Readings:Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, The Medium is the Massage
Philip K. Dick, “The Minority Report”Update: If you are asked for a ID and password when you attempt to access the readings, try one of the following combinations:
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Questions:
- The selection from The Medium is the Massage discusses several ways in which electronic media cause traditional social boundaries to collapse. What strikes you most about the reading and why?
- "The Minority Report," examines a number of ethical problems posed by a legal system founded upon the ability to arrest "innocent" people. For example, the story illustrates the fact that there is no meaningful way for a citizen to dispute charges when there is no physical evidence of a crime. What anxieties does this story express about the role of the individual in a society increasingly governed by technology?
61 comments:
The quote from The Medium is the Massacre, "...innumerable confusions and a profound feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transitions", struck me as shocking, but true. It reminds me the way capitalism, a social formation itself, is characterized by long periods of stasis and explosion of innovation in the time's technology. I'm currently analyzing an article by Hans Geser, a sociology professor at the University of Zurich, which states implications and results from the advancement of mobile communication devices (a lot like the 'electronic media' The Medium is the Massacre discusses). Geser states that communication, classically, was done within your situated hierarchal social level. You would associate with the people you work with and the people you live by. I classify this as a very 'horizontal' mode of communication. But, as Geser implies, mobile communication devices (also, this 'electronic media') encourages people to associate through a 'web' of people - these devices allowing anyone to reach anyone at any time creates a single, unified 'network' of people. Thus, shifting communication from horizontal, past vertical and into a 'radial' shape.
Minority Report does seem like a 'utopia' crime-management system - if you can trust such a system. "In our society we have no major crimes...but we do have a detention camp full of would-be criminals". The system of pre-cognition, leading people to jail without physical evidence of the crime in which they were 'going' to commit gives little justice to law breaking and immorality. The major anxiety I have, especially from that quote, is that they might as well arrest people without pre-cognition. Any one with a pair of scissors are subject to use them for violence - place them in a detention camp. Children of men or women who received a parking ticket likely bred a creation which, someday, may also receive a parking ticket - a 'would-be criminal'. There's also the fears of conspiracy or control - without evidence of a crime, what would happen to anyone who speaks out or disagrees against policies or actions taken by the corporate/governmental entity which regulates the precog system?
~~ Eric Fritz, Group 3
1) Media is the Massage
I was intrigued by this article because it seemed to be saying several things at once. It had a certain "dooms-day" feel to it overall, but it wasn't exactly spelled out as a doomsday message. The actual message was a mere statement of the change in society, how media is, as it says in the end, "extension of some human faculty, psychic or physical", so obviously not so different from the past, and not something to be feared since it is an extension of us. It discussed the need to understand media in order to understand society, since we are so reliant on it now. It states how media has changed us from our past culture in a very straight forward, sensible way. Yet, throughout these statements, I got a sense that the author was trying to lead us through a countdown to the end of our lives as we know it. Each section had a title, not a number, but as it went on it still felt like a countdown. It seems to say "Here's you're life, your job, your family, your social network...now watch it inevitably change into something that will be the end of our lives as we know it." I think he was trying to show us anxiety of new media, as he mentions in the article. He wants us to feel that anxiety, but if we look closer we can see there is nothing, in fact, to fear.
2)
Minority Report shows the anxiety of people about technology because of the amount of control it gives to only the power of a few. Just because one person says something should happen, doesn't mean it should. Besides this, what about error? Technology is often wrong. There is always a bug in the system, whether that be a computer type technology or a human's own brain at work. Somewhere is bound to be a mistake. If a system such as this story illustrates were in place, where is the check for the mistakes? If a person is sent to jail for something that did not happen yet, how does he make a case for himself as to why he did it? Who's to say there wasn't a mistake in the system? The person sending the criminal to jail goes unquestioned because he has control. The person who gets "caught" has no way to fight him. He has no control over his destiny, not even a way to know why he was going to commit a crime. He's simply going to jail for no reason, and he can't stop it from happening. People like to have control of their own lives, and precog crime takes that control away from them and into the hands of a stranger.There is of course, another note on this topic. Why would there be precrime agencies if people can change their minds? A person might intend to do something, and change their minds at the last instant. Once again, control is compromised because the "criminal" is taken away the chance to change his or her mind.
~Jackie Bentley, Group 3
"Come into my parlor," said the computer to the specialist." I find this to be the most interesting idea in the article. If I could quote the entire thing I would, however I chose this quote because of the fact that it shows humans phasing out to where machines are now/were 10 years ago; the supportive part, the sidekick when we needed help with something. One hundred and fifty years ago no one relied on machines to go on with there daily lives. As this article clearly states, we are becoming the support, the backup if you will, when the machine fails. Eventually human participation in every decision will fade out, which is almost exactly like Minority Report.
Once technology is able to tell us what we did and did not do before we even did it, there is a problem. There is no proof in anything until it actually happens, so the biggest fear in trusting this technology is that you cannot trust the technology. Like with technology now, humans can alter how machines think for they're own personal gain; so who is to say that there would not be someone behind the curtain putting people away who they did not like. Only history is absolute and there will never be a machine that can predict the future. I suppose I have a lot of anxiety on this topic, but I cannot see prediction of the future as ever being possible.
Derrick Markowski - Group 3
Lydell Peterson
Group 1 (Emir)
“How much do you make? Have you ever contemplated suicide?….etc. Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the community’s need to know,” is the line that stood out the most for me when I read. The idea of having machines being able to monitor you, get details about you, and have your personal information at their disposal I think collapses many social boundaries. If someone can just read information about you without talking to you and getting to know you they will jump to conclusions about your personality. The availability of info (because of technology) has made it simple to pre-judge people without meeting them. For example, I heard about a website that has a sort of “blacklist” of people who were deemed “un-datable” by people that have gone out with them. While this idea may have good intentions it may also slander someone’s reputable name in the dating world. What’s to stop someone from slandering someone else and making it hard for them to date, because technology makes this process readily available? The reading strengthens this argument and stands out the most because sometimes too much knowledge causes a downfall…i.e. “curiosity killed the cat.”
I think “Minority Report” brings up many anxieties. The idea of being able to arrest someone before they commit the crime has the same idea of “guilty before innocent.” This logic brings up the fear that everyone is guilty of a crime as it is just a matter of time before they commit it. Everyone has an evil thought from time to time and if machines could monitor those thoughts and convict people without physical evidence then there is a whole spectrum of “what really qualifies as innocent?” Also, as pointed out in previous blogs, machines do make errors from time to time. What’s to stop a machine from making an error in this system? Can humans really put that much trust into something that cannot think for itself? There is also no foolproof way to prevent humans from tampering with the machines (like the cover up in “Minority Report”). No matter what if we allow machines this much power there will still be errors, some of which would be more or less substantial than others, but still putting this much trust into machines lends the idea something can and will still go very wrong.
Michael Schafer Group-3
The quote, “It is naturally an environment much like any factory set-up with its inventories and assembly lines,” from The Medium is the Massage came as a shock to me. It is talking about how technology takes a huge toll on your education. What scared me the most was the fact that we as students are becoming products. We are being assembled, put together by a system. We are becoming what they want us to be. We are learning only what they want us to learn. Meaning they could hide the truth from us. We are losing individuality, we are becoming victims.
The whole problem with precrime is that they are arresting individuals who haven’t broke the law, yet. The precogs see a a week or two into the future and that information is transformed into a card that tells the police-like agency who the criminal is and what he or she is about to do and where at. The whole problem with that is, what if the criminal suddenly changes his mind the day before he murders his cousin? What if the criminal decides, at the last minute, to kill a different person or more than one? What if you saw a card with your name on it, would you still go on with the crime? There are many other problems one being that people could feed the precogs information too. Giving them false information and setting up others if they had access to the analytical equipment. And if people have tampered with the system in the past then that means a lot of innocent people have been arrested and a lot of murderers are still out there. The system also takes toll on the three precogs. They are humans being used as property and are being destroyed. “The esp-lobe shrivels the balance of the frontal area” (an example of the damage being done) and the agencies don’t care. Because of this the treatment of the precogs is considered cruelty. Another problem is, the cards are based on a majority report, meaning two of the three precogs see the same event happening. But what about the minority report, the third precog has something to say whether it be right or wrong. Having a system based on the majority means that it isn’t always correct, it is just what the people wants. A system relying not on fact but of superstition.
Predicting the future is guessing, taking a chance, and is completely uncertain. This precrime system tries to simulate a perfect world. It also alternates the future. But can we really rely on and trust something like this?
