A NEW CRAZE--THE INTERNET!

I thought this was an interesting report due mainly to the fact that they were talking about the internet as a new, up and coming thing. They saw the internet, which was basically just a giant chat room, as a way for people to connect. People with common ground, such as football, could get together and discuss their views on the internet whereas they may not have been able to do so without their newfound online capabilities. The reporter mentions the absence of facial expression and body language making it difficult to pick up on "which way something ambiguous is meant." He would be surprised to see how much the internet has changed with the coming of blogs, youtube, facebook, and many other internet mediums with which one can express quite simply what he/she means and be understood :D (but smileys are still cool). The report, while hilarious in its own way ("there's not a lot of put downs, there's not screenfulls of  'go to hell'."), managed not to see how important the internet could become. It is now more than a way to connect with other people. It's a place to do business, a place to find information, a place to share information, and, equally important, a place to play games. The reporter saw the future of the internet as a massive expansion of what they already had. He wasn't wrong--he just failed to predict that there would be anything other than human connection on the internet. 

"Fortress L.A."

While reading the selection "Fortress L.A." from Mike Davis' City of Quartz I was stuck on the link he makes between architecture and social class. How invisible signs from the design/nature of a building ward off groups considered outcast. How over the years areas of Los Angeles that were once considered free paradises to all are being replaced by luxury hotels and mega malls making the connection between the rich and the poor, and all ethnicities inbetween harder to make.
Then I made a few links of my own, did the ideas of the future from the past that we have discussed in class, however ridiculous they may have seemed, spark from the rich trying to escape the poor through their surroundings? Did the idea of an autonomous technological future (I hope that is the right phrase to use) stem from racism and prejudice?
Towards the end of my reading I thought about cities other than L.A. and how they were affected by their own architecture. I remembered my grandmother and how she lives in condominiums across the street from Minute Maid park in Houston. I also remembered the homeless shelter about two blocks away from her and the empty lot behind her building where I always see people sitting on the curve or sleeping on the bench in the bus stop. I guess I answered my own question.

2010 - the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uK6Gg8n54c

The consumer industry, one of the most dependent fields on advancing technology, is displayed in the above video in the year 2010. Created in 2007, the advances RandelTube predicts for the future is mind boggling. In only 3 years, the youtube poster foresees vast technological advances from Nokia 888, a racer's dream car, to X'tal vision, an apparatus allowing one to see thru barriers. Like Yesterday's Tomorrow's predominant theme of utilizing current technology and society to predict future advancements, RandelTube based many of 2010's inventions off of present technologies. 

What I found particularly interesting was that the majority of the improvements were consumer products. At least judging from past and present circumstances, the advertising community generally attempts to predict the future as a marketing ploy. By discovering what the future might entail, salesmen are able to promote their product as "the latest technology".

In the clip entitled "DollFace", the video depicts a human-like robot learning how to apply make-up via television. Depicting the future's dependancy on technology, foreshadows future problems with individualism in the year 2010. Initially, the video seems to depict a utopic view of our future, but as the clip progresses, the director unveils further and further his dystopic outlook.

A Lighter Take on Controlling Robots

This clip takes a satirical look at the idea and fear of many people that machines will soon take over society and asks the question “Are we becoming and overly mechanized society?” The clip comes from The Onion News Network, which is an American “fake news” organization featuring satirical articles reporting on international, national, and local news. Although this newscast is a fake, it is based in the real fears of some people today that technology is quickly becoming too advanced and that it plays too great a role in our society. I thought this clip fit in well with our class discussion on Wednesday by showing the other, more humorous side of the dystopian society created by technology and displayed in many movies, such as The Terminator and I, Robot.

Home computers??

Ebay? Online banking? Printers? EMAIL!? Hey, they almost got it.






I think it's interesting that those who attempted to create a glipse into the future of technology often gravitated toward a convenient mentality. Predicting that the "without even leaving your home" concept would grow to be a standard of living. There are a few reasons this conclusion would have been reached. Either it spawned from an increase in "lazy" behavior, or perhaps (more optimistically) there was a complete fasination with the home. In the fifties when family values and one's homelife were extremely important in society, it is conceivable that the idea of capturing normally "outside" activities in your very own living room was simply appealing. Or, if one were to use mere advancement by analog, only improving on what has already been created, then this concept of "right in your own home" is an easy one to come by. If a generation is living in a time when technology already seems at an icredible peek the most natural way to improve upon life would be to make what is already there more convenient, simplify. Whetever the reason the ideas weren't too far off- people do love the idea of minimal effort for maximal results. As a side note, however, I find it funny that while people were predicting computers, they all seemed to believe everyone would be hooked up to one, mega machine- a master computer. When in reality we're tied together through a web, networking with and through eachother. No big all-knowing, all-powerful machine. Nice try, SciFi.