No time to hide, they've already seen us.

Ever felt like you were being watched? 

Maybe not in person but we are all under surveillance. Parents watch over their children playing to keep them from harm and stop them doing wrong. It works the same with police and crime control, consumer activities, work environments and traffic monitoring. In some cases surveillance is a great idea, CCTV can catch the criminals, speed camera can spy on riot drivers but that doesn't mean we want to be observed all the time. It is most likely that our actions are always seen you could almost place it as the same category as Big Brother. People are being watched by the public, every move, every sound, everything is shown, however they know they are being viewed causing the Hawthorne effect. 

But.. what about not knowing? 

Using the web causes cookies on the browser therefore actions are tracked to what sites you go on or what you research. Google keeps your data history. All them questions you were to embarrassed to ask that you thought Google could help you with have been seen. Concerning isn't it?

The worst could be knowing that social networking can be monitored. What you write as your status, all the photos and videos you post onto Facebook are more than likely being seen. Not necessarily read and registered, as the Facebook servers will not want to know 'What's on your mind?' however, knowing they can see your public thoughts who you can only hope only spread to your friends. 

"When gossip spreads to the internet, it can spiral out of control" Daniel J Solave. 

The answer could be setting your profile to private, but does that really make much of a difference? Our private lives aren't really that private. 

 

Did you read the Terms and Conditions when you joined? Did anyone?

We don't, we merely presume that what we say is only for friends or followers but it does not seem to be that way.  

Brief versions of the T&Cs for Facebook and Twitter... 

1) You own all of the content you post, but you specifically give us the permission to use any IP content (photos&videos).

2) When you delete content, it may be removed from your profile but may persist in back up copies. 

3) When you publish content using the public setting, it means that you are allowing everyone including people off of facebook to access your information. 

4) NO SPAM

5) NO VIRUSES 

6) NO CYBER-BULLYING, HARASSMENT, OR INTIMIDATION

7) NO VIOLENT, PORNOGRAPHIC, THREATENING CONTENTS

8) NO FALSE INFORMATION

9) NO ONE UNDER THE AGE OF 13

10) KEEP YOUR INFORMATION UP TO-DATE

1) You are responsible for your use of the services for content posted - able to be viewed by others.

2) Changes occur from time to time without notice to you. Twitter may even temporarily or permanently stop providing a service.

3) Doesn't support or guarantee the accuracy or truth of the content posted by services.

4) Doesn't monitor or control content, it's your own risk.

5) Have the right to post anything.

6) Grant Twitter a world-wide exclusive, royalty free license to ..use/copy/reproduce/process/adapt/modify/publish/transmit and display your content in media.

7) May modify or adapt your content in order to distribute it over computer networks.

8) Protected by copyright.

It is not just social networking but we have terms and conditionals for everything. Shopping online, phone updates, contracts, gaming, travelling, etc. 

Own photo print shot. 

They may have right to do this. However it does not always mean that they would do it. Although it's a scary thought that what we post could be posted somewhere else and we have no control over it. All because we were too lazy to read the rules. 

http://www.facebook.com

https://twitter.com/

Yesterday we were human, today we're robots.

Today we are seeing an ever closer connection between humans and digital technology. Previous blogs consider the ideas of human and technology intimacy in our bodies, but what about our minds?
We think all day, every day about life, people, relationships, music, what we'll have for dinner, everything goes around our minds constantly but what about machines? Would you believe that they think too?
The possibility of a machine actually thinking sounds bizarre for they are programmed, so everything they do is controlled but is it? 


Alex Turing invented the 'Turing test' to discover whether machines could think. The test involves a judge who must determine who is the human and who is the machine. All the participants are separated and if the judge cannot tell the computer from human then, the computer has passed the test.

Hal 9000 '2001, A Space Odyssey' was the artificial intelligence in a series that could control systems, and interact with humans. This may have been a fictional character but many people had theories believing this would be the future of computing. 

"Machines will be capable, within twenty years, of doing any work a man can do" - Herbert. A. Simon, Carnegie Mellon University.

The films idea of this technology was too optimistic, having lip reading and commonsense was still fiction, although we do have the advances of voice recognition on smartphones.
Similarly to Hal, there is the known computer program called 'Chatterbot' to provide intelligent    conversation with human uses by audio or text. 

