We are Cyborgs

In this blog I was going to posit what the future of the Internet is by comparing it to previous technological revolutions. No surprise really. Media History is my favourite topic because I like to find the syncronicities between old and new media. I'd even written drought versions of the next eight blogs that would investigate Internet and New Media development in even more depth. However, last night there was a re-run of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine (1993) and whilst watching it I thought "Most people think that a Cyborg is something like the Terminator. Wouldn't it be interesting to show that we're actually the Cyborgs?" This would be a good foundation for understanding the importance of the Internet but it might even challenge the reader to a new worldview.

"Every cultural era is predisposed to a worldview that obsolesces other world views" (Jung, 1966, p.98)

Machine: "structure of any kind... apparatus, appliance" (Online Etymology Dictionary)

A Cyborg is a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device. Simple examples of this are things like hearing aids which are mechanical devices that enhance hearing, spectacles which enhance vision, pace makers which keep hearts beating or even the most extreme version found in Sci-Fi movies like Terminator 3. However, humans began mechanically extending their capabilities a long time ago. Right back to the very start of humanity. So much so that we now see these mechanizations as natural.

The first language of Humans was mathematics. What happened when we discovered mathematics is that we created symbols for it so we could interpret and use it. When early humans scratched lines to represent quantity they were creating a tool, a machine, to store information for later retrieval or presentation. Marshall McLuhan is famous for illustrating how our inventions are actually extensions of our bodies. In the above example, the symbols we created for numbers are tools that we use to extend our brains memory capability. Something else happened when Humans created symbols. We created something totally new. We abstracted the natural world by presenting it in a new form and by doing so created a simple written language that was totally unique to Mankind.

Humans then evolved from simple grunts and gestures and created another mechanical device to extend memory and enhance communication. They created words. If you think about it, who first spoke the word "Cat". It has no direct link to the furry mammal we all know. The sound isn't onomatopoeic like the word "Boom" which mimics the actual thing. It is an abstract representation of the the small furry animal that we in the English speaking world have been taught means Cat. This creation of spoken language allowed Humans to transmit information faster to each other and therefore gain more knowledge.

Plato went even further by adding vowels to the Phonetician alphabet so we could spell out words like "Cat". The Alphabet is another mechanization that we created to extend our natural capabilities. These extensions of our bodies are evident in every artefact we've ever created. Here's some recent examples:

• The engine of a car is an extension of our muscles and allows us to travel farther. The fuel tank is an extension of our stomach and provides the energy needed to travel long distances.
  
• Telephones are an extension of our voice and allow us to speak around the World
  
• The Television is an extension of our eyes and ears
  
• Shoes are an extension of our feet
• Clothes are an extension of our skin
• Cups are an extension of our hands for holding liquid
• Knives are an extension of our teeth
• What is a computer an extension of?
  

Can you see how our "physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device"? Though we may not be Terminators we can definitely be seen as Cyborgs.

These inventions we've made also reshaped reality as we know it such as Mass Media creating simplified representations of humans as mass markets to sell products to or Government's shaping the views of a Nation through the invention of Propaganda. What might be even more interesting is how our extensions are now evolving beyond us.

When Alan Turing (Turing, 1950) proposed that is was possible for machines to think it may very well be one of the defining moments of Human evolution because now our inventions were not just an extension of us; but could become our own abstraction of life itself. Turing's work can be seen as the basis of what we now know as Artificial Intelligence. I'll discuss these ideas in my next blogs.

Bibliography
Turing, A.M. (1950). Computing machinery and intelligence. Mind, 59, 433-460

What is New Media?

Remember when we used to tape songs off the radio? Where high-tech was something like a mirror ball and anyone with two phones in their house was rich? It's bizarre to see how much the World has changed in the last couple of decades so I thought I'd write about what I've experienced. This blog is based on a presentation I did at my New Media course at Massey University a few weeks ago.