Tony Lopez, Group 3
1. Electronic media is not really causing a collapse of social boundaries, but simply reshaping them as we view them today. From centuries before us the status quo was always enact. Now with the electronic age taking charge we can finally change these habits of social material that held us down before. The very end of the essay made most sense to me; "All media are extensions of some human faculty- psychic or physical." In the twenty-first century we are now ready to take control of our boundaries and push them. The authors of, "The medium is the Massage" would like to argue that media has already changed many parts of our life. It has taken control of our government, our communities/ neighborhoods, our children's education, and pretty much our everyday life. We are extending our brains to become what we fear most. The Others, as McLuhan and Fiore so kindly refer to us as, are people that are outside the box. People or situations that we just know too much about now. Things we would not like to know. Who knows what this knowledge could one day result in.
2. To punish some one for a crime that they were about to commit almost sounds like some television shows that we see pop up time to time. Even if we could have such wondrous technologies, would it be right to use them? We base our legal system now on the fact that a man can change. Can a man recover from a crime he did not commit. He would never learn right from wrong they would just BE wrong. This reminds me of some science fiction movie where a totalitarian government where its people are afraid to defy the laws. "People should not fear their government, their government should fear the people."(V, from V for Vendetta) The rule of arresting someone for something unknown would raise a global fear in the minds of everyone. The day people fear tyranny is the day the revolution begins.
"Innumerable confusions and profound feeling of despair invariably emerge in periods of great technological and cultural transitions." I find this shocking yet very true. People get very stuck in their ways and get so use to using what they have, new ideas scare them. due to new technology are lives have changed, our sense of privacy i think to some is being eliminated (the kind of privacy they are used to). Which causes people to develope anxiety. Like big brother is always watching you.
The idea of being able to arrest someone for a crime they are going to comit is actually a nice thing but at the same time very scarey. the idea of having technology that can do that causes a great amount of anxiety. it brings the idea that we have no controll over our actions, we can't choose what we are going to do without someone knowing. it is the idea of having no privacy what so ever. yea it would be nice because it would end crime, but at the cost of what makes us individuals. there would almost be no need for human existants maybe beside the fact that we need someone to run and monitor the technology. what makes life-life is the unknown. the unpredictiablitity of what is going to happen. if you know what is going to happen why do you need to live it?
1. When you consider all the positives and benefits that machines and modern digital devices afford us. We often forget about the downside that such benefit can cause or produces for us, in the name of convenience! An example of this could be, My space, you can say hi to your friends, customize your page, and meet perfect strangers in the world that you normally couldn’t. You can meet new people in your own home town or city that you could become friends or more then friends all because of this new convenience. But what is a downfall Myspace? I have heard from people not just friends, but people in managerial positions that when ever someone comes in for an interview for a job at this place or another. The interviewer will check out that person’s page on Myspace, to see what kind of person you really are. Is this an invasion of privacy some say no and yet others say yes. How does your personal life reflect on your work ethic and the personality and attitude at work? But on the other side of the coin the place that my hire you would want to know how social you are on you page. What is your sense of humor, or how out going are you in your pictures if you don’t care how is looking. As Lydell brings up, “The idea of having machines being able to monitor you, get details about you, and have your personal information at their disposal I think collapses many social boundaries. If someone can just read information about you without talking to you and getting to know you they will jump to conclusions about your personality.” Have we become so careless with information about us that reflects on us as people? Granted Myspace won’t let you post something that may offend other people on their service but it doesn’t mean it can’t get on there. It seems that if people have all this information about you, they don’t need to even talk to you or get your opinion; they are free to make their own judgments and opinion about you with out even considering there is more to you then they see, or that they can take a situation or event out of context and think you are worse then Hitler all the click of a mouse. Which in its own way is very in sink with Minority Report.
2. In Steven Spielberg’s, “Minority Report”, the future United States of America has a new agencies that uses people who can see into the distant future called, pre-cogs, to see future crimes and the agents in the agencies examine the vision and try to determine when this will happen and how to stop it. At first glance this is a great innovation in the advancement of the human race. We are no longer just controlling machines but now the possibility of fate. This is a very entertaining way of looking at a way in which to stop those who would kill, rape, destroy, and commit evil against their fellow man. Is it possible and could it work? No I don’t think it is possible and that it could work. Because first off we would have to decide and have proof that we all have a Fate that is undeniable and that we can not change, EVER!!! Second the mirror idea of arresting people and putting them under arrest and most likely sent to jail without evidences but only well we are 95% sure they were going to do something, they were going to kill this person. We don’t know if there is fate or if we make our destiny. And arresting us and imprisoning us for things we haven’t done or might have done is not only illegal but violate our natural given human rights. Now granted all us humans think and do things that we would clam we weren’t doing when caught. Would it be great if you could stop the person that killed your loved one or family member before it happened? Of course it would. But what about due process, the idea innocent until proven guilty. We don’t want to be stuck in an electric, digital dictatorship. Nor should we be judged on events we may have done or might do. I believe people need options and that we always have a choice, by my way of thinking the idea of fate is either non existent or it is my fate to think as a I do, believe in the choices that have already been laid out for me, were I have already made my choices and I will do it again. But regardless of what I believe the question remands, are we going to choose conveniences and safety, or are we going to think and act responsibly with how we live and what we create? Or is there another avenue we have yet to explore that will open up a new field of choices and options? I guess is we will see what happens, and hopefully we will choose are answers wisely.
Matt Gonia group 1
One thing that I found that was very interesting in “The Medium is the Massage” was the part where they talked about “your neighborhood.” “It has reconstituted dialogue on a global scale. Its message is total change, ending psychic, social, economic, and political parochialism. The old civic, state, and national groupings have become unworkable. Nothing can be further from the spirit of the new technology than a place for everything and everything in its place. You can’t go home again.” I really like in this passage how they related spirit to have nothing to do with technology. They’re saying that everything will be replaced by technology and there will be no spirit left in the world, which is something that I totally agree with. The replacement of us with technology with end up with the end to social economic and political narrowness to everything as we know it in the world.
The essay “Minority Report” would cause all kinds of mental break downs within our society if this type of technology was available and working. It would be hard for people to think straight without the concern of doing something wrong. Lots of people think about doing crimes but never once would ever follow through with the actual physical crime. Yet it could send someone’s mind into chaos when thinking about doing something wrong. They would feel as if they would also have to thinking straight or if someone was watching of if their going to get arrested for something they didn’t actually do. Even if someone doesn’t do a crime they feel as if they are being watched. This could send our society into paranoia.
Colin Sytsma, 115, Group 3
braulio garcia group 3
blah blah blah. The Medium is the Massacre was the most mundane piece of literature that i have yet to read. but maybe this is due to the fact that i have been hearing ideas such as this one for quite some time.
go ahead and get upset that i dont like this article but that is how i truly feel about it. after looking at the quote "todays child is growing up absurd, because he lives in two worlds, and neither of them inclines him to grow up," i wanted to just stop reading.
I thought that this was an absurd argument with too many fallacies in it to hold up to any strong counter argument. One may be that todays child is growing up not absurd, but rather aware due to the mass communication that we have.
Minority Report was an article that i actually found my self to enjoy. Not in that i liked the thought of technology controlling every aspect of my life but it was interesting to think about what my life would be like if, indeed it was controlled that way.
I feel that if my life were in such control by an "infallible system" that there would still be errors due to the fact that the system is man made and man errors.
1. It strikes me as radical, and arbitrary really. It rebels against you ever going "home" again. Home being some kind of organic and analog style of media. It calls for people to leave everything behind, and that people who hang on the old way of doing things are hateful towards the digital. But I would argue that, it is that attitude that is more hateful and exclusionary. We can not leave everything behind. The only way to improve on the past is to learn from it, the only way to learn from it is to immerse yourself in it.
2) I always go back to organics with theories like this. I'll take an extreme example of eugenics. It was thought in Europe and America that certain human traits were better than others. The Nazi's used this pseudo science to persecute the Jewish people. If you believe you can arrest someone who has not organically done anything wrong, then using that same logic you can hate another human being with no basis. Digital Technology is not organic. It's an artificial manipulative medium. Take for example electronic voting machines. There is no paper trail. No accountability, therefore I give them no creedence.