"The development of an artificially conscious entity may happen without our lifetimes" Robert Pepperall, 2003 

So, what is a robot?
When the word robot comes to mind, what do we picture?
A machine moving around in a laboratory or factory? 
A computer?
A mechanical man? Woman? or dog? 
Data from Star Trek? 
All of them. 
We have industrial robots who use a mechanical limb to move about. They perform repetitive tasks that humans can do and some that are too dangerous for humans. Robots are being blamed for unemployment in industries as they are replacing workers. 
They can be used for war, fighting purposes for bomb disposal and marines fighting platforms.
Although being used for these series tasks, they are also used for entertainment. Robot Wars was the television series where individuals would create their own robots to fight others. 
There are also 'expressive robots'. Rodney Brookes created 'Baxter' a robot who can interact with human workers in industrial tasks. 

There are many films that involve the development of robots; 

• The American film 'Short Circuit', 1986. 'Johnny Five' was a realistic approach of a robot who was 'alive'. 
• Data (Star Trek) the fictional android with amazing computing intelligence with aspects of human behaviour. 
• The Terminator, 1984, a cyborg assassin programmed to exterminate the human race, Although being an assassin robot Arnold Schwarzenegger is idealized by men.
• WALL.E, 2008, Disney Pixar prediction of our future.

We do not know what will occur in the future, we can only predict. Robots are an important part of our lives, without the machines certain tasks would not get done. Whether or not machines can actually think for themselves is always going to be questioned. We could ask ourselves if it is really us who are thinking and not someone else controlling our thoughts, so are we machines? 


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2012/10/rodney-brooks-rethink-robotics-elderly.html?page=all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwBmPiOmEGQ
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/reingold/courses/ai/turing.html

We are all walking computers

Would you want to live life without a mobile?

I didn't think so. Neither would I, or any other after having such a fascinating device. So does that mean our desire for these machines should make us into them? Or are we already there? 
Humans and digital technology is forever becoming one.

Digital technology today has created easier user interfaces allowing us to be quick, straight and immediate with our devices, it could almost be seen as a lazy life.
So where did it all begin?
Well...Ivon Sutherland created the 'Sketchpad' and pretty soon we'd got Apple Mac in 1984, THEN everyone became number one fans of the smartphone which now even includes voice recognition (siri ).
But... Of course we just wanted to go that step further.
We want more. Augmented reality grew and look what we've got, glasses as computers. Could it get crazier?
There are other forms are interface, such as our I.D cards, bank cards, Oyster travel cards are all new inventions which provide easy lives for us all.

The relationship between machine and man is becoming more intimate within the body. There are found medical devices called 'pacemakers' that are in placed inside bodies to regulate heart rate, pacemakers in the brain and digital cameras for sight. This shows that technology and humanity are combined into one. Having us this close with machine could contribute to the future of cyborgs. We'd have our phones not just in our pockets or under the pillow but in our bodies. A walking computer, it could be interesting but having all that knowledge similar to the internet, surely could get irritating eventually. 

Maybe we will just have to wait and see.

The nature of life is placed into three main categories;- 

Life. Materialism. Informationalism.

Life is not controlled by anything other than yourself.

Materialism argues life to be having the same scientific elements as inanimate objects.

Informationalism is similar to materialism however, it suggests that the body exchanges molecules with the outside world, but the body has the ability to grow and repair itself.

So basically, we are computers or one day will be. The ever closeness or our relationships with technology is forming a reborn human with technology powers - Cyborgs?

I for one, know my life would not be the same without my phone or internet which is concerning as technology has become one of the most important parts of our lives. But would I want to have it inside me? Or even a piece of body exchanged for machinery, it depends if we have a choice - this could be our future. 

What about forever? Would you want to live forever?

Living for the next 100 years could be fascinating we could see the changes, see if the predictions for the future were right. However, mind uploading could be considered as a lonely place. Imagine all your loved ones dying around you when you stay young, forever. You would never get to experience old age, some would say this is a good thing but if you have half the life experience why not go for the whole? Having a computer in your mind cannot be that great. Every thought you'd have would be spread over servers, there would be no privacy. Although the idea of staying young forever is appealing when you are young and life is at your feet with opportunity, but personally I would  prefer to grow old naturally and see how life plans out.