First of all, before we can understand how media technology is influencing us we need to see what it's done in the past. I won't get into it in too much depth but I will give you a taste of what Media History teaches us:

Paradigm shifts
A quick look at how new technology in media has helped changed the World

Living and working with New Media
My personal view of how digital media has influenced the world

Conclusion
I'll talk a little bit about where I think new technology is taking us.

Paradigm shifts

"Thomas Kuhn... referred to... paradigm shifts, discoveries so fundamental that they knock out the basic pillars of universally held beliefs"
(Downs and Mui p. 30)

Some technologies are so entrenched in our every day lives that we forget that they were once new technologies. When vowels were added to the alphabet it was a huge technological leap. It made reading and writing a lot easier to learn but it also allowed the translation of other languages much easier which provided the Greeks with access to more knowledge. Thousands of years later the Gutenberg Printing press provided another media revolution that within the space of two years made 10,000 Scribes lose their jobs and new Universities spring up around the World. In recent times we can see how Broadcast media such as Radio and Television have shaped our world. Vietnam was the first "Television War", media coverage of events such as 1981 NZ Springbok Tour divided our Nation and advertising identified/created larger audiences such as Youth Culture so they could market to them.

What is New Media?
So how does this relate to New Media? There are some fundamental differences with the New Media revolution that have far reaching consequences. I'm going to use Lister's five New Media categories to show this: Digitality, Interactivity, Hypertext, Dispersal and Virtuality.

"... the emergence of 'new media' as some kind of epoch-making phenomena, is seen as part of a much larger landscape of social, technological and cultural change; in short, as part of the new technoculture"
(Lister p. 11)

Digitality
New Media is primarily Digital. Unlike previous media like vinyl records that are a direct representation of the actual sound or movie reels that are a direct representation of light, New Media products such as MP3's or DVDs are an abstraction of the the real thing which brings many benefits. It can be copied millions of times without losing quality. It can be transmitted globally in real-time and it can be sold at a fraction of the cost because it costs next to nothing to reproduce. Of course this poses many issues for the older industries such as the music and film industries because they now have to change their business model to suit the new digital environment. As an example, it took the US postal service over 100 years to become the primary business communication tool and in the space of two years mail was replaced with email. In my early years at University there used to be a Television production centre that was worth over a million dollars and within two years we had built our own digital video editing suite for under $5000 that was producing broadcast quality video. In fact the technology was moving so fast that the corporations couldn't keep up. My first Web Design company beat Telecom and Telstra for the EziBuy Clothing e-commerce website because corporates back then didn't understand what was happening on the Internet.

Interactivity
Recently Cadbury bowed to consumer pressure to remove Palm oil from its chocolate. The change can largely be attributed to the strong media coverage which referred to the customer backlash in social networking groups like those found on Facebook. Cadbury saw a huge fall in sales and was forced to change. If Cadbury had changed it's recipe twenty years ago there would have been very little chance for customers to change their decision but modern technology has moved the power of broadcasting to customers.

"... on-line networks has set in motion an unprecedented shift in power from vendors of goods and services to the customers who buy them."
(Hagel & Armstrong p. 2)

New Media such as the Internet has also allowed groups to share knowledge. Literally thousands of software developers share software on the Internet for free by making it Open Source and much of the Internet now runs on this free technology.

Because of digital media we now have a greater choice of products and we can also read other consumer's reviews of the product which makes our shopping experience safer and also making business more honest.

Hypertext
Remember those card drawers that used the Dewey system to find books? It took ages to find anything but now we all take it for granted that we'll search through something like KEA or Google. Hypertext has revolutionized the way we find and navigate information.