In the article The Medium is the Massage, the part that was most striking to me was the section titled You. “Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the community’s need to know.” I never thought about how much technology there really is in that context from womb-to-tomb. Your life is affected by technology before you are even born, with things such as ultra sounds. I also found the part about education to be quite interesting. It was interesting in the part where it talked about children in Shakespeare’s day to be thrown immediately into the adult world, while in our day children are living in two worlds and “neither incline him to grow up.” In “The Minority Report,” there are anxieties of a person being arrested for a crime that they have yet to commit. The fear comes in that who’s to say these machines are really working right at all times? As a student mentioned previously, everyone has the tendency to think bad things. Would it detect things like that? Sometimes people get so angry they feel like they want to hurt somebody or sometimes people consider stealing, abusing, etc but don’t end up committing the crime. Would they still be arrested? Machines often become broken and stop working or turn out errors. What if there were certain circumstances to justify the crime? Such as someone acting in self-defense and killing someone. It isn’t right to listen to a machine, that has no brain of its own, to predict the future and give such information with complete certainty that it will happen. As hard as it is to do, someone can not be punished for something they didn’t do. You basically just have to wait till they actually do it to convict them. What if someone in charge of the machines had a grudge on someone, would it be possible for them to set them up?
-Sarah Myszewski group 3
1.
"Character is no longer shaped by two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the worlds a sage." I found this quote from 'The Medium is the Massage' about electronics and there relationships with their family most striking, and most true. With a culture that watches Opera or Dr. Phil for relationship advice, seeks homemaking ideas from Martha Stewart, and wastes time on reality shows that show us "reality", this statement couldn't be truer. Its sad that the TV is a modern day tutor of all sorts of things, and its getting out of hand. Parents these days seem to rely on Dora the Explorer or Diego or whatever to teach there children the 1-2-3s and A-B-Cs. Tube teaching need to slow up in my personal opinion, or as Jim Carrey would say from the Cable Guy "Someone needs to kill the babysitter."
2.
Simply put, technology is becoming the judge for man kind. Definetaive evidence is fournd and proved with the use of technology and it becomes the thing that finds us guilty or innocent. However unlike 'Minority Report', I don't fear this fate. Since technology has improved, wrongly accusing innocent victims of all kinds has decreased. Perhaps this is why 'Salem Witch Trials' took place in a place in time when technology would of simply proved that people didn't have powers to set things a flame.
David Ebner, Group 3
This whole concept of education in The Medium is the Massage is very interesting to me. It is pointing out the differences of a child's home life and scool life, two vastly different things. At home, there is access, for the most part at least, to all facets of the Internet, television, and other types of media that are both appropriate and innappropriate. Kids at home are seeing "adult" news on TV, hearing about rape, murder, oil prices, politics, etc. At school however, there is a more old school approach with ancient books, corny learning videos and irrelevant assignments. Students learn modern, useful things at home on the TV but at school it's a trip backwards.
In Minority Report, crimes are stopped before they can be committed. So, if I for some reason planned on killing someone a week from now, I would be stopped before I could commit the crime. But humans work on emotion in that they may feel one way about something one minute but change their mind on the subject later. Most crimes are done in passion, but even those can't be proven are going to happen until they actually happen. There is no way of proving something that doesn't happen. With technological advances, eventually society will get to the point where individuals can't fight anything because technology will allow for it to be proven otherwise. It can be used to bring up something in the past that will kill a person's credibility. In the end, technology is going to cause a multitude of problems, and it's up to society as a whole, not the individual to decide whether it's worth it or not.
-Benj Gibicsar, Group 4
Many points of the reading from “The Medium and the Massage” are valid and interesting. However the segment that stuck out to me the most, was the part about children and electronic media under the heading of “your education”. This part talks about how childhood as we see it today didn’t exist until the seventeenth century. The piece suggested that media is challenging the innocence of childhood and it preventing children to grow up in a way they did in the past. I believe this to be true. New media like the internet allows children to witness material above their maturity level. This can be seen as both good and bad. This can cause children to react maturely to such materials at an older age. Of course, there is also a chance that a child could react more negatively and act immaturely to this material causing their parents to act appropriately.
The short story “Minority Report” demonstrates a fear of human mistakes causing harm through the use of technology. No matter how advanced technology gets, humans will continue to be imperfect and end up creating misfortune with one another. This story only demonstrates more difficulty in avoiding such situations as the use of advanced technology increases.
The idea that struck me most in The Medium is the Massacre states, "Today's television child is attuned to up-to-the-minute 'adult' news-inflation, rioting, war, taxes, crime, bathing beauties-and is bewildered when he enters the nineteenth-century environment that still characterizes the educational establishment where information is scarce, but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects and schedules." This is very true and a large difference can be seen in education even in the past few years. We are constantly flooded with information and learning is at a higher level. No longer do we have to wait for word-of-mouth or for something to be put into the history books. With a point and click we are enveloped in an endless sea of information. Our mobile devices connect us to anyone, anywhere, and at any time, and as is mentioned, "Too many people know too much about eachother." This is striking because certain information, private to individuals, can be accessed without our knowledge. I can't count the number of times I've put information on the internet that has caused an overload in spam mail. I basically asked for it. Our phones and computers have enough information that one can easily steal our identity and manipulate it. Our identities have become more and more sensitive with the digitalization of our world and has rendered them nothing more than information. Moreover, people are more connected than ever and have become more alike. Culture is fading and we may soon have to search elsewhere.
The anxieties espressed in "The Minority Report" are those of privacy and freedom. Already there are numerous ways of identifying individuals. Electronic devices account for a large portion of them, but things only fathomable in sci-fi are becoming more and more a part of reality. Fingerprints, DNA, retina scanning, voice recognition to name a few are now achievable in identifying an individual. Already, we have advertisements sent into our vehicles, spyware and pop ups can read our ip addresses and information and send us ads based on our criteria. As for being convicted of a crime before it even happens, that sort of dives into the spiritual realm with the precogs; however, it is incorporated with advanced technology and may not be far off from what we might see. One could speculate as to why the government would have to resort to such measures, but a safe bet is that people abuse their freedom and others have to suffer the consequence and see their freedoms taken from them. In the US we are still considered "innocent until proven guilty", but there's a chance that could change. If we see these things in our lifetime, or if these things ever occur, it's likely that since most people have become centralized around a certain media and way of thinking that they may speak liberally and have a liberal identity, but will fail to act to save their freedoms and the ones who do, might fail because they are governed so highly by these devices.
-Eddie Roberts Group 2
1. In my opinion, the first article reflected on the social and technological aspects of our society just the same. The quote that struck me the most was: "words and the meaning of words predispose a child to think and act automatically in certain ways."I find this quote to be very true from my personal experience of growing up and seeing my classmates grow up and mature, then leaving Russia and coming to U.S. and seeing people develop and mature here. Although, the differences are the ones that are noticed in the process of thought and communication. The similarities that I noticed can be attributed to electronic media that penetrates traditional social boundaries and causes them to collapse. To me media is the ultimate teacher to kids around the world, things like MTV, MySpace, etc. are everywhere in every country of the world. An important aspect of that is that it causes people to comform to the norm that is projected to the whole world, robbing us of our cultural identity and individuality.
2. "Minority Report" is an example of an utopian futuristic society that supresses individuality and requires an individual to follow the code and order of society. Since it is based on reading the person's mind before the crime occurs, it also robs us of our feelings and intentions no matter of what kind of person a person is. The main fear and anxiety illustrated in the story is the fear of total control. If you have a gun or a knife you might use it to harm someone, therefore you are a criminal. It shows government that crosses all kinds of boundaries in order to prevent crime and save people, but by doing so it robs us of the power of choice. A power granted to us by birth, therefore it assumes total control not only over our behavior and actions but also over thoughts and feelings.
Gleb Sergeyev
Group 1
Theresa Ennis
Film 115
Group 4 (Chris)
The article "The Medium is the Massage" is saying that humans are starting to become more comfortable talking to each other on the phone or online. Technology is starting to make humans become hermits. Since it has become easier to converse with people from the comforts of our homes.
The "Minority Report" article expresses anxieties about people being judged before any crime has be comitted. The idea of a person being able to decide what they want to do is taken away. This puts them in the situation that people have no say in their lives, that their lives have already have been planned out for them.
Hayley Schneider – Group 1
The selection that shocked me most about The Medium of the Massage was the part about the family and how technology has changed families. This part of the article is so true. The articles states that “movies, Telstar, flight – far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear.” This is true because kids and teenagers are growing up with television, dvds, music, computers, and cell phones. Parents are really set aside when it comes to things that kids can learn on the internet. Parents don’t know everything and what they do not know kids can learn online. Years ago, when there wasn’t internet, computers, and varaities of television shows, kids learned from their parents what they needed to know. Now days parents have to compete with all the technology that is influencing children.
