Final class tonight

I have my final class in Digital Natives and Immigrants tonight. We are all giving 10-minute presentations. I left my anxiety medication at home, and already I'm starting to get nervous.

We created portfolios of our research for our term paper (due in 30 days).

My presentation will begin with the poem "A Machine" by Russell Edson, in which a son invents a machine and asks the father to worship it. The refuses and the surreal prose poem closes with "I could not bow to the machine; I am. after all, human. Let others open new doors of history."

From there I am going to discuss, briefly, James P. Carse's book Finite and Infinite Games, specifically the definition of each and then move into the concept of a world containing an infinite number of worlds (as a paradigm for life containing an infinite number of finite games). Then I will discuss a few aphorisms that use the "machine" and "garden" to discuss the relationship between the social and technology -- (here I know my professor will argue against my use of the word "technology" ... but hopefully, I can continue without too much objection being raised).

[Since the paper is for us to imagine a future 15 years from now, complete with technologies, social implications, etc., I'm going to create a semi-dystopian micro-cosm in which some cultural group (business, neighborhood, cult, etc.) create a cooperative living / working environment. I can't quite go all the way into a science fiction story, but I plan on writing a sort of meta-story in which I describe the components of the story.]

So after I frame the stakes, as it were, I will talk a bit about my vision for the type of story / paper. Then I'll dialog a bit about the shift in focus for research (from the philosophical / social implications of technology) to the progress of technology 15 years into the future [remember, 15 years ago, there wasn't a "world-wide web". The Internet existed, but the interface to it wasn't really developed until the early 90's].

The next evolutionary step will be wearable computers -- everything from fabrics with embedded modular devices that can communicate with "smart" appliances in your home -- to full-scale Virtual Reality devices (helmets, glasses) that allow a continuum of experience from the objects in objective reality (the physical world) being able to affect a virtual experience to an immersive environment of escape, where one can travel anywhere there is software available for.

In order for a story to work, there must be conflict. The most realistic form of conflict in this scenario, I think, is the question of privacy. If clothing and appliances can be sentient enough to interact, there will also be the ability for tracking. Prisoners can already be tracked via RFID tags in their uniforms (RFID is an acronym for "radio-frequency identification" -- and is being touted as the replacement for the universal bar code for products; opponents cite the problematic scenario of thieves being able to troll neighborhoods and scan high-end equipment to steal as a one reason not to move in this direction). Tracking could be sold as a safety feature for "good parents". But it might not be limited to just physical position (Johnny is currently at the hot dog stand), but could be used, conceivably to see what products parishioners are buying. Certain products might be labeled as "hot" for terrorists or drug dealers and so trigger files to be opened automatically and filled for individuals matching "dangerous" profile statistics.

[at this point, I saved the post and went home to get my meds ... I've been nibbling away at this most of the day.]

Okay, so at this point, I'd like to talk about Smart Mobs -- that is, the social texting phenomenon that is a harbinger of large-scale future changes. In 2001, Filipino teens helped bring down President Estrada by texting messages -- in the tens of millions -- to schedule protests. The author, Howard Rheingold, points to this behavior as a kind of opening up of a social space (that is, you are consider to be "present" when you are online, whether or not you are actually there). This has changed things like rigid meeting times. Rheingold extrapolates from this a future using technologies of cooperation, and from there to technology such as smart rooms.

So the conflict I imagine would be large-scale rebellion using the very technological devices that track their movements (sit-ins after curfew, avoiding school). It reminds me of the question one gets posed after reading Bartleby the Scrivener: What if everyone did this? Seems to me that this also indicates a radical shift in power from a top-down model to a peer-to-peer model.

Anyway, these are my thoughts.