Are we really that lazy?

Three days and four teeth later I bring to you people my blog! I was not their for Mr. D to present the ideas we are suppose to focus or zoom on in this blog so as usual it will be a vast amount of random crap that no one should really be allowed to read. As Nicholas Carr states in his “Is Google Making Us Stupid” article we are changing in our reading habits. I remember reading books before I would ever pick up the remote and now today we pick up the mouse rather than become deeply immersed in a book. Becoming deeply immersed in anything seems ridiculously hard today, with the Internet giving us the vital needs of whatever we need we just skim for the hearty chunks and leave the rest behind! On my blog page I have had a survey going and so far the majority of people who have voted picked the “I skim” option! This pick and choose, Carr states seems to be derived from the internet because the information is so easily accessible it does not seem necessary to even read the whole article. Why read the book when spark notes gives you the gist of it? Even Cat’s Cradle is attempting to attack television , the media giant of his time, with short passages to keep the attention of the reader. Maybe in newer texts we will have to shorten that even further, sentences will become nothing but short hand. Carr continues his thought when he dives into artificial intelligence, as he states “The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive” With Google attempting to create an artificial intelligence that is literally smarter than the human brain as so to “serve” the human better, basically this relates to the human into instant gratification of information as so we don’t have to add that much more of a word so the computer will think for us so we have to do nothing we have become so lazy that thinking is too difficult for us to do! Sorry for the terrible grammar again 

PseudoModernism: the good, the bad, the ugly

My past guess was completely wrong we did not have a socratic circle, well beside the point on to the blog of this week. We have been exploring the reaches of Postmodernism in class both through PostModernism for beginerrs and applying it to Cat's Cradle. Now that we have read a thick portion of the book and began thinking as postmodern thinkers Mr. Dominguez has thrown another unseen hurdle at us, one of PseudoModernism. After reading Dr. Kirby's article I see our world has not become Postmodernistic but actually switched into a consumeristic society. This pseudomodernism is "is no more than a technologically motivated shift to the cultural centre of something which has always existed (similarly, metafiction has always existed, but was never so fetishised as it was by postmodernism). " Had this Pseudomodernism started as soon as the industrial revolution, possibly even before the postmodern thinkers had written the first inkling of their theories? Pseudomodernism today seems to be everywhere today, from television, to school, used by politicians and religion. Pseudomodernism is basically the idea that with this new technology that is all directed towards the consumer, or the buyer as it may. Because of this emphasis on the individual it would seem that the idea of metanarratives would completely diminish but actually it seems a more Changed metanarrative has been created. It might seem that metanarratives are diminishing but is this pseudomodernism actually affecting as much as we think it may? The Hybrid movement this movement and "culture" or idea or object to buy was spearheaded by the minority not necesarrily by what the consumer wanted, but in a different thought is higher mile per gallon rating what the consumer wanted? As Dr. Kirby says " dance music is to be danced to, porn is not to be read or watched but used, in a way which generates the pseudo-modern illusion of participation. In music, the pseudo-modern supersedingof the artist-dominated album as monolithic text by the downloading and mix-and-matching of individual tracks on to an iPod, selected by the listener, was certainly prefigured by the music fan’s creation of compilation tapes a generation ago. " All of this interaction, is seen sort of in the iPhone, it is all touch screen a sudden desire to be touching and be interactive with the technology has spurred, another example the Wii. Music is now not for the artist but for the listener, as Kirby has started music that is pumped out now a days seems to be massproduced and pumped out as fast and easily as possible music is remixed and sold in billion. In the 1990s the electronica movement was becoming large with huge events springing up all around the world, electronic artist would create albums that would flow from one song to another a popular artist would be Tiëto, now this Tiëto has changed in his brand new cd you see a mass variety of artist from mainstream Nelly Furtado to Sigurros a indie artist, this arrangement of artists and sounds are all to hit the listener and have them buy a piece of music that is no longer an "inspiration" but more of how can we sell the product? Dr. Kirby says "The world has narrowed intellectually, not broadened" i do disagree on his statement, with this new technology, as Mr. Dominguez has said we can never have a objective history book, i feel as if we are now trying and are closer than ever to have everyone's story played through. In one event alone you can have four hundred people spectating and now with current technology we can have 400 youtube video, blogs, texts, phone calls, or tweets about that one event showing that single persons perspective and story. This knowledge spread easily at a blink of an eye and now accessable within your own pockets. So i will end this blog with, im sorry if you read all of that, it is very very random and spurts of thought at certain times, mainly just word vomit :)

Kitten's Nest

This blog is of a desperate nature, something that needs to be finished that was never completed in general! So I am guessing we are starting this Tuesday of with a Socratic circle just for the matter of repetition. "Living by the foma(harmless untruths" that make you brave and kind, and healthy, and happy." The Books of Bokonon I:5. From the beginning to the end of this exact quote postmodernism is plastered on quite thickly. The twist of Vonnegut "book of bokonon" is the relationship to the bible, this is a mirror of what his quotation just has said. In all simplicity it would be the fact that people or human beings as a whole should be accepting of others beliefs if these beliefs are what give us meaning in life. Or a goal to lead us toward there is nothing another human being should express to repress the other individual in their own pursuit of happiness. These harmless untruth's can be symbolized as anything from religion to nationalism. The book progress from this one mere statement to the story of Felix, the pure scientist. Felix represent the view of the age of reason or in some sense, the scientific method. Felix is pure science which as Mr. Dominguez has said science for simply science sake. To seek knowledge for no other reason but for knowledge. This pursuit eventually leads us into dangerous territories. As we ask questions science usually will produce more questions these questions may lead us in either way as the "lack of moral" scientist see no wrong but let their mind's wander unguided towards whatever direction they feel. The concept that is previously brought up with karass and the fact that we eventually are tied to people within this world through different means has quite perplexed me. We can relate karass in sorts to Brave New World, in Brave New World Linda was in this alternative culture but actually connected to the Director of the Brave New World through a past time all of these Karass's were connected when Bernard Marx brought Linda and John the savage back to the Brave New World letting them all connect. Something that can relate to this would be the tragic accident that happened during 9/11. No matter if you were directly related to some one in the towers it effected widely all the citizens of United States. This may have effected the citizen in the sadness or the wrongful persecution of innocent middle eastern citizens who were terrorized or killed just in the same fact for doing nothing but simply representing their own religion with their turban, this turban "a symbol" created within the minds of American's of terrorism. This all leads back to the original statment, the "Living by the foma(harmless untruths" that make you brave and kind, and healthy, and happy." If we feel as a country we are allow others these harmless untruths how can we persecute people for wearing a certain article that represents their own religion. So this all was very confusing as i realized it is very difficult to remember what i wrote at home in my word document that is nestled away in the data banks of my computer never posted due to the terrible memory of a high school senior