The anxities the story expresses about the role of the individual in a society increased by governed technology are that technology is so advanced that even humans don’t understand it sometimes. Like when the precogs talk and humans don’t understand them but a machine translate what they are saying for the humans to understand. Technology is extremely advanced. Humans are smart but technology is a ton more advanced then humans. Technology just keeps growing but no matter how hard humans try they will always be a couple steps behind.
Page 4 of The Medium is the Massacre points out a very hot topic in today's world of fear. The issue of public knowledge and privacy is a very fine line and that line is constantly being crossed. With today's debate of child molester's privacy of living where they please, and us, protecting our families, is a prime example. Things like Google Maps, where you can literally see where you are going to go are useful and not an invasion of privacy, in my eyes. Others have different views on the topic and different people have different comfort levels on their lives. This topic goes along with the second article of a pure anarchy. Where people govern themselves, a place where you dictate how closely people are allowed to get to you. With Philip Dick's idea, there would be no justice served unless you took it into your own hands.
~Kurt Sensenbrenner
group 3
I think the most striking thing that the article revealed to me was how much technology and communication devices have influenced and changed every level of our entire life. The fact that we take for granted the technology that we use so often on the microcosmic level all the way through the macrocosmic level is a sign that we may not be fully aware of the consequences. In the reading, they used the example of how the TV changed the way children interpreted the world, and consequently, school was harder for them because it didn't seem to follow the same rules as TV.
The problem with being an individual in an increasingly technology run world is that there will start to be an overlord type power, like Big Brother in 1984, always watching and deciding who is right and who is wrong. In The Minority Report, the three pre-cognates were the overlord presence watching everyones future and deciding who was bad and who was good. Bu as the story described there can be problems, like the example where a pre-criminal, given the information that he will commit a crime could decide to not follow through with his plans, thus making him innocent. It is as if the individual has no power in the society, they are always being watched, and they never know when they will be whisked away for a future crime that could be solved in a more productive way. And because it's the technology that is in control, there could always be faults in the system causing wrong decisions about who is guilty and who is innocent.
Toby Staffanson Group 4
When our era is described as an "Age of Anxiety" is something that struck me the most. It goes further to describe how the clash of technologies and concepts from different ages and future ages are, and will, cause turmoil and conflict among those who are not completely updated with such equipments that so haphazardly change and adapt from time to time. This is why I find it striking, because we have developed into a society that changes due to what is convenient, and who we force others to change along with what we desire. The problems with a community of people governed by technology is the dependency and trust that become too complex to eliminate. Technology is not as reliable as a real person, and often makes mistakes, breaks down, or goes on a rampage killing astronauts in space (reference to HAL 9000). If technology does become our leader, as much of history has debated about and fear through novels and films, then society would be changed, degraded, and weakened vastly by this factor of electronics of which we depends upon so much. God help us.
-Matthew Balz Group 3
What strikes me as the most interesting thing from "The Medium is the Massage" is the quote on page 10 saying, "In an electronic information environment, minority groups can no longer be contained-ignored. Too many people know too much about each other." I think this is very true with such things as myspace and facebook. Both allow you to access virtually anyone and everyone's profile and learn about them. Pretty soon having a virtual profile of yourself on some server will seem almost mandatory, creating a somewhat database of the human population.
Concerning Minority Report, I think a lot of anxieties can arise. Say for example you were arrested for something you hadn't done yet and no idea you were even going to do. For me, I would want to question everything about the arrest including whether or not they were just trying to arrest me for the hell of it. In the world of Minority Report you have to trust that these "Precogs" are truly predicting the future crimes, rather than the government picking and choosing who they want to put behind bars.
Max Larsen
Group 3
Technology like the iphone and others similar are examples of making human life more convenient. But also, as talked about before, these advances are somewhat taking away from a common human to human interaction and are beginning to progress a human to technology interaction. On the other hand, Geser talks about how communication used to be on a more "hierarchal" level, where people would talk and interact with the people they could relate to, either if they worked with them, lived by them, or knew them through other people. New technology is advancing the possibilities to higher levels of communication in that we are able to connect with people from all over.
In the case of "The Minority Report," humans are somewhat in a way control by technology. Their intelligence has far surpassed that of ours. We have created something that ultimately has begun to embody our governmental system more than we. This system might seem like the perfect crime management organization but with technology comes flaws, like we see in the story. These flaws only humans would be aware of in this case.
Tyler Hudson
Group1 Emir
What strikes me most about the reading selection from The Medium is the Massage is the section titled you. There are too many serious questions that we are constantly being asked and we are always expected to answer them, whether or not we feel comfortable answering them. “Electrical information devices for universal, tyrannical womb-to-tomb surveillance are causing a very serious dilemma between our claim to privacy and the community’s need to know.” This quote says it all. We as the American people have no privacy, whatever we consider private the community will consider public and therefore whatever we do we must be aware that it may be a question asked by a public figure. Technology is to blame for this of course; the instant electronic retrieval method is taking away all traditional ways of privacy. We can be doing something completely normal and then out of no where we make an embarrassing mistake. With new technology we are threatened by the fact that the entire community could find out through gossip electronically. Now in “The Minority Report,” there are anxieties of a person being arrested for a crime they have yet to commit. The fear is that these machines may not always be right and people are being put away for crimes that they necessarily weren’t going to commit. As technology constantly increases throughout time, we as humans will be more reliable on it and therefore listen to whatever the machine says and automatically assume that it is correct. There are to many fears in this case, such as the machines could know our every move and every thought, whoever controls the machines could possibly set up people that they may not get along with, and of course there is always the fear that these machines could take over the world.
Mike Terrill
Group 3
Well, the article was saying many things at the same time. I agree with Jackie that the message was stating change in society. The quote "confusions occur during periods of technological transitions" actually made sense to me. I mean, we live in the information age. But people that didn't live in the information age and then emerged into this age struggled greatly. Look at elderly people. Not many of them could cope with the change of computers and cellular phones because it was all confusing to them. "The medium is the Massage" would like to argue that media has already changed many parts of our life. And in a lot of ways, that's true. It has taken a hold on most of the country if not the world. In this society and culture, though, you really must adapt to technology if you want to survive.
If one can put their trust in such a system, then it would be increasingly difficult. Minority Report shows the anxiety of people about technology because of the amount of control it gives to only the power of the people who contol it. And what happens if the system is wrong or over looks something? Where is the button that says "Look closer" or "Re-check"? What happens when an innocent person is sent to jail for a crime they didn't commit? I really can't see this ever working because there are too many complications. It also toys with the "Fate" theory. That we're in control of our own fate, or someone else is. Also, the whole idea behind Pre-crime, which is the system in the movie, seems too unorthidox to have as a way of detecting crimes.
nacia schreiner grp1
According to The Medium is the Massage, technology in the form of electronic media has broken barriers that once existed between society’s cultures. There is a constant growth in all aspects including the government, education systems, job progress and social intereaction in relation to electronics. Without the progress of electronic media a sense of incompetence arises and, as described in Massage, “Anxiety is…the result of trying to do today’s job with yesterday’s tools-with yesterday’s concepts” (9). Furthermore we are enabled to tap into the lives of whomever we choose and “…minority groups can no longer be contained-ignored. Too many people know too much about each other [and]…we have become involved with, and responsible for, each other.” This leads us into a world where there is no distinct identity of a single person
Minority Report reflects this obsqure way of living where the increasing technology puts numbers rather than names on each individual. With use of technology there is no physical footprint on society but rather electronic remnance of an action. The fate of an individual then relies solely on the evidence of technology over the impression of a physical action.
What strikes me the most in "The Medium is the Massage," is their part on education. Today, we learn through multimedia. We literally have the news at our fingertips. We are more up to date with news and other knowledge than ever before. But that's not the striking part of the reading at all. If we look more in depth into our sense of time, we will see what would happen if we were put into the past, and imagine what would happen if we were put into the future. In the past we wouldn't have the resources to gain as much knowledge as we do know, but also we there wouldn't be as much knowledge. In the future there would be even more resources to gain knowledge from and more knowledge together. But if we look at how technology progresses we can see that we can adapt as technology progresses, but could we handle a jump into new technology in which we may not have enough prior knowledge to figure it out.