"The human mind operates by association. With one item in it's grasp, it snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association of thoughts, in association with some intricate web of trails carried by the cells of the brain. (Bush in Mayer 1999: 34)"
(Lister p. 25)

Hypertext has also influenced politics. Previously Governments could control what was shown through mass media and probably Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens is the pinnacle film for this type of propaganda but the shear volume of content on the Internet now makes propaganda much more difficult. China may try to stop its people from viewing the Internet but the reality is that it is impossible. The Internet doubles in size every two years and soon it will be near impossible to track all the content being created.

Hypertext is also changing the way we think. Previous generations brought up with books and television generally have longer attention spans and are more linear in their thinking. Though this can be very beneficial in some respects it is also a reflection of the type of media they use. Modern research shows that younger people generally know more than we used to be at their age and they can also handle more bits of information simultaneously than we could at their age. This is largely because of the New Media environment they live in. I'm not saying they're more intelligent because intelligence is more than just information but what it does reveal is how modern media is influencing our evolution.

New Media has also allowed us to speak more. Now everyone can be their own TV station (YouTube) or Newspaper (Blogger) or even Author (Amazon). The challenge now is to organise that information.

Dispersal

“A company that is one year old acts like one that has been around for seven years.”
(Downs p. 32)

Another important aspect of New Media is that it no longer needs to be in one place. I purchased some glasses online the other day from a New Zealand site only to find out that I was actually dealing with A company based in China.

This dispersal and global capability also changes the way things are sold. For example when Amazon was first on the web they lost money every year and it was a bit of a joke. However, Amazon was learning and what they discovered was that people wanted more obscure types of books that they couldn't buy from their local bookseller. In a small city there might be a hand-full of people like this but when you're operating globally this literally becomes millions of people. In Internet Marketing this is called Long-tail economics and Amazon soon found out that it could reach a whole new market.

Virtuality
A lot of people see things like Facebook or World of Warcraft as not real. The truth is they are as real as the book you just read or the telephone conversation you just had with your power company. The question is, when will we be so used to them they will seem natural like books or writing?

"To admit the 'artificial' is to deny the 'real' which the artificial enables to appear so authentically" (Alverado p. 11)

Are we really that much different from when we used to exchange letters with Pen Pals or write in a diary? If anything I think we're actually doing it more but now we share it with everyone else. We're actually becoming more social because of it. New Media has allowed me to have more social interaction. Before the Internet I would have local friends who are still great friends now but the Internet has also permitted me to have friends in different countries all around the World which has given me many insights into things that I might not have discovered.

These online virtual communities are breaking down our Nation States. Mass Media such as Newspapers have been on the decline for the last five years and Television is quickly converging with the Internet. Those who have learnt how to use New Media are now prolific in their interaction with other people and their knowledge gives them higher E-citizenship status. Those who aren't doing it will feel like they operate in an alien world in the next five years.

Conclusion
So where is this all leading us? I think we're at the start of a revolution that will dwarf previous media revolutions. The Internet was only the start of the information flow. The repercussions to science, culture and human evolution will surpass our wildest dreams and in our own lifetimes. The other exciting component of this is that we're right in it. We can direct the new media revolution into making a better world for future generations. I'll discuss this in future blogs - I didn't realise this one was going to end up being this long.


Bibliography
Alverado, M. Gutch, R. and Wollen, T. 1987 Learning the Media: An Introduction to Media Teaching. MacMillan/ London.

Crowley, David & Heyer, Paul. (1995) Communication in History: Technology, Culture, Society. Second Edition. Longman Publishers: New York

Downs, Larry & Mui, Cunka. (1998) Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance. Harvard Business School Press: Boston, Massachusetts.

Hagel III, John. Armstrong, Arthur, G. (1997) net gain: expanding markets through virtual communities Harvard Business School Press: Boston , Massachusetts

Lister, Martin, et al. "New Media and New Technologies". New Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2003. pp. 9-37

Ortega, Jose. & Gasset, Y. (1932/1957) The Revolt of the Masses, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, London. From, 39.601, Communications & Culture, Study Guide, (pp. 14-56), Massey University, New Zealand, 1995.