Firstly, I’d like to thank Eddie for his chocolatey donation to me and Tiana. Well, I think it was initially for Tiana, but I couldn’t process that likelihood at the time. Who could expect me to? Lindt chocolate was in front of me. Yes please. I gotta say, it really ‘sweetened’ up the lecture! Ha! You get me? Ha. Ok. I’ll stop here.
Secondly, I’d like to say that The Oracle of Bacon is both hilarious and astounding. Astoundingly hilarious. Hilariously astounding. Nah. Just hilarious and astounding. Please have a look at it.
This is what I was talking about in my post on the previous lecture. I spoke about Facebook – the way it presents ‘mutual friends’. People are informed of their degree of separation between each other. This website does a similar thing. Except it goes beyond just one degree of separation.
Another thing that came up during the lecture: circular screens. Why do we have rectangular screens rather than circular screens? We don’t see in rectangle, do we? Do we see in the shape of a circle? What shape does our vision take? Why have we not tried to replicate this in screen dimensions? Or have we? I find this really intriguing.
Adrian gave a few writing tips that I want to jot down here:
Good writers let the thing (e.g. argument) that they think they’re in charge of have some agency. Good writing occurs when good ideas and arguments push back.
Aaaand somehow this related to technological determinism / social shaping of technology. ‘Cause I wrote that next to it in my notes. I really need to take better notes…
ANYWAY, further notes:
According to Adrian, technology develops technique. Techniques are consequences of technology. We can also “copy” technique into technology. For example, electronic folders/filing (as opposed to manual filing).
We are in a post-human age.
We still seem to want to treat technology as ‘other’ to nature. There is no separation between culture/nature and technology. Any attempt to separate these is artificial.