E-learning and Digital Cultures Week 2 - Initial Musings, etc.

Ahhhh, eLearning and Digital Cultures course, how you appear to hate technology oh so much.

Not really, but I do believe that either - due to the choices of our educators or the creative collection of society in general - people are using technology to depict technological-futures in a very bleak light.

This may be because providing that sort of drama makes for a much better storyline than one where people communicate more openly, learn more vividly and complete mundane tasks with ease. I can't help but agree. Why would I want to see video of some kid learning in a Volvo when I can be on the edge-of-my-seat in suspense as a cell phone mysteriously chokes its owner using the power of cellular signal? No matter what the deal is, it is definitely creating an impression upon my fellow classmates in #edcmooc.

Not that technology has gone without slaughtering humans. We've been developing tech since our ancestors, with weaponry usage being exhibited by chimps who learned how to manipulate tools. And sure, they used some of these tools to bash each other's skulls in -- others used different tools for fishing ants out of anthills. Silly chimps...when are they going to realize, like us humans, that slaughtering your same species is wrong. Oh, wait...crap.

So, the first homo-made weapon are referred to as the Schöningen Spears and were used by Homo heidelbergensis. Since that time we've upgraded tanks and rifles, planes and atomic weaponry, even hypothetical Star Wars style anti-weaponry. But the focus of the class that I am currently taking hasn't surrounded any of these well developed, industrialized techs which have wiped the world clean of so many humans. Instead, the focus has been on the laziness of the human mind, how it has been entrenched by an overwhelming amount of day-to-day systems (like a phone, or an iPad), and how these things are capable of destroying society from the inside out. Definitely important subject matter, though it seems somewhat disconcerting that the focus of technology's imminent destructive tendencies seem to come through development and innovation, as opposed to through brute force, human ignorance and an inability to stop irrational actors from making moves upon the world stage.

In Week 2, the future view of technology as described above is crafted through images of the bleak. Of course, we do have two load balancing films which are supposed to anchor the staunch dystopian view that is put forward in the rest of the videos - but that doesn't really seem to playout in the student's mindframe. In fact, from watching the reaction of my classmates through TweetDeck and Google+, it is more then abundantly obvious that our society has directed its focus towards thwarting itself from its own impending doom that is caused by us having access too....too much information too fast, I think. Or something.

I will attempt in future entries to develop my thoughts regarding this division and to try and grasp the reasons individuals tend to lean towards this "Glass half empty" view of technology. Of course I don't really believe that my classmates hate technology, but maybe they fear it? Or maybe they see how much they use it as a crutch which will make them into weaker beings - just as the Periodic Table of Elements obviously made Einstein stupid because he no longer had to look up mass and atomic number of an element, and just as how people became inherently weaker when the Wheel was invented because they no longer had to work as hard for as long...oh...wait....damnit!

Coursera forced to call off a MOOC amid complaints about the course | Inside Higher Ed

Seemed destined to happen one way or another...so many universities converging over so many topics, offering learning for free online...there is a great capacity for human error. It's a learning process, and educators will learn just like the students...

Determinism, Technological Determinism, and how to determine which Determinism has already chosen you

I never had much of a "spiritual" center, as it were. Which is okay by me.

While I am the social sort who enjoys like-minded people who come from similar situations, I have never found myself wanting for a greater community of believers who share a common understanding in the afterlife. I have never found myself looking for a deity to focus my complaints and desires towards. Never found myself looking for a set of rules and directives by which I should conduct my day-to-day activities that weren't dictated by homo sapien sapiens. 

And without this, my mind was free to explore numerous scientifically based Theories-of-Everything. While placing my focus in this philosophical realm, alongside the intervention of my Chemistry/Biology minded friend Adam, my studies began to surround a concept known as Determinism. This philosophical stance, as summarized by the grand Wiki, is simply:

is a metaphysical philosophical position stating that for everything that happens there are conditions such that, given those conditions, nothing else could happen

And that

often is taken to mean simply causal determinism, that is, basing determinism upon the idea of cause-and-effect. It is the concept that events within a given paradigm are bound by causality in such a way that any state (of an object or event) is completely determined by prior states.