With that said, I'll move onto The Minority Report. People in society have to accept change. Technology is moving at a rapid rate and we can't imaginae what will come out 5 years from now. We as people need to accept change and decide if it is good or bad for society. In the movie, this is shown very well when you see the ads for the future crime system telling citizens to vote to keep it in place. Wheather or not we can actually stop crime before it happens through some sort of psychic abilty or technology, we can relate this to other forms of new technology.
One of the quotes from The Medium is the Massacre that stands out to me is "Electric circuitry has overthrown the regime of 'time' and 'space' and pours upon us instantly and continuously the concerns of all other men." This really characterizes where our media technology has taken us. We are bombarded with all of these different life struggles, hardships, genocide, war, criminal activity, and the lifestyles of the global community through our media that their concerns can in turn become our concerns. McLuhan says, "The living room has become the voting booth." The time has passed where people kept their political and social views to themselves, and now we all realize our voice and our opinion can be recognized or acknowledged. We are able to see the entire world through our television, so long as the cameramen and crew have a story that they want to cover. It exposes us to so much more than we have ever been able to explore before. It allows for a psychological stimulation and/or a visual stimulation. They are able to tell a story while showing people of the world, and images have a strong ability to stick with you, making the message all the more powerful. The concerns of other nations are not closed off to only being delivered to the government, we obtain more information and feel a sense of an experience visually that has the ability to make you feel more concerned on issues of the world. It has the ability to compel someone to make a stand or let there voice be heard. It is liberating, but it still has its limitations. In a world where our government's still have the last say on what our countries still stand for; it makes you feel smaller and realize that you may not have the commanding voice that you desire or deserve.
Minority Report makes some interesting interjections of a future society that functions based off of their technology to prevent crime from even occurring by predicting the moves of an individual before they can commit murder. The ability to prevent these crimes from happening is very helpful to prevent a life from being taken, but it counteracts upon itself because there is no faith in a person's cognition. People in a society run like this do not rely on reasoning anymore because it does not rely on the technology that has proved to be helpful in preventing crime. Although anyone is subject to being detained or taken out of the society by implications that they will commit a crime, the lack of physical evidence shows that the world losses its ability to reason. We merely exist as civil as possible in order to attempt to stay out of trouble and just follow the system so that our lives can remain on path. The fear that I have is that without any reasoning presented to detain someone in these camps you are taken from your life, and you don't know what you were going to do. It is subject to political corruption and distortion of life. This could be corrupted politically by eliminating a person that may not have actually been thinking of committing a crime, but if his views are a threat to the society they could simply take him away. This distorts our lives because they could simply take someone out of the world who may have had something very powerful to say, but will never get a chance to express it because they were suspected of thinking of commit a crime. It puts our lives in the hands of the technologies that control the society, and in a sense no one really exists. You are present in the society, but the technology's cognition is ranked superior to the cognition of an individual who comprised these technologies. It creates a distorted world where we are in a sense controlled by what we have created.
--Nick Reindl, Group Two
Peter Holzinger
Group 1
The parts from The Medium is the Massacre that I found the most interesting were the sections on Your Family and Your Neighborhood. Your Family addresses the fact that there is infinitely more knowledge available to the average person than there ever has been before. The internet puts a vast array of information at our finger tips, more knowledge on more subjects than anyone could hope to digest in a lifetime. This interconnectedness means more ideas are reaching more people increasing the number and diversity of influences waiting to be soaked up. The Medium is the Massacre asks how parents could ever compete with this intellectual force as influences on the way their children learn and grow. The section titled Your Neighborhood ends by stating, "You can't go home again." This was striking to me because of its truth. If home is a place where others are like you - they talk the same way, know the same things, have had similar experiences, reason the same way, etc. - it seems that home is becoming an increasingly larger and more generalized place. Again, the internet has made physical barriers inconsequential to the spread of ideas . The flow of knowledge is becoming more chaotic and more absolute. It seems as though we are headed for a giant, homogenous, mass consciousness. Does this leave any space in which a unique home can exist?
"The Minority Report" expresses worry that being governed by technology could lead to an unquestioning reliance on the accuracy of that technology. In the world of "The Minority Report" virtually everyone believes that the precrime system is infallible. Not only that, they put their faith in it since, by its paradoxical nature, there is no way to prove that an accused murderer would have actually committed the murder. The anxiety comes when you wonder if the technology might make a mistake, because we are no longer controlling the technology. Rather it is setting events in motion before they are truly justified (the arrests of future murderers) and therefore is controlling us.
Timothy Sienko, Group 4
In every day we obey endless social conventions grounded in technologies that do not seem relevant in the development of new technologies. As we limit and extend the reach of the human body we need to recognize the levels of existence and etiquette that are required by the technologies that do so. Maturation is no longer a process of slowly being old enough to understand the things that adults understand. Instead, with television, the radio, magazines, iPods, the internet children are being immersed in adult concepts but then go to school where process is maintained but seems irrelevant.
In Dick's story The Minority Report the author manipulates the hard-boiled detective story into a sci-fi. The injustice that Anderton is confronting turns out to be the injustice he has helped to create. This system of injustice presumes that a crime will be committed and makes arrests based on the technology that asserts the assumption. While the general public seems much safer, this system entirely discounts individual rights to any kind of trial by denying the possibility of any evidence of the crime. The criminal is always guilty. The system works well, until Anderton, who understands the system, feels that someone is manipulating it to frame him. Any other citizen would not have the opportunity to run or explore the charges, whit no understanding of the system.
What strikes me most about "Medium is the Massage" is how it's written. It's written like a gallery piece. The article is a piece of poetic art in itself. It's written like a '50's Beat would write. It's also interesting how every issue belongs to the reader. "Your Family, Your Neighborhood, Your Government." The writers are saying these things are under each of our control and we do not have to settle. But, the article is also saying in the same breath that media has shaped our minds and maybe the media is controlling us. There is one part that says minorities are integrating with us and becoming part of us and there is no longer a wall between us. They are saying media has done this but they are not telling us what to think of it. We are to use our own opinions to figure out if media influence is good or bad.
As for the Minority Report, it is another science fiction trying to convince that the future of mass technology is a bad thing. I believe the system would work if those arrested before they commit a crime would go through a program sort of like anger management but criminal management. After a month or more of the program, not jail or comatose seclusion, these people will put criminal thoughts out of their minds: this is probably much easier because they were stopped before they committed the crime. And there are some criminals like Chucky who need more than a program to stop them.
-Julianne Arnstein G4
Jacob Feiring
Group 2 (Emir)
What strikes me the most about "The Medium is the Massage" is the segment that states that the “The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media-movies, Telstar, flight-far, surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest fumbling experts...”
I find this statement interesting and a bit unnerving. There is quite a bit of truth to it even though the idea seems foreign. The general assumption in society is that parents raise their children with certain morals, ethics, and points of view. The idea that media plays a role in raising youth makes me uncomfortable because there is such an eclectic mix of ideas and “truths” that are expressed in various forms of media such as the internet and films. A child could essentially be raised on propaganda. On the other side of the coin, however, it’s possible that a child could grow up to be more well rounded and accepting because of its vast pool of influences and information. It’s interesting to think of how large a role technology plays in raising a child. At this point there is no doubt that technology influences children to a certain degree.
“The Minority Report” expresses anxiety about the role of the individual in a society creasingly governed by technology. In a future where crimes can be identified before they are committed, Phillip K. Dick’s story expresses the idea of media and machines taking over to the point that they are the voice of reason. Last week in class we discussed the fear of humans taking a backseat to technology when technology can accomplish certain things more efficiently and effectively. This same idea applies to “The Minority Report” to a certain degree. Machines are never without flaws and if the individual relies on technology as the law, there’s a large potential for mistakes. The fear lies in the human trusting machine over man/woman despite the risk of a machine’s malfunction.
I found it interesting right off of the bat that the article by Marshall McLuhan stated that "technology is reshaping every aspect of our personal life." I just think statements like that are a bit too extreme. Anyone out there at any time can completely block out technology. You don't have to have a cell phone or a car or even a computer. It may limit you in life for instance, my new job posts my schedule online on a website, but I'm sure I could always use a landline telephone to call work and ask for my schedule. The occasional work requires you to fill out your application on a computer at their store, but there are plenty of jobs I've applied for that still used old fashioned stock job applications that you'd pick up at an office supply store. I just feel that the only way that technology truly reshapes your life is if you allow it to. And of course if you do allow it to, there's nothing wrong with that, in fact, many times it does indeed make your life easier and more enjoyable. It all depends on the person you're dealing with. If your idea of a nice night is going out to a local restaurant or bar then I'm sure the last thing on your mind is what is on TV that night. Or if you and your family are having a game night you can easily play Monopoly or Scrabble without turning on a computer or buying one of those new board games that require a DVD player to play a DVD. It's all how you decide to live your life.