'The brain is a Turing machine' "We therefore implicitly presuppose that brain behavior is computable"
- Randal A. Koene.

Technology takeover.

Is your machine controlling you?
Have they taken charge of our lives? 

Does your computer tell you what to do? Or do you tell it? 
Our advanced technology could control us in certain ways for we get so involved with them that they know what we want. Google for example, we can type in a limited amount of letters and it will know exactly what we are looking for. They know everything! The knowledge they have aside, without them we would be lost. Imagine not having internet. Especially for the younger generation with Facebook  twitter, blogging and you-tube. We would not know how to cope. Social networking keeps us up-to-date with friends, friends birthdays, news, photos, and also keeps our memories. Sometimes our past gets covered over with the new, but social networking has our first status updates, and photo albums uploaded, they help re-jog memory. There is a possibility that humans could live without using social networking THEY DID and some still do but the luxury of having it now, why would anyone give it away? 

Not just the internet, our mobile phones. Most people who own a mobile will use it constantly or have it near by. Never more than a few ft away. We could probably stop using technology if necessary, as before the web was created there was no choice. Only now we have adjusted to this lifestyle it would be incredibly difficult to go back when technology is always moving forward. Technology has become one of the most important, essential, and beneficial aspects of our lives. As technology increases; we adapt. Machines could be controlling us, for without life would for sure we difficult . 

We now have augmented reality, (AR) in which we see the real world inside technology. It could be the use of a computer screen, mobile phone, head-ware and now the idea of wearable glasses. Ronald Azuma compared AR to the film 'Who framed Roger Rabbit', for the virtual and real objects were together. 

"I honestly believe that at some point in the future we're going to have AR eye-wear , "It has to be socially acceptable and desirable". Steve Feiner, 2011.

A writer named, Kevin Kelly posted a blog in 'wired magazine' called 'We are the web'. We are the web He predicted years ago, machines would be controlling humans. He predicted this through the amount of information eventually machine get from us as consumers. The computers having all this information could therefore control what we do. In the article he referred to Amazon. Amazon is used all over the world for buying and shipping items. This is related for, Amazon can register who we are when logging on, and bring up our user history. With this  knowledge, they can promote certain goods knowing our previous views therefore we are more likely to choose to buy them. The machine is manipulating us. 

A long time ago, computing pioneer Vannevar Bush inspired the idea of hyper linked pages, 1945. Ted Nelson build up this idea in 1965. He was so certain that every document in the world should be a footnote to another document and computers would be able to make the links between them permanent.

Before the Netscape browser highlighted the Web, the Internet did not exist for most people. It seemed to be 'high tech nerds' who knew, others would ask the question; Who wanted to waste time on something

so boring? 

Stephen Weiswasser said :"You aren't going to turn passive consumers into active trollers on the Internet."

Kelly found, 2005 there to be a total of exceeding 600 billion web pages. In less than 4,000 days we produced excessive amount of the story which were in front of 1 billion people. He claimed this wasn't in anyone's 10 year plan. 

Human computer?

The brain and web have billions of neurons/webpages, each neuron for a human has synaptic links to others, with each webpage having hyperlinks.The human brain has an 100 times more than synapses however, the web is forever expanding.

So are we even human?

"Not only did we fail to imagine what the web would become, we still don't see it today. We are blind to this miracle"

Is the machine using me? 

'The machine is using us' - Micheal Welch

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~azuma/ARpresence.pdf
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.08/tech.html?pg=1&topic=tech&topic_set=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxOSk0VYy28

Myth V History

How does history help us understand our own relationship with internet, computing and technology?

Many have become thoroughly involved with the internet, and believe what they read. Not only believe but share and converse about it. According to certain sociologists people are passive. We are naive and media injects us with information - hypothetically of course. The hypodermic syringe theory displays behaviour of certain people. Interactionists would not agree believing that people choose what they read and believe, however conclusions have been drawn that we believe what the internet say because we have such a strong bond with it. 

Richard Wise wrote a few of the myths within the internet;

• Cyberspace is a place apart and so not subject to rules that apply to the 'real' world.

• The technology of the internet makes it possible to be anonymous and so free to adopt any identity that you chose on-line.