Very basically, you could say "everything happens as it has to happen, otherwise it would happen some other way". This doesn't assume predictability - in fact, many overlaying/more specific philosophies (such as Chaos Theory) are deterministic concepts which indicate the near impossibility of predictability.

So, of course, my interest was piqued when I cam across the words Technological Determinism in a course offered through the always-amazing online learning organization Coursera. The concept of Technological Determinism (as provided to me by a cursory read of Daniel Chandler's Technological or Media Determinism) states:

a central controversy concerns how far technology does or does not condition social change. Each commentator emphasizes different facts in technological change.

And is thus part of the philosophical debate regarding determinism. But it seems strange that technological determinists need a specific realm of study. The fundamental crux of the philosophy is that change and existence has been determined through one principal factor, technology. I just have a hard time in my mind rectifying that, as determinists, these philosophers do not acknowledge the other coexisting circumstances that are impacting and influencing each other alongside technology.

This is of course the issue of holism v. reductionism. Daniel Chandler does an excellent job at explaining this and I am thrilled to have come across such a great piece of writing in my eLearning & Digital Cultures class. Very very nice to stumble so heavily upon philosophy in what I thought was going to be a practical application style course.

Yes, this post was mostly babbling, but here is what you can take away from it:

1. Reductionist prinicples can be useful, but Technological Determinism seems to be missing much of the larger point to the general philosophy. Causality requires indications as to what social/technological/biological/everything causes other social/technological/biological/everything changes. It's very hard to indicate that ONE of the MILLIONS of interacting stimuli is the principle driver of existence.
2. Coursera.org is the SHIT! You should go there, now, and sign up for a class (if you're not already in school).
3. I am a lowly atheist destined to burn in hell! Wheeeeeeeeee!!

20 reasons why Google Plus is a must Infographic

20 reasons why Google Plus is a must [Infographic] | Soshable | Social Media Blog

If you follow this blog for any period of time, you will discover that I am a huge Google+ fan. It is absolutely my favorite social networking site. I think it is much easier to use then Facebook and is also a better built system. One only need look at the Facebook mobile app, which is slow and buggy with huge issues. When examining Google's mobile application for G+, the user notes immediately the speed and smoothness. It has been a staple of Google's since the beginning - fast information and fast projects which provide unique search and find features and privacy standards which cannot be met in any other social-networking situation.

...It's going to be the next big thing.

Here's the graphic, stolen from the above link, explaining 20 reasons why G+ is going to be a must...

Space Pt 1 - Galaxies

Galaxy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I freaking absolutely love SPACE - the last frontier of exploration and it's HUGE - and most people don't see to know shit about it - so as part of my 800 part miniBlog regarding SPACE - I will be including massive amounts of links regarding space related stuff - if for no other reason then the fact that I want to remember where I put all this shit...

Looks like this video is work checking out:



In News Related to SPACE
Columbia Shuttle Crew was Left in the Dark

Watch Out Facebook, With Google+ at #2 and YouTube at #3, Google, Inc. Could Catch Up - Forbes

Watch Out Facebook, With Google+ at #2 and YouTube at #3, Google, Inc. Could Catch Up - Forbes

The best is always getting better. Slowly Google+ will become dominant amongst social networks...

Goodbye "30 Rock"

'30 Rock' just got better - latimes.com

After 7 seasons, 30 Rock will be saying goodbye to its adoring audience. I have read many different views on this: some say that 30 Rock has given up it's humanity so that it can be more funny and that the show suffered because of that; some say that it is one of the most amazing shows we've had in the first 13 years of the 21st Century and that it will be a heavy blow to TV Rotation. Regardless, no one will forget how Tina Fey took a worn out concept and made it funny again. A nice balance of random and heartfelt - I will certainly miss the show, but I am thankfully several seasons behind (because I cannot watch TV on a schedule)... so I still have a lot of catching up to do and episodes that will be new to me.

Update (12:04 MST) Possible Reunion?