As for Minority Report, the idea of possibly being arrested for something you haven't done yet of course is quite scary. I have a curious imagination I know so it would be horrifying to have a cop bust into my house at any moment and take me away just because of some random thought I had at one point, or for something I may potentially do. I think that anyone commiting a crime has the choice to turn around and not do it, even seconds before. A person with a gun could go into a convenience store ready to hold it up, finger on the trigger, but then they see a small child in the store with a mother and they decide that it would be a horrible idea and they could never even consider such a thing in the future. They just temporarily lost themselves in the moment and felt crime would be an answer. Technology can always fail so I think relying that much on technology to protect our people is scary. There are plenty of "innocent" people out there who have been convicted of crimes just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. All it takes is a false eye witness speaking against you and you could be screwed. Just this week my friend had to physically drag his fiance into their apartment because she was so intoxicated and became hostile. On the way into the apartment she accidentally pulled the fire alarm. When the police arrived the neighbor who saw him accused him of assaulting her when that obviously was not the case. Luckily he did not get into trouble, but who knows what could've happened? If the situation was handled like that of Minority Report where you are guilty until prove innocent then the world I think would be even worse off then it is today.
ryan fox.
group three.
For the most part, all of the sections of this first article were interesting. I think the "Your Family" part, though brief, was striking. It gets at the fact that kids are learning just as much from media sources (TV, movies, etc.) as they are from their parents. The children of today have so many facets from which to get information, many of these sometimes are not even aware to the children themselves. I really like the quote "All the world's a sage", obviously playing off of Shakespeare's famous quote, "All the world's a stage". It is true to an extent. With all the media forms we have dispensing information for anyone to get, the world truly is just like a sage, or a teacher of sorts. Parents do not know everything that their kids should know - they certainly have a lot to pass on to their kids, but their knowledge about certain things definitely ends at a point. Now, is this a good thing that kids can get all sorts of info from media instead of their parents? I don't know. It all depends on the context and what it is that they're learning. I like how the article refers to parents as earnest, fumbling experts. This is true because parents are not perfect, and they may mean well, but they sometimes struggle with teaching and raising their kids. With newer technology and more exposure to the media day-to-day, the family circle will continue to widen - let's just hope it doesn't burst.
In Minority Report, certainly the idea of being able to stop crime before it happens seems fantastic and revolutionary. But perhaps it is a little too utopian. Something this groundbreaking will have to have a few flaws. The average individual will of course have anxieties knowing that such a pre-crime system is in place. The few who run this system have a great amount of power while the masses could possibly constantly live in fear of being arrested or accused of a crime they have not yet commited, but supposedly will in the near future. This truly is terrifying because when someone is arrested before they commit a crime, there is no evidence against them other than the "system's" glimpse into the future. Who's to say that the people in charge aren't manipulating the system to their advantage. In this kind of a society, anxiety is not only commonplace, it should absolutely be expected and tolerated. People would go insanse from their fears.
Oh yeah, my group number... it's four.
What strikes me most about the selection from “The Medium is the Massage” is how it was worded. I personally didn’t know what the hell it was talking about, until I read this question, everyone else’s answer and I reread it again. But all joking aside, one statement has made me think somewhat. “Have you ever complemented Suicide?” That got to me because. I’m part of two survey groups that takes my responses and gives them to different companies for their publicity and advertising. I’ve never thought about who would read these questions and later contact me. I’ve never thought about how the government, companies because with the survey’s they only have my email and zip code. But the very fact that I and many others are comfortable telling strangers, your own business makes it really scary. Because you don’t know what that person will do with your info once they have it.
The story expresses two many themes that I got; that A.)The role of the individual diminishes as technology gets better and B.) An entire group of peoples lives rest in the hands of a select few. Technology doesn’t have human emotions, motives so it can tell exactly what happened. At a crime scene, DNA can tell who was scratched by the victim with fingerprints to tell who was holding the murder weapon. The thing is that because technology getting better, people are more willing to rely on what technology has told them versus the human being. In today’s society for example, I’ve seen many shows where people killed a family member and then was fond out by fingerprints. However, I’ve also seen the same court shows that show people who’ve gone to jail based on evidence that’s proven years later to be false.
“Power corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.” When you have a small group of people who are governing over everyone else, you run the risk of the small group brandishing their power and believing that they’re invincible. The precogs, the computer and this small group of people are able to control almost anyone on the basis that there’s no one to watch them. And that’s what scares me out so much about this short story. The fact that all it takes is a few power hungry people who are high enough on the platform to get anyone who stands in their way.
Veronica Mosley Group 4
The thing that strikes me the most about the first article is the government. Technology is taking us out of personal involvement with politics, and if this persists, we can say goodbye to personal protest and standing up for ones beliefs, because as they said, they feed us entertainment. By giving us a television program dedicated to a political issue, we can sit in front of the TV and feel like we are informend and are doing something good with our time, when in fact, we should be out there learning hands on and fighting and being active for what we believe in. It's become a sedative, and the government can easily take advantage of that, and most certainly has, and it's only gonna get worse.
The Minority Report article really scares me. Obviously, technology can go wrong so that is a concern. Also, being falsely accused and having no way to back up your actions is also scary. Prevention can only go so far, and trust in people has to come in some time. I know the government doesn't trust the whole of the people, and the people don't trust the whole of the government, but there is no reason for problems of this proportion to happen, and obviously they haven't and most likely won't, but it does raise an interesting question. How far can the government go, using technology and otherwise, to moniter citizens and prevent crime. Technology is a double edged sword, it has to find a balance where it can go without being harmful. Minority Report brings that up, which is a very good thing, i feel.
Noah Therrien
Group 4
What struck me most was that “The medium, or process, of our time-electric technology-is reshaping and restructuring patterns of social independence and every aspect of our personal life.” The technologies we create and depend upon make us reconsider and revaluate everything we do. I can’t believe that technology has such a power over humanity. Technology has brought on a new environment, which has brought social change. The article also states “All media are extensions of some human faculty-psychic or physical.” Which doesn’t shock me as much but it is sad to think that we are just creating technology to add to our physical actions.
The story Minority Report expresses how much we could depend on technology in the future. To think one day we could find people who have yet to commit a crime guilty just because technology and some precogs say that a crime will be committed. What if the person would to change their mind last minute and not commit the crime? You have to let fate play its roll or society will change for the worse. The treatment of the precogs is not right you can’t just keep 3 people locked up and have them predict what’s going to happen without their consent. Can we really trust our criminal system to some predictions based on three people who can see the future in a sense? What if they are wrong and put an innocent person away? There are so many questions that outweigh the good of this type of system.
-Judith Marker-
Group 1
"Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments." This quote from the Medium is the Massage reading stuck with me not only because it is the last line, but because of the interesting way in which it refers to media as environments. So often we talk about media in terms of objects, but forget that their immersive quality is not only a novelty, but is creating new types of environments for us to exist in. For example, the internet has created an environment for us to exist in with its own language, its own set of rules and its own way of effecting your thinking. The internet has changed the environment of your house, or even your person, by enabling you to access anything around the world from one spot. I find it fascinating to think about the visual aspect of any new technology and how that has effected our expectations of what our environment will look like. Even events that we perceive to be unrelated to technology, have to exist within the visual world that media has created. This is getting a bit vague, but, all in all, it's overwhelming to try and conceive all of the ways that technology has changed our environment.
I think that one of the interesting anxieties that is illustrated in the Minority Report story, is the fear of losing the power of experience. This is the same fear that people express about losing in-person interaction to instant messenger and email and cell phones. Humans have a basic understanding that events which they physically experience have a more profound impact, than those which they are detached from. I think one of the big fears here is that if we let technology take over and run the way in which we experience things, then something will get lost in the uniqueness of each person that comes from their experiences. Can you really consider someone to be a criminal if they have not yet experienced the act of being one? And then, how does the experience of being punished differ, when you have not yet been able to deserve the punishment? It is an interesting thing to try and wrap your mind around, and brings up some really thought provoking questions about human nature and what is or is not an appropriate role for technology.
