Techno Drugs

I think the idea of drugs and technology interlinking is pretty relevant with the use of both today as well as in the past. The thought that drugs and technology both create a space of their own that is different than but similar to everyday life brings up many questions about drugs and technology.  If these two forms are somewhat similar is it possible to develop an addiction to technology just like an addiction to drugs?  I think that because it is very easy to lose yourself in technology the possibility of creating an addiction to it is pretty high.  Although the use of technology may not develop into a dependency, increased use definitely leads to habit and even though this habit of technology use may not be desired by the body because the brain is used to using it it is habit to use it again.  I guess continued use through habit is not addiction but more convenience.  

Interaction between the human brain and technology is very similar to the interaction between the brain and drugs.  Drugs and technology can both be used to ignore the thoughts, feelings, and happenings of everyday life and let the brain focus on something else than the users life.  This is not just a characteristic of illegal drugs but a characteristic of drugs used by much of the public everyday.  Caffeine for example lets the user step away from their own thoughts of being tired or moving slow in the morning and focus on what needs to be done.  Ibuprofen allows the user to ignore their aches and pains and continue being active. The internet also allows a user to step away from their own life by reading, scrolling and looking through pages a user can be mentally transported anywhere. 

Not only do technology and drugs both have the ability to transport the user away from day to day life but they also change the way that we work.  Technology allows for more efficiency, higher expectations and sometimes a seemingly easier work day.  Computers and the advanced communication brought on by cell phones and text messaging give office workers the ability to make more connections through communication, easier communications between business and overall a more efficient work day.  Caffeine allows laborers, office workers and many others start a work day early in the morning without drooping eyes, heavy breathing, and the threat of falling asleep. Acetametophine allows workers susceptible to headaches to work more efficiently without them.  Coca Leaves used by miners and other laborers in the Andes in South America allow the workers to combat the detrimental effects of high altitude and fatigue therefore allowing them to experience a longer work day. From these examples it is easy to see that drugs and technology change the way work is accomplished in similar ways.  The side effects of a work day, either combated through the use of technology or drugs, can be put aside and work can be managed more efficiently. 

Users of drugs and technology are similar in there need for progression and advancement.  Large drug companies spend enormous amounts of money on researching ways to produce drugs that are more efficient and have less side effects. Illegal drug manufacturers and growers strive to find cheaper ways to produce drugs that are stronger and create better highs for users. Drug users read about new medicines with less side effects.  Companies on the leading edge technology spend time and money to make computers or phones with less problems, longer battery life, and better connections but most importantly develop new software and constantly reinvent old technology. Technology users read articles and whole magazines focused on the development of new programs and software.  Surrounding both subjects there is an overall idea that there is always something better; a better drug, a better high, a better program.  Better technology and advancement of drugs create more desirable effects and in the end, ways to make work and life easier.

Miners chewing coca leaves

                 Worker using a computer                    

Skin

When I first heard about Shelly Jackson's "Skin" project I did not understand how word tattoos distributed between thousands of people would result in a book.  So many aspects make this project's end result of a book almost impossible to achieve. It would be very difficult to organize the people who were tattooed to make the story readable for anyone else than Shelly Jackson.  Then I started to think that maybe Shelly Jackson does not care about making a book, or even a story distributed among thousands of people, but instead came up with this idea as a story in itself.  Perhaps the text when put together person by person, tattoo by tattoo is meaningless and the only meaning lies in the willingness of people all over the world to be involved in a project that they have no idea what the underlying meaning is.  I think the amount of people involved in this project show that many people are so attracted to the idea of being part of something different, or even being part of a work of art, that they are willing to participate without knowing anything.  Having a word tattooed on the body for this project does not just allow a person to be a lasting part of a work or even give the person a lasting mark of Jackson's writing but allows the participant to claim originality in the project.  Each person who is tattooed with a word is a piece of an original document.  People are fascinated with original documents; song ideas scrawled on pieces of paper, the birth of a story handwritten on note paper, auctioned off and held in public view as valuable.  It is as if these original documents give the fan insight or a glimpse at the genius that created the document.  In some ways Jackson's project gives living people the chance to be a part of the praised original document, ink on a crumpled piece of paper.  However, due to the reproduction limits of the project, the people and their tattoos that make up the story are not only the original document but the only document, giving the participants even more reason to join the project. Perhaps no one joined Shelly Jackson's project for the reason of being a part of an original document, but it seems like reasonable motivation to join. 