• The technology of the internet is making a more social and helping to foster a new kind of community.

• We are the verge of a new political era of computer - mediated democracy.

• The development of the internet is unique and exceptional in human history and not subject to social forces that characterised the adoption of other important technologies. 

The development of computing has a number of influential cultural factors that impacted the cultural perception of the early internet.

• The US military planners
• University based hacker culture
• The counter culture
• US corporate culture

The earliest computers were created to calculate artillery range tables for US Army. Other logical uses such as; Code Breaking and US Census. 

In the seminar we researched into a company known as 'Xerox Parc'. Xerox has assembled the worlds greatest computer engineers and programmers in the 1970s. They have influenced how computers are so popular and easy to use. They created some of our most successful inventions; 

 - Laser printing

 - Ethernet  / Distributing computer

 - WYSIWYG - file formatting

 - Graphic user interface

 - Unicode multilingual computing.

They are also conducting a hands free mobility of computers, similar to google glasses.

 

Xerox parc began selling a successor to the Alto in 1981. It was slow and underpowered and xerox ultimately withdrew from personal computers. Larry Tesler conducted the demonstration of the 'the mouse'. Steve Jobs immediately demanded the Apple team to work of the next generation of computers. Including, menus on screen, windows, and the mouse. 

So, how does history help us understand our own relationship with internet, computing and technology?

Evidently the history of computing has a huge impact on my own relationship with the internet. Knowing and understanding how different life was without the technology we have nowadays makes me appreciate that we have it. I understand so much more how different life would be and how much technology has adjusted through the years. Technology will continuously change, though without the history of this technology of computers and internet we would not have any at all.
& we all know we wouldn't want that.

http://www.parc.com/

http://blogs.parc.com/blog/2012/10/heads-up-hands-on/

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/16/110516fa_fact_gladwell

Is wearing computers worth losing limbs?

Would you wear your computer?
A laptop, a desktop, a net-book  a tablet, an iPhone no matter what type of computer it is, imagine having that directly stuck on your face.
A project called 'Google Glasses' has attempted to create a wearable computing device. Alongside Google many others have planned an idea similar. They simply just chose a pair of glasses, and placed batteries hidden in the frame. The glasses work by displaying information in front of our eyes, similar to our mobiles only directly in our face. It has a camera, GPS and scrolling by tilting our heads, with a voice recognition.
Would it be useful?

We are constantly looking away from others anyway when we are texting or tweeting on our phones. Walking through town heads are down and phones are out. Would it make a difference if we had that but as glasses? Surely this way having the glasses would stop hunching over and hurting our backs.  They would be on our faces.
Suppose that the idea and the projects happens, it is a new form of a different technology that in ten years the world will be craving. Linking to my earlier blog on change, it is shown how no matter what it will change. Earlier blog on change

"The word technology comes from two Greek words transliterated Techne and Logos. Techne means art and Logos means word - So technology means words or discourse about the way things are gained" - Etymology 

Ancient Greek philosopher; Aristotle (384 BC-322BC) was first the write about technology in physics. He stated that "technology makes possible what is onto logically impossible would mean to claim a strange and self-contradictory magic", "technology imitates nature". 

During the 19th century, technology wasn't an important term. People would talk about machines and industries however, going into the 20th century - it has been used as industrial science and technology being "employed by people to provide itself objects of material culture." - Webster, 1961.

Technology has changed incredibly over the years, but what exactly does it mean?

Karl Marx(1818 -1883) was a German Philosopher who believed in Capitalism. He believed that the dominant class is distinguished by ownership and control of means of production. His idea of class and social divide is still the nature of the system. His views of technology concluded the idea that no matter how "mysterious, or complex it another way to productivity of exploitation of workers". 

Theodore John Kaczynski, otherwise known as the 'Unabomber' is an American who struck a nationwide bombing protest against modern technology and killed three people. In 1995, he sent letters to media explaining his aims and demanding that his essay 'Industrial society and its future' which was later called 'Unabomber manifesto' be printed in newspapers and then he would end the bombs.

So exactly what would the unabomber think about this new technology 'Google glasses'? Good or bad? From his experiences it is highly doubtful he would have wanted  this new, fresh, 'cool'  modern technology considering he campaigned a line of modern technology. 

