Digital Junction/As We May Think

 

After reading “As We May Think” and “Digital Junction” my thoughts drifted back to the movie  “Artificial Intelligence”. This movie embraces  digital format (Simulating human perception and thinking processes with the emotions and motivations) .[1]    

In the second article “Digital Junction” there is discussion of a future device, “memex”, a virtual desk which will store all your books, records and communications. It is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility (Bush 1945)[2]   The Memex has now come to life.  The World Wide Web is a less personal “memex” it contains  not only your information, but an entire world of information.  Your PC is the “memex”.  You can save all your information, resources, graphics, and texts.  This information can be kept on a mobile memory device (memory stick, CD, DVD, tape etc) or directly on your PC hard drive. 

 

Mr. Randy Bass asks:  “What will we be looking at when the World Wide Web is invisible (much like the Television is now? (DeRuyver September 2006,)[3]  At the time this article was written   the vast majority of people were illiterate; the vocabulary of the proliferating digital technologies was unknown to most, as is the case today.  Because of this fact most of the population still remains on the perimeter of most discussions and decisions being made on the WWW. 

 

The article is interesting in that it gives a plethora of links to web portals that can be invaluable to the scholarly researcher. The authors give guidance in evaluating online history sites from two perspectives; General criteria and Specific criteria.  Also they explain the symbolic references. 

 

This article attempts to make one confident in the WWW.  However, there is a precaution:  that some links are not spot on, e.g. LOC has a link to Sept 11, 2001 with personal accounts and when you click the link an error message pops up.

  


1.Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, Massachutes: MIT Press, d2001, 2001.

2.Bush, Vannevar. “AS We May Think.” The Atlantic.com, 1945: 1-8.

3.DeRuyver, Debra and Evans, Jennifer. “Digital Junction.” American Quarterly, Volume 58, Number 3, , September 2006,: pp. 943-980 .

 

 

 

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3 Comments »

  1. disembodiedspirit said

    Cynthia:
    I thought I was the only one to see Artificial Intelligence. What a great comparison and connection. it will be interesting to see what the next level of filing and compiling information will be in another 500 years.
    -Hunter

  2. mckinleyalbert said

    People always seem to be afraid of what they do not know. As more and more people become familiar with computer and digital technologies, I think people will become less skeptical.

  3. awc4 said

    I agree entirely on the point made concerning an individual becoming more familiar with digital technology.

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