Another interesting idea brought up in class surrounding this project is the idea of distribution. Essentially, Jackson's project once tattooed and finished is nothing but a story distributed among thousands and thousands of different people.  By distributing a work that is commonly found within hundreds of pages right next to each other, Jackson is making the distribution of not only her own book but everything in the world easier to see.  Each word in a story has been developed separately and among many different people.  As time advances words do not change but the connotations of words do, and this change in feelings surrounding each word is created through many different people, in many different places.  This development of a word shows that the meaning of each word in a book is distributed throughout the world, creating different ideas about a book over different times as well as between different places.   

 

Lipogram: Do Re Mi (without Guthrie)

You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day

But the headlines on the papers always say

Yo wan o by yo a om o a fam, a can' dal nobody am,

O ak yo vacaon by monans or sa.

Don' swap yor old cow fo a ca, yo bee say w yo a,

B ak s ll p fom m.

'Cas I look o wan ads vy day

B adlns on paps always say:

Wastes of Time

In class on Tuesday there was a discussion surrounding the use of comic books and video games and society's perception of these two forms of media being a waste of time.  Some argued that comic books are not seen as a worthy form of reading or media in society, but that they actually held worthwhile content.  Although I understand that graphic novels and comic books can be a worthwhile read for some, many people in society do not.  I believe that this aversion to comic books and not thinking of them as worthwhile is created in many people because of their understanding of what a comic book is.  Many people see comic books as on pretty low level when it comes to content and meaning, and dismiss them as fluff. This may be because the average person's normal interaction with anything close to a comic book is a lighthearted strip about nothing every Sunday in the local newspaper. Many people do not understand that comic books have evolved into a meaningful form of media, a form of media that is engaging and deeper than the fluff commonly found in the comics section of the newspaper. The same goes for society's common perception of video games and their regular users.  Most people who do not play video games see that they are a waste of time, an activity that has no worth or positive effect.  Mindless hand movements in response to visuals on a screen. Perhaps this is because a person who does not play video games and is not around them very much interacts with actual video games very little.  The "non-gamer" interacts much more with trivial studies about video game users or lighthearted news stories about excessive Playstation use leading to sores on the hands of users. This information fed into the heads of non users of video games shapes their ideas about the worth of spending time clicking buttons in front of a screen.  Perhaps these trivial studies and stories have shaped my perception of video games; because as someone who does not play video games, the only worth I can see in playing them is the slight relaxation a person gains from sitting down.  My understanding that video games are a waste of time probably is fostered by growing up in a society that values work. Looking at the very end of the spectrum of video game users I can understand more about why I see little worth in playing them.  

A teenage girl plays World of Warcraft for extended periods of time without eating, drinking, sleeping or taking care of her body until the point of death.

A man dies in an accident while working on the construction of a dam.

Which is a waste of time? 

Maybe it is both a waste of time, work or play, but I have a heard time believing that the time that girl spent in front of the computer all day was worthwhile.

"Awakenings" and its connections

While watching the movie "Awakenings" with Robert De Niro and Robin Williams yesterday it seemed pretty relevant to the idea of trances brought on by technology, trances like we watched in the video of people's faces as they played video games.  This movie is about Robin Williams and his effort to help a group of people who have been catatonic for many years after suffering from an encephalitis epidemic. A new doctor in a psychiatric ward, Robin Williams' character is disturbed by the amount of comatose patients who have had no sense of hope for the majority of their lives.  Robin Williams is convinced that these people are living inside and works to find a drug to bring them out of their comatose states. Over time Williams' character finds a chemical that is able to bring one of the patients out of his coma named L-Dopa.  This chemical continues to work but must keep being administered to the patient to keep them out of their coma. Over continued use the drug is less effective and the patient needs more and more of the drug to stay out of their normal catatonic state.

This movie got me thinking about the trance like states brought on by engaging with different forms of media.  When listening to radio, watching television or playing a video game it can be seen that a human gets in some sort of trance even if it is very subtle.  The intensity of the trance is due to the reality of the media that one is engaged in.  Because a book on tape or a story told over the radio is easy to dismiss as not real, the trance it brings on is perhaps less intense than the heavy trance sometimes brought on by very realistic video games or a 3-d movie.  In the video of people playing video games watched in class some of the kids seemed to be in a very heavy trance. For example the child who's eyes were watering was in such a heavy trance that he would not even blink when his eyes needed moisture. Other kids in the video were effected differently by interacting with media, such as the boy who was muttering almost about stabbing and killing.  No matter what kind of state of mind a realistic form of media puts a human in, the human on the receiving end of the media becomes farther and farther away from real life.  Even though the argument could be made that a trance state that a video game brings on is an equal form of life as walking around and engaging with the natural environment, I do not think it is.  If someone believes this is true than they would also believe that spending 16 hours a day playing World of Warcraft would be more worthwhile than reading a book.