Kristen Gibb Group 3
THe greatest thing about the reading is the statement he makes about parents. He basically says that parents no longer teach kids anymore because media is now more influencial than ever. A cartoon has more of an impact on our kids nowadays than things our parents try to teach us on a daily basis. As for Minority Report, I do believe that the individual would have major anxieties in a society completly governed by technology. A person would have to be un-godly careful about anything he thought or said. I world would no longer be a comfertable place to live.
The most interesting part of the passage from The Medium is the Massage was the section entitled "your family". This begins to insert the idea that we are being raised by more than just our household family members. It is no longer the 1800's when kids learned everything from their parents. We now have a booming technological media industry which produces many inlets for influence. We start to build our morals on not only what our parents say, but also what we see and hear in media. This collapses the boundary of how parents and families raise children. We cannot control what our children learn as much.
This story brings about the anxieties of a society overturned due to a great amount of technology. When the government has a growing control and power due to new technology we lose some of our freedoms. If the government was able to arrest somebody before they committed the crime, it would be good that they made the arrest, but how can you really PROVE something without any physical evidence. It also adds to the anxieties about the government listening and watching our personal lives; phone tracing, spies, internet control. These fears are already becoming prevalent in society and "The Minority Report" builds upon these feelings.
Ryan Laing
Group Two
One of the things that strikes me most about the reading is how vague all the claims are on aspects dealing with how electronic media will 'collapse' society. I kind of understand the general idea here, where the author says 'The "child" was an invention of the seventeenth century... He had up until that time been merged in the adult world and there was nothing that could be called childhood in our sense.' I think what the author was trying to say is that back then without kids watching tv and playing video games all day, kids were much more social and 'mature' then they are today; but what I don't understand is what exactly happened in the 17th century that caused this change that the author talks about. Like in several other points he makes in the article, what seems intentional to me, the author tries to be thought provoking but overall too vague for its own good.
The whole idea in Minority Report dealing with the government being able to arrest people without any physical evidence reminded me about how there are thousands of surveillance cameras all over London to deter crime. Obviously the technology in Minority Report is way more advanced then what we have now, but the theory is the same. When society believes they are constantly being watched, and they believe they will get caught if they even attempt any sort of crime, the way people act in public probably is greatly effected. Just like in Minority Report, people get anxious about what they do and if they can get in trouble for it. With cameras all over the place, I would imagine people feel the same sort of anxiety, as I believe it has proven to help deter crime. I think Minority Report is an extreme example of this idea, but interesting to see the same theory actually taking place today.
Jon Phillips
Group 3
The part which interested me most about the article was the machines ability to monitor us and relay this information to both other machines and other people. The machine becoming the observer, and master, (“'Come into my parlor,' said the computer to the specialist”) is a very interesting idea, a complete reversal from man's idea of his place as the master and observer of the machine. The Minority Report underlines fears about machines being the middleman, cutting out direct interaction between two people. Having the precogs detect a crime before it occurs and then having the police go and arrest the perpetrator removes the interaction between police and suspect, and this lack of interaction adds a chance for mistake.
1. "The 'child' was an invention of the seventeenth century; he did not exist in, say, Shakespeare's day. He had, up until that time, been merged in the adult world and there was nothing that could be called childhood in our sense."
First of all, this claim is one of the weirdest perspectives on what modern media is doing to youth. But, basically the claim is very interesting because it could be claiming that Shakespeare's creations changed how media can affect the adult differently than the child. For example, Shakespeare's Julius Caesar is for an adult audience, but Comedy of Errors could be seen by a youth audience as well as an adult audience. Television shows for children must have an effect of some sort, whether it is positive or negative. Also, the claim that "today's child is growing up absurd" is interesting althought the author leaves it almost completely unjustified. If instruction alone does not teach the child enough, then modern media must be an answer, but also a problem.
2. The basis of Minority Report lies on the translation of a type of philosophy known as determinism, specifically Hard Determinism. Basically, the philosophy entails that if you could know all the laws of science, you could potentially predict everything with 100% accuracy, therefore, there is no free will and no moral responsibility. Minority Report translates this idea into "Pre-crime" and police as being the determinist. If someone is going to commit murder, and they have no choice not too, then they have lost all free will. Technologies influence takes the role of God and determines who has the illusion of free will and who obviously has no free will. The society in Minority Report has no room for free will, because they accept technology as an all knowing truth that determines the lives of an entire society.
Tom Matthias -- Group 2
One thing that struck me about McLuhan and Fiore's article was the idea of the “Age of Anxiety” and how society falls under confusion and despair during technological and cultural transitions. As a film student, I can relate to this anxiety of trying to stay up to date with current technological trends and innovations. There always seems to be some device that is better and more efficient and it seems to be constantly progressing. I also like “the others” section of this article, where it talks about how in an electronic environment minority groups cannot be ignored and how we know too much about each other. I think this is pretty evident in the YouTube/MySpace/Facebook generation. Especially with Facebook’s news-feed feature, we can pretty much find out current activities of people without physically interacting with them.
The idea of knowing too much about one another fits well with Phillip K. Dick’s story, Minority Report. To me, the story raises a lot of questions about the anxiety of the information age and how authority figures use this information for political or personal purposes. To judge a person by their thoughts and not their actions is a scary concept to me, and it only deepens my concerns about the way technology can be used for oppressive means. What’s interesting is that technology like this is beginning to be realized. Here are a few articles that I have found recently.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/03/google_eavesdropping_software/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/feb/09/neuroscience.ethicsofscience
Brian Dunigan (Group 1)
The thing that strikes me most about this reading is the example of the parents as models of behavior in ones family. The fact is that technology is changing. As it changes, its influence on children increases. This disposes them to an expansive and sometimes uncensored world. This in itself can be considered dangerous for their development and yet inevitable. The anxiety expressed by Minority Report is the totalitarianism of a government that wields the power technology to such extremes, that its citizen’s ability to defend themselves is put in jeopardy. The rights of the citizen are completely thrown out. It’s very Orwellian in a sense. Minority report depicts the time when technology essentially governs our society.
-Brian SHea 4
1.In the article, “The medium In the Message” there is this view of technology being some input on our lives that we can’t live without. It is sort of what we were talking about in class a few weeks ago about the ipod nation of people. We all wear these headphones and don’t interact with each other anymore. Our personal space has become secluded and so imprisoned that we cease to exist with one another. This article reminded me of that. I don’t think we’re necessarily doomed by this at all, some people choose to exclude themselves from the outside world. I wear headphones; I use the cell phone, and the computer. I don’t see my life spiraling, because of technology.
2.In the, “Minority Report” the futuristic society is governed by technology to see into the future. These stopping future crimes from happening before they do and arresting innocent people. I think the anxieties that a person will feel is wondering if their going to be the next to get arrested for a thought and an action that they haven’t committed yet. Like premeditating the crime and being arrested for it before it happens. The system in the movie had a flaw in it and it was exposed. You’re taking custody of innocent people, but you have stopped the crime changing the inevitable.
Randal Jackson
The article touched on the education system, and I think this class assignment is a product of that. If you don’t own a computer, or have internet connection, this class would be much harder to be a part of. All the readings are online, which force us to use this technology (one that we’re familiar with, and that most of us prefer). I wouldn’t consider this a collapse, but certainly a shift. The institution of learning is now what it was 20 years ago, heck – even 5 years ago; it is a constant shift that we are all getting used to.
This story brings to light what the future might hold. How much are we going to rely on technology to do our duties? Its one thing to have computers analyze DNA to match murderers, but the techniques seen in Minority Report, and the methods used are another. It must be important by the individuals to always question the system and how it works. If we are too accepting of technology then it is very easy to fall into a corrupt system. In regards to Minority Report; it is hard to imagine having a fleet of men arrest me for a murder I was “about” to commit, knowing that I wouldn't do that…or would I..?
Jon Hillbo - Group 1
1) The Medium is the Massage gives some nice historical examples of early technology causing some discomfort to people, an example being the chess playing automaton that Edgar Allen Poe described. I think everybody has a little discomfort with what the future holds, although discomfort does not necessarily equate to true fear. The whole concept out surpassing our own bodies is hard to imagine, since our bodies are truly what makes us human. If our consiousness somehow surpasses our bodies and continues to exist in some form of technology, will we still be "human" per se, or would that be another form of existance entirely? This causes discomfort because it is inherrantly unknown to us yet, and the unknown causes unease.
