The web means the end of forgetting..first I would say that the web is actually the beginning and the end of forgetting. It is the beginning of forgetting for human beings. For one, the web saturates us with so much information constantly sand rapidly that we start to retain less and less information. Our attention spans are continuously decreasing, so that the information is actually nothing more then visual stimuli.
Also, of course the web is the end of forgetting, because it is a permanent documentation of everything, for better and definitely for worst.
It is hard for me to imagine a purpose to archive tweets; what contribution does this make to the world? Why waste time, man power, space, etc on such arbitrary “data.” So, now will these tweets act as a pseudo time capsule of “us” for those in the future. This seems pretty preposterous and a bit derogatory however, possibly those tweets could be an accurate depiction of the overall “culture” of America, I would say confidently, and possibly others/ “Nacirema.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nacirema)
Also one of the main “issues” addressed in this article stems around the Stacy Snyder case. There is really catch 22 with this idea of the “internet” never forgetting. On the one hand it is we ourselves who provide this information to the internet for the most part, disregarding things like face recognition software and third party submissions. Still should we be punished professionally as in Synder’s case, for acts in a non-professional context. This begins to act and smell a lot like surveillance.
I mean clearly there are things like CCTV but nobody runs those tapes back everyday to check if their employee or applicant was drunk on the tube one night. What relevance would this sort of action have to the job.
Natural User Interfaces
In regard to this subject I feel that physical gestures are definitely a step in the right direction–to continue to integrate technology into our lives seamlessly. As a personally example, I recently bought a mac and am having a much more fulfilling user experience then I’ve had with PCs because the usage is more integrated in the body with gesture. Even if some of those gestures aren’t really “natural” the movement is fluid, which makes the body response intuitively. This creates a sort of bond between man and machine. Not the separation of man just using machine or man jut executing machines functions. I’m speaking a bit more specifically about “Lion” here.
It is especially interesting that more and more developers are trying to integrate “natural human reactions” into our use of technology. When we have already internalized technology.
Why the future doesn’t need us
This sounds strikingly similar to Huxley’ Brave New World:
“They will see to it that everyone’s physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes “treatment” to cure his “problem.”
So what would be the purpose to engineer such a thing?
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