient.

The Memex is this piece of technology that stores information and passes it on to the next user. Each user can add information so that the next one my see something that is useful to them and their interest or study. This is the basic idea or principle that the internet should be used for. I don’t think that that is what it is used for most of the time, but now and again I find out something new that I wouldn’t have otherwise. For example, I use the internet to learn new pieces of music and new skills on all the instruments I study and play. I can download sheet music or tablature, and then I can download the same particular song or piece that goes with that music. I order instruments online, I post dates that I will be playing shows, and I even sell my music online sometimes. This example shows that the internet goes far beyond what the Memex was intended to do, but it is based around the same ideas of sharing knowledge.

I feel that the internet has a bright future as far as education and communication. It may sometimes lead us astray from what really matters in life, and it may even keep us avid users from getting a little sunshine, but I do not feel that it will lead to a destruction of normal communication. As technology excels, our culture excels with it.

The People's History of Caleb and Computers

My very first memory of interacting with a PC has to be from about the age of five or six. My granddad was an engineer, so he had lots of gadgets and computers. I believe he was running MS Dos with early versions of AutoCAD and whatever else engineers had, but I just liked to play his floppy disk version of Jeopardy.

I began actually learning about how to operate and type when I was in elementary school. We were assigned a certain amount of typing to do, while our hands were covered by this wooden contraption, so that we might grow up knowing how to type without looking at our hands. This did not work well for me, because I cheated. By finishing our assignment, we were rewarded the rest of time in class to play whatever game we wanted to play. So, I glanced under the wooden thing every now and then so that I could get done early. This is why I am still quite slow at typing today I imagine. After I was finished with my assignment, I would play one of three things: “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego”, “Bricks”, or I would draw aliens on “Paint”. I feel a bit of nostalgia just thinking about it. I hated typing, but I would have done anything at that point in my life just to get to the fifth level of “Bricks”.

At some point in my life, (probably 9 or 10) I graduated to surfing the internet at my best friend’s house. Although it was dial-up, I thought it was the coolest thing I had ever experienced. I began going to my friend’s house, not to hang out with them, but to walk straight to the computer so that I could see who was in the chat room. (My parents never bothered to get the internet for me, because my best friend’s house was conveniently located three houses down the street.)

Then, the most pivotal moment of my computer history began a short time after, on the same friend’s computer. We heard about Napster, and Kazaa, and torrents. By this time my friend had gotten a cable connection and a CD burner. I got every album that I possibly could. We downloaded skateboarding and music videos like it were going out of style.

I guess I really haven’t grown much when it comes to using computers and the internet to my advantage. I am still just wasting a lot of my time on sites just watching videos and listening to music.

Most of my memories of early experiences with computers are fond ones. I have became angry or frustrated a few times, and those moments most likely had something to do with homework, which in itself, makes me frustrated and angry. I think I have learned a lot over time and have improved my computer skills significantly over the years. Now, I just need to figure out how to make a website that will make me millions of dollars.