locker 122

So, Mike (student, not teacher) comes up to me and asks what I thought of the reading. Scary. Weird. Dead on. You get the point. But, frankly, my very first impression was this:

1. This is like an IF (interactive fiction game).

2. This makes me think of the odd, but classical forecasting of things to come in books like The Time Traveler, 1984 and Brave New World. I didn’t like the last two pieces, but it did not have an impact on my initial impression.

3. I wondered if I could make a game based upon The Machine Stops.

As usual, I take notes while reading. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished reading (I will in the next 15 minutes), so my thoughts are from the first half of the story.

I think The Machine Stops is more relevant now in the age of social media than even in the early Internet days.

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(sorry about the formatting– I might fix it later)

CommLab Week 2 Assignment: The Machine Stops [Response]

Immediate response: I liked it. I instantly thought of my classics like the Time Traveler, Choose Your Own Adventure Books and IF (interactive fiction).

The names of the characters stood out to me, not seeming of anglo origin and yet the author appears to be. Although the story was published in 1909 and the concepts remarkably reveal technologies we currently employ, I wasn’t completely surprised. Ideas have a way of entering our minds well before they are manifested materially (think Brave New World, 1984, etc.).

“And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately

preceded her own – the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system,

and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to

people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing

the air in their rooms!” p.5 of The Machine Stops.

What is interesting about this statement is that her current civilization appears to bring more people together, but isolates at the same time. Breadth of interactions increases, but depth is stunted. IM is great for rapid fire communication, but it, along with email has played a part of miscommunication. People somehow assume tones implied in words.

“She resumed her life.

But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her

own visit to him there, his visits to her-visits which stopped when the Machine had

assigned him a room on the other side of the earth. “Parents, duties of,” said the book

of the Machine,” cease at the moment of birth. P.422327483.” True, but there was

something special about Kuno – indeed there had been something special about all

her children – and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it” p.6 of The Machine Stops

Yikes! I come from a totally different upbringing. Parents, duties of, remain forever in my book. ; -D  It seems that in spite of what the book of the Machine says, natural maternal instinct remains. It could be said that in spite of technology becoming more central to how we communicate collectively, the need for physical interaction remains important and can not be completely removed from our nature.

“Yet as Vashti saw the vast flank of the ship, stained with exposure to the outer air,

her horror of direct experience returned. It was not quite like the air-ship in the

cinematophote. For one thing it smelt – not strongly or unpleasantly, but it did smell,

and with her eyes shut she should have known that a new thing was close to her.

Then she had to walk to it from the lift, had to submit to glances form the other

passengers. The man in front dropped his Book – no great matter, but it disquieted

them all. In the rooms, if the Book was dropped, the floor raised it mechanically, but

the gangway to the air-ship was not so prepared, and the sacred volume lay

motionless. They stopped – the thing was unforeseen – and the man, instead of

picking up his property, felt the muscles of his arm to see how they had failed him.

Then some one actually said with direct utterance: “We shall be late” – and they

trooped on board, Vashti treading on the pages as she did so.” P.7

Has technology become an idol? Will we get to a point where we prefer virtual, simulated experiences to actual, direct ones? Are we already there (video games, virtual worlds,  social media)?

Thinking back to a line about unrest remaining in the soul—as humans, we are carnal and spiritual- so I don’t think we could exist without tending to our whole existence, even if I do place emphasis on a more glorified state through the unseen of our persona (our spirits and souls).

It’s interesting how the characters seem to the loathe actual existence as evidenced during the air ship travel.

“To “keep pace with the sun,” or even to outstrip it, had been the aim of the

civilization preceding this. Racing aeroplanes had been built for the purpose,

capable of enormous speed, and steered by the greatest intellects of the epoch.

Round the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round,

amidst humanity”s applause. In vain. The globe went eastward quicker still, horrible

accidents occurred, and the Committee of the Machine, at the time rising into

prominence, declared the pursuit illegal, unmechanical, and punishable by

Homelessness.

Of Homelessness more will be said later.

Doubtless the Committee was right. Yet the attempt to “defeat the sun” aroused the

last common interest that our race experienced about the heavenly bodies, or indeed

about anything. It was the last time that men were compacted by thinking of a power

outside the world. The sun had conquered, yet it was the end of his spiritual

dominion. Dawn, midday, twilight, the zodiacal path, touched neither men”s lives

not their hearts, and science retreated into the ground, to concentrate herself upon

problems that she was certain of solving.” P.8

Are we so different? We explore in the name of science but only what seems to be “rational”. What is rational, anyway?