Overall, Google glasses can be considered a good advance in technology as for one it will inevitably occur, whether it was this or something something even more out the ordinary. Technology will not stop changing and growing. Many could be worried on the idea that they will take over our lives and we will live in a virtual reality behind our glasses and social lives will be disrupted completely but that must have been what our grandparents thought when they heard about the internet.  

I asked others what they thought of the glasses. 
A 21-year-old computer student; "They.Are.Epic"
A 19-year-old child care student; "It would annoy me"
Myself and my journalism class were also not exactly thrilled of the idea of wearing computer glasses yet who are we to complain when we live for technology? 

Google suggests that wearing these glasses we become "super-beings" however; it could be irritating having a computer constantly connected to our eyes. Do advertisements bother you? Imagine them in your face permanently. There is also the possibility of them being dangerous as it will be a huge distraction from reality. Driving a car or walking in the street could cause injuries all for a new technological device. Is it worth losing a limb?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4

http://www.techradar.com/news/video/project-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114

http://www.joachimschummer.net/jslit/aristot.htm

Destined for change.

How often do you change your mobile phone? 
We change them constantly for the 'cool' new updated versions but imagine if it just stayed the same. Imagine if Apple finally decided to say no to having any more updates to the iPhone or iPad. It is only natural to want improvements but how far can they go? 

Our media technologies have changed consistently for years allowing new generations to not know a life without mobile phones or Facebook. Imagine if we had the opportunity to venture back in time, back to where internet wasn't even known to the public. Of course, we would have our mobile phones on us as we are never apart. Imagine the questions that would be asked. 
"What is that?" 
"Google? Who is google?"
If this question was asked today we'd presume they had been living in a cave for the last 20 years but if we didn't have these new technologies what would we do? 

The first print newspaper was carved in stone and metal in 59BC and today our technology has converged into one tiny computer we place in our pockets. Smart phones hold everything from music to photos, internet to television, weather to bank accounts. Media has changed, and so have we. Those who lived before the smart phone, before regular internet access have had to adapt into the world of digital technology. 

If media was inevitably going to change there would be more face to face communication but no SMS. We would not have online profiles but the people we talk to would know our likes and dislikes through conversation. 
But the question is, would we actually want to be without it? 

'Heraclitus of Ephesus' is known for his plea on change in the universe, this has relevance to the media for, media is continuously changing. Adjustments to the universe, humans, environment will happen inevitably, and seen as we just keep wanting more, it seems media will simply change.

"By studying the communication system as a whole, we will see that new media do not arise spontaneously and independently - they emerge gradually from the metamorphosis of old media" - Fidler, 1997 

Mediamorphosis is a term used to explain media change from old to new. Mobile phone services were introduced in 1946, and have developed rapidly since. Mobile phones have decreased in size yet increased in power with much more technical abilities. We even have phones that talk to us. So without this change, we would still be walking about with bricks - They did not have the Facebook app either.

          

                              
Today, our mobile phones have 
Texting, calling, camera, internet, social networking apps, games, music player, radio, news, banking, payments, Bluetooth  a light, e reader, GPS... We have everything in one, so surely media change is a positive idea. However; as we become old, technology becomes new. 
Will technology take over? 

The concept convergence also created media change. Convergence is defined as 'the interlinking of computing communication networks and media content' - Flew. T, 2008. Convergence is split between four categories. 
Technological convergence - Old phone, Cassette player  = iPhone
Institutional convergence - traditional and new services converge towards the same networks and to use  consumer devices for purposes such as telephony, television or personal computing.
Professional convergence - Being able to manage all in one connection to each other.
Cultural convergence - We are a global village  people around the world will read, eat, watch and know the same as other cultures. Example; Disney, Mcdonalds, Coca Cola

Hypermedia - "computer applications that present multiple media using hypertextual organisation" - Bolter and Grusin, 1999

Digitization - "makes media files; highly amenable for manipulation by a computer" - Wide, 2000

Interconnectivity - "Capacity to easily connect interactions across different networks" Flew T, 2008

The media is always changing, and will inevitably change due to our consistency to spend, want and thirst for more technology developments.
WE WANT MORE!

http://j113-onlinejournalism.blogspot.co.uk/2007/06/mediamorphosis.html