Whoa. Can’t believe that after this lectorial, I will have officially completed my first semester at university as a Media student – and what a way to end with a bang. I found Dan’s discussion of media materialism really fascinating and daunting at the same time, and I think this has definitely been one of my favourite lectorials of the semester. It was one of those light bulb moments where I thought to myself – holy crap, this stuff is so interesting, I love this, can’t remember ever willingly paying this much attention in high school. It was great to have that moment at the end of the semester that yes, I made the right choice. This is exactly the course I want to be in and this is exactly what I want to do with my life. It’s a lovely, gratifying feeling.
That said, the topic for this post will be one of the themes that was prompted by Dan.
Machines are becoming too intuitive/intelligent
In today’s lecture, a big chunk of what Dan talked about was the ideas of technological determinism vs. social constructivism; that is the stance that technology itself gives power to humanity vs. the stance that humans are the ones who make and control technology. I think that in such an age of revolution, the rapidly changing media landscape as well as being on the edge of many technological breakthroughs means that this debate is highly relevant.
Having touched upon the term ‘anthropocene’ – the proposed geologic chronological term that we are currently in “the age of humans” where it is our activities that have a significant global impact – the question is, will there be an age in the relative near future that overthrows this?
The video “Kara” by Quantic Dream had a really powerful effect on me, with the idea that we have advanced technology so far beyond the naturally occurring that the technology itself becomes life in its own form.
Just like in “Kara”, any films within the current few years have addressed this notion – with the most recent ones I can think of being Spike Jonze’s Her and the more recent Avengers film, Age of Ultron. Both films, which I loved, have the element of a human created life-like being becoming more than just a computer system, but adopting humanised emotion and thought. This is something that both fascinates and scares the crap out of me, and a subject matter that I am intrigued about because I can see the parallels in the real world. With iPhones and other smart technologies advancing so rapidly, what is the possibility that in ten, twenty years robots will have powers that mirror the human mind?
At the core of this is the debate between natural and non-naturalism, and the fear that one day, the very beings that humans created can surpass its creators and its intended capabilities. It’s an idea that I don’t like to think about coming true, but also will be fascinated to no end to witness. There are so many more thoughts and debates surrounding this topic, and I, like most of the rest of us, do not have the answers – only intrigue and fascination.