2) Minority Report takes the unease mentioned in the first article and describes one of the worse situations that could arise from it. The idea of "thought crimes" is already a hot topic in the world today, and combining that with some strange computer system that attempts to predict what crimes we will commit and arrest us for that is scary indeed. This fear arrises from the fact that ANYBODY is capable of committing a crime, its just that our judgement and reason stops most of us from actually carrying it out, yet this futuristic system seems to make our judgement irrelevant by removing the chance that you may change your mind. These fears may have arrisen from believing that our governments of today are unfair already, and giving them more powerful futuristic technology will only exasterbate the situation. Perhaps if our governments today were more trustworthy, the future technological aspects wouldn't seem so horrifying.
1. In reference to the article, The Medium is the Massacre, I found the portion of the article which discusses how we as students are becoming a product of technology rather interesting. To put it bluntly, its true. Look at all of us at this very moment. We are posting on a blog, reading online articles and all of this is being taken for credit in a class. We are learning how to use online bloggers in other classes, and in order to do almost anything with film these days, you must be able to not only be familiar, but have advanced training with computers and numerous graphics/editing programs. Coincidentally enough, programs such as these cost hundreds of dollars. Something that cost next to nothing to make, other than extensive time and research, costs hundreds of dollars to buy. It's true and we buy the products. But it is also necessary and by no means is it necessarily a bad thing. Aspects of it are faulty, but that naturally comes with the advancement of technology.
2. The anxiety for such a society as Minority Report suggests is gargantuan. Imagine yourself sleeping in your home. You wake up, get ready to go to work once again. We can't necessarily say an honest day's work, because what is work with out a bit of slacking here and there nowadays? At any rate, you warm up your cup of coffee and suddenly a special forces team is through your window and you are being arrested for committing a crime that you did not do. A crime that you DID NOT do. Everyone is going to break the law in their lives, so it no longer becomes a question of who does or does not, it becomes incessant looking over one's shoulder wondering when you're next. Not only that, but it goes against the innocent until proven guilty and what if technology made an error. We couldn't know, so then innocent people would be prosecuted. It's a terrible idea. Like Big Brother on 20 hits of acid.
Forgot my info.
Film 115
Group 1
Emir
The portion that struck me, almost physically, was this quotation from The Medium is the Massage, "All media work us over completely....Any understanding of social and cultural change is impossible without a knowledge of the way media work as environments." It occurred to me that, yes, this is an actual truth. I hadn't really thought about it much before, but the media has near control over everyone's lives. Almost no information about anything is received without the aide of the media. Controlled information receiving causes a great need to utilize the media in every day life. If the media were somehow destroyed, the world would take much time before it rebuilt it's social networking that is so readily available in this day and age.
The Minority Report is a very interesting idea that, although impossible, brings about several frightening issues. Should such a world come into existence, individuals would have to live in constant fear and paranoia; wondering everyday if this the day they'll be arrested for a crime that may be done in the future. An individual will be in a society more concerned about the probable crimes than the actual lives of the citizens themselves. Citizens become expendable and dispensable, ready to be tossed out at any given time, given the correct evidence against them.
Chris Ouchie
Group 3
I think the "Your Family" part of the article was very interesting. I would agree with the idea that kids are learning just as much from media sources as they are from their parents. Today’s children have so many facets from which to get information, children are generally oblivious to this. When the article says “all the worlds a sage” it is true in many ways. The great amount of information all the media form export is absorbed by all the people in the world. Parents once the sole source of education of their children, have been over taken by the television. Is this a good thing that kids can get all sorts of info from media instead of their parents? I think it all depends on the context and what it is that they're learning. I think that parents now should work harder to impart training on their children.
Minority Report is a film about the revolutionary idea of being able to catch a criminal before the crime. Something this groundbreaking will have to have a few flaws. This idea creates something of a Orwellian situation. The average individual will of course have anxieties knowing that such a pre-crime system is in place. The ones in power will run this system and the masses will constantly live in fear of being arrested or accused of a crime they have not yet committed, but supposedly will in the near future. This truly is terrifying because when someone is arrested before they commit a crime, there is no evidence against them other than the "system's" glimpse into the future. In this kind of a society, anxiety would become an everyday part of life. Our society would become one driven by fear.
Matt Smaglik Group 1
In McLuhan's piece, The Medium is the Massacre, many of his viewpoints of media and technology affecting all aspects of human life struck me as fascinating. The most impressive, however, was the section on 'your family'. McLuhan states, "The worldpool of information fathered by electric media... (blah, blah)... far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world's a sage." So true. Kids are incredibly influenced now by the television set... even more so now than when McLuhan wrote this piece. Sex on cable. Violence in video games. Drug usage on DVD. It's inevitable with new generations that they will be exposed to these elements... along with a couple positive ones, but let's not bore ourselves with those. Everyone focuses on negative aspects on TV and likes to blame their children's violent crimes on DOOM or Halo 3. I think it's a cheap defense, but it definitely does have an affect on a young, impressionable mind. My 4 year old brother runs around the house shooting his family members with a plastic gun yelling "DIE SCUM!" It's obvious that he didn't learn this from school, or from our parents, but from a different teacher: the Samsung widescreen in our living room.
If our society adapted a government system that was largely influenced by technology, such as in Minority Report, one's civil rights can be considered jeopardized. If a criminal is undoubtedly guilty (s)he still gets a trial. Aside from this, technology is chock-full of error. One's fate could be decided by a computer system that is suffering from a glitch.
Andrew Huggins, Group 1
I didn’t realize how much media was taking over our “relation to others”. The way celebrity gossip has become national news and become hot topics on CNN. But I though it was our individual choice whether we pay attention or watch to it, but now its out of our control. There isn’t a single place you can go without hearing or seeing it being publicized. I read in the family section that parents no longer have an influence on their children movies and television does and it makes me wonder how much has influenced my siblings? Now that television is a lot more indecent that it used to be. It also talks about how machines and technology will take over jobs and companies, then how will millions of people make a living? Everything around our society is changing so fast that I sometimes think there wont be any room for humans when machines can do everything for us.
In the story they talk about how people are arrested for a crimes they haven’t even committed yet. The only way they know that they indeed will commit them is through these three people who see prophecies in the future. But how is it fair to throw someone in jail when they haven’t done anything wrong and the only evidence they have is from machines prediction of what will happen? Or what if the machines are wrong and a person decided not to go through with it, it would already be too late. Like Tom Cruise’s character he was convicted of killing a man he didn’t even know but was going to be put away for it and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. So when technology takes over and is in charge of things like crime and punishment there is essentially nothing you can do to stop it or prove your innocence. You have your rights taken away from you all because a machine saw into the future.
A. Gray
Group 4
1.) Though quite erratic, Mcluhan and Fiore’s article does indeed discuss an evident collapse of social boundaries due to electronic media. However none of their theories or ideas really strikes me in a fearful or hard hitting manner as it attempts to be. I feel, actually, that many of their observations are quite generalized and do not pertain the larger population. “-that one big gossip column that is unforgiving, unforgetful, and from which there is no redemption, no erasure of early mistake.”
The writers seem to be stressing the fact that we are all helplessly bound to, and controlled by a tyrannical media despot whom none of us can escape. I just cannot simply take this is truth. In this big world, and even in small communities, there is potential for a great variety of lifestyles. Not all of us are reading People magazine or watching American Idol during are free time. The noose that media has around our neck is purely imaginative, and as soon as we refuse to acknowledge its existence, it is gone. It’s like being at a crowded concert and only having inches of room – just close your eyes and all the world’s space is yours.
2.) Though the film Minority Report presents a “possible” road for our technological society reach, I personally feel that nuclear war will send mankind back into the dark ages long before any technology this advanced could be invented. To entertain the ideas of this film as possible reality is about as wise as believing in Scientology. Regardless of how far technology progresses, humans will always maintain their contact to the natural world. We will not become robots and –as it is natural- we will never seize to have suspicions about technology, especially those that control our lives.
I’m struck by the author’s extreme and urgent position he’s taking against technology. I find it funny how he speaks about the absolute control technology has over our privacy- it reminds me of Enemy of the State. It is scary how easily your life’s information can be obtained and manipulated, but if I’m not doing anything wrong why worry? And as far as privacy goes, move to Alaska, if you feel you’re being threatened or intruded upon! The “big gossip column that is unforgiving” is a gigantic consuming monster, but peoples choose their own involvement. Although hard to ignore- still very possible. The technology mentioned in The Medium is the Massage does not pose a threat to me or my life. The technology that “causes traditional social boundaries to collapse” is not what scares me. Maybe this technology is expanding us and our minds? But is too complex to understand.
What freaks me out the most is not the technology but the people that allow it to govern them. How can we stop them?
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