Yes I enjoyed this reading, it was reasonably straightforward and very interesting. Here are my notes, I didn’t want to write about all of them because that would be boring, but these ‘dreams’ were the most stand-out to me.

1. Dream of Symbiosis 

I had to Google this, and it means “Interaction between two different organisms living in close physical association, typically to the advantage of both.” which in this context is the interaction between the brain or mind and technology. This is relevant to the iOS7 update I blogged about being Apple trying to make you and the iPhone as inseparable as the iPhone and it’s charger. The consumer is Apple’s biggest product. This article discusses how the interaction between humans and machines is believed in technology and scientific studies to allow each to learn from the interaction with the other, resulting in both evolving to higher levels of functioning. This is crazy i, Robot stuff which we should all start getting used to. We can learn so much from technology and it can learn from us; which is essentially the pinpoint of our technologically obsessed society and culture today.

3. Dream of Immersion

Artists since the invention of that particular art have been yearning to create works that will completely and utterly immerse the viewer. Whether it be a game, painting, audio documentary, song, movie, TV show or book, the point is to bring the audience into the world created and keep them there. Virtual reality is a “technological manifestation of this dream.” Meaning that virtuality is constantly striving to immerse the viewer whichever way it can and create a whole new universe for them to dive in and thrive in.

4. Dream of World Peace

This was an interesting one to me because you never picture the internet leading to the end of wars and destruction. This article states that that’s not the point; evil people will continue to live and destroy and kill and start wars, this is in the nature of the human race. What the internet and technology can do is create open communication channels and shared information throughout the entire globe. The net provided channels of exploration between races, religions and nations who were previously unable, due to geographic location, connect with one another. Creating, writing and sharing images or text or videos with someone on the other side of the globe has no doubt brought the world closer together; we’re not connected by land or bridge, we’re connected by the network.

10. Hacking the dream.

To end the article is the break out of the “Dream of…” rhythm with a somewhat humourous way of reminding us that this is the cold world of technology we’re dealing with. When there’s something to be mastered, there will be masters. And these masters may abuse their power and exploit the possibilities of the vast technologies we all have at hand. Hacking is essentially finding alternative purposes for what may be considered mainstream, so hackers are constantly finding harmful, playful, humorous or darkly powerful ways of manipulating the web and technologies.