“When Vashti served away form the sunbeams

with a cry, she behaved barbarically – she put out her hand to steady her.

“How dare you!” exclaimed the passenger. “You forget yourself!”

The woman was confused, and apologized for not having let her fall. People never

touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.” P. 8

Warning to players of MMORPG! My cousins and I do communicate via a server and IM. Hmmm…

Individuality, self-discovery, self-will, religion (or rather faith) and diversity are frowned upon, even unthinkable. Does technology create this or facilitate and reflect our own behaviors and cultural shifts? (see exchange between Kumo and Vashti about the threat of homelessness).

“In the dawn of the world our weakly must be exposed on Mount Taygetus, in its

twilight our strong will suffer euthanasia, that the Machine may progress, that the

Machine may progress, that the Machine may progress eternally.” P.11

Can we say MATRIX???

“For Kuno had lately asked to be a father, and his request had been refused by the

Committee. His was not a type that the Machine desired to hand on.” P.12

“It was easy at first. The mortar had somehow rotted, and I soon pushed some more
tiles in, and clambered after them into the darkness, and the spirits of the dead
comforted me. I don”t know what I mean by that. I just say what I felt. I felt, for the
first time, that a protest had been lodged against corruption, and that even as the
dead were comforting me, so I was comforting the unborn. I felt that humanity
existed, and that it existed without clothes. How can I possibly explain this? It was
naked, humanity seemed naked, and all these tubes and buttons and machineries
neither came into the world with us, nor will they follow us out, nor do they matter
supremely while we are here. Had I been strong, I would have torn off every
garment I had, and gone out into the outer air unswaddled. But this is not for me,
nor perhaps for my generation. I climbed with my respirator and my hygienic
clothes and my dietetic tabloids! Better thus than not at all.” P.12

It’s interesting that Vashti continues to think her son is not one who has ideas, when Kuno seems to be the only one with the biggest idea—of a world beyond conformity to a literal and figurative machine—the system.

“The Machine has been most merciful.”
“I prefer the mercy of God.” P.16

So do I! Vashti considers Kuno’s statement superstitious even though her own sentiments about the Machine sound very similar.

“Oh, tomorrow – some fool will start the Machine again, tomorrow.” P.23

Is anything new? I do not believe so. I do not think carnal man truly learns from the past.

The first assignment for Comm Lab was to set up a blog and post a response/notes to reading from Walter J. Ong’s Orality and Literacy. I have linked the blog set up documentation to a previous post.

The first two chapters seemed a bit dry and redundant, but putting it all together with the third and fourth chapter made it a bit more interesting. I may link this post to the next book reading from Understanding Media, with a more in-depth response.

The following notes include items that stood out to me from chapters 1-4.

Chapter one notes:

Orality and Literacy

Verbal and written literacy are not the same

In current society, written language. Literacy is given greater importance

There is a weak understanding of the difference between verbal and written literacy/language

There is a relationship between what is spoken and what is written

Chapter two notes:

The modern discovery of primary oral cultures

Attitudes toward oral folklore were changing and disparaging viewpoints were being discredited

Milman Parry’s discovery: “Virtually every distinctive feature of Homeric poetry is due to the economy forced on it by oral methods of composition”. P.21 (book) p.36 (pdf)

Marshall McLuhan perceptions of transformations from orality through literacy and print to electronic media: ‘The medium is the message”.

Some psychodymanics of orality

Oral utterance is ‘dynamic’

There is power in words or at least the perception of power in words

Sound determines modes and thoughts of expression

“You know what you can recall”

Thinking in mnemonic patterns facilitate recall

“Formulas help implement rhythmic discourse and act as mnemonic aids.”

Thought and expression tend to be:

-additive rather than subordinative

-aggregative rather than analytic

-redundant

-traditional

-humanized- relating to the “human lifeworld”

-orality is situated within the context of struggle

-oral societies live in the present, “direct, semantic ratification”, integrity of the past is subordinate to the integrity of the present

-oral cultures employ concepts that are more situational than abstract

Music may act as a constraint to fix a verbatim oral narrative, but it may increase dependence on formulas rather than free it

Verbomoteur cultures rely more on effective use of words

Oral communication unites people

Chapter three notes:

Writing restructures consciousness

Writing establishes ‘context-free’ language

Writing is a technology

Writing is unnatural, oral speech is natural

Writing heightens consciousness

Chapter four notes:

Print, space and closure

Shift from oral to written speech is a shift from sound to visual space

“Print created a new sense of the private ownership of words.”

Print creates a sense of closure

New age of secondary orality; still communal, but more deliberate and self-conscious