If human daily involvement with technology continues to become more realistic, the catatonic states of humans will also deepen.  If humans enter deep comatose states due to increased realistic technology it is no different than the group of catatonic humans living in a psychiatric ward in "Awakenings."  On a large scale, this would lead to a nation full of comatose humans living in another world, away from their human bodies and possibly only able to be woken up by a huge dose of L-Dopa.

Polygenism: Machines Humans and Their Same Origin

Polygeny is the theory that different races of humans evolved from separate sets of ancestors. This theory came into mainstream use in the United States when slave owners used it to justify slavery. The idea that different races are from different origins, making their genetic make-up separate, is no longer used because it has been proven there is more genetic difference within race than between race. If machines are developed to act like humans, or even become humans through mixture of man and machine, the act of classifying them as different is not far off from polygenism used to justify slavery. 

Humans and machines are both made up of atoms and those atoms are made up of sub-atomic particles, therefore making their deepest of origins the same. I cannot think of a more precise way to trace a being's origins by looking at the smallest unit of what the being is made of. This idea can be stretched to say that everything is the same on the smallest base level therefore making the classification of different beings worthless.  I do not necessarily believe that classifying plants different from animals and humans from machines is pointless; what I do believe is that one must look at classification as a human invention that focuses on difference between species, allowing humans to avoid the idea of being just another substance, just the same as everything else. 

I couldn't find a machine versus human classification sheet to compare the above with but I imagine it wouldn't look much different than this.

 

Percent of a Species

The idea of machines mixing with humans to make people who are as much machine as human and machines who are for the most part human, creates many different problems in categorization of species.  Mixing two different types of life results in a creation of an ambiguous being, and in the end the categorization or percent make up of these beings does not matter.

Measuring the exact percentage of human vs. machine in a being is not only a ridiculously difficult, and tedious task but also one that is not worth doing.  To some extent it is desired to know where a certain living being came from, but only a general knowledge of the origins of some thing are needed, extensive looks into where exactly some thing came from is overkill. For example, if a human happens to be part French, German, Hungarian and Scandinavian tracking the percentage of each heritage is not worthwhile. Even though this person may have a mix of different origins and having ancestry in these certain places may affect the way they speak or act breaking down this person into some percent French versus some percent Scandinavian is irrelevant.  Even though this percentage of a human's heritage may be able to be found it is trivial. 

At the point where humans and machines are being mended together into one creature, crossbreeding or cross manufacturing, the differences between human and machine will slowly decrease. Before technology reaches a point where machines and computers surpass human life, machine life will be very close to human life. As technology increases, the gap between human and machine will be slowly closed to a point where human and machine are almost the same. The difference between human and machine in the future may be so little that it mirrors the difference between a person with French heritage and a person with Scandinavian heritage.  If it is known that a being is part machine and part human and their actions do not distinguish the being as either one specifically, then the percentage of human versus machine simply does not matter.  This is a scary thought though, thousands of people with indistinguishable origins, and almost no way of tracing them.  As startling as this may be to human life, this idea of a whole planet filled with unidentifiable machine-people must be accepted before machines are mended with human life. To accept the combination of human and machine, it must also be accepted that the human race and machine life is no longer separate at all, but combined in all aspects, and indistinguishable from each other.

However, this period of indistinguishable life between man and machine is only temporary.  The amount of time that it takes for this period of ambiguity to pass is dependent wholly on human development as well as development of technology.  Looking back to what I proposed earlier, just as the gap between human life and machine life will slowly be closed to the point of being the same, once human life and machines become equal, machines will surpass the intelligence of human life, unless there is a great development in human intelligence, which I see as unlikely. After the equality point, machine life will become more and more different from human life again but, as superior. This makes the difference between humans and machines easier to distinguish, but still difficult to pinpoint when it comes to percent human and percent machine.  Even if a being that is more machine than human that is easily viewed as superior, it is difficult and almost pointless to try and figure out the percentage of how much of this being is human and how much is it machine.  This enforces the idea that the percent human versus percent machine simply makes no difference in the long run because of the development of technology and the changing relationship between human life and machines.