What The Internet is Doing to Our Brains?

So after reading the article by Nicholas Carr, I would like to say that I disagree with most of the things he said. The only thing that I found I agree with is this statement made by Carr, “The Internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection, transmission, and manipulation of information, and its legions of programmers are intent on finding the “one best method”—the perfect algorithm…” I don’t think that the internet is doing anything bad to our brains or hurting it in any way. Instead, I think the internet is actually helping us. When we look up something, I think it is giving us the most efficient answer that in the end will benefit us. The internet is giving us the “one best method” or answer to each of our questions. I know that some may argue that sometimes the internet just leads us in the wrong direction by giving. Yet, in return I think that out of all the possible answer in the world, the internet is narrowing it down for us.

In addition, I believe that without the internet, life would be hard to get through for most of us. I’m not saying that without it the human race is stupid and useless, its just that the internet allows us to use our time wisely and most efficiently. Imagine looking up information for a research project. It would be so much easier using the internet then going to the library alone. By using the internet the researcher is able to find several sources for the information he is looking for, but say if he was to go to a library he may only be able to find one book on his subject.

Overall, I guess I’m trying to say that even though Nicholas Carr wrote an amazing article; in my personal opinion I fully disagree with what he have to say about what the internet or technology is doing to our brains.

Video and Postmodernism

So after seeing this video it made me really think of the little details that goes on in the world daily. It gives examples of so many things that happen daily around the world that the average person would never really think about. For instance, who knew that “the top ten in-demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004.” Still, I wasn’t very surprised by the statistics I saw. I know our world today is growing and developing so fast by the second. I was just shocked that someone or a group of someone actually got their hands on some statistics at all.

Anyway, after watching the video and reading part of Alan Kirby’s article I think that in a way we are heading into a period of postmodernism. How is it possible that in only a number years there can be a computer that smarter than any human being? It is a scary thought to think that someday technology may just overtake us and there would be no more need for humans. From what I’m seeing in the video, there are so many things that make me think back to Brave New World.

In Brave New World the people are practically created and taught to act and feel a certain way towards every aspect of life. From the job they have to the person they have a relationship with they are expected to accept and like whatever situation they’re put it. This in a way relates to us today ‘cause I kind of see this in the video and other similar videos. In the videos, it makes it seen as though our technology advancement is so quick and effective that in no time at all it will overtake society replacing most people’s job.

I know that some people may argue that the technology advancement we see are just there and they don’t really have anything to do with us going into a postmodern era. They may even say that we’re NOT even going into a period of postmodern and it’s just people over thinking the situation. All I have to say is that, this is just my personal opinion and who knows what is going to happen in the next decade or so.

Cat's Cradle

Okay, so first of all I would like to say that out of the few books we have read so far for AP. Literature this is my favorite. I really like how the chapters are so short so it keeps me interested and not bored wanting the chapter to be over.

Anyway, as far the book presenting postmodern themes, from what I’ve read in chapters 1-7 I’m not really seeing much until after these chapters. One of the first things I noticed as I was reading chapters 1-7 was the little comment Newt Hoenikker made in chapter 7. “There is love enough in this world for everybody, if people will just look. I am proof of that” (pg 18). This little comment already shows that this book is not like the previous one we read at all. It shows that the people in this novel actually have emotion and their emotions do affect them. They are nothing like the people of Brave New World.

However, out of the characters I’ve read about so far, not all of them show this kind of emotion. So far, it seems like Felix Hoenikker is the one showing the most postmodern behaviors. He is portrayed as someone who doesn’t really interact much with others or so much interest in many things except his work. Also, even though Felix had kids, it was apparent that he didn’t really spend much time with them or even care about what they were doing most of the time. “He all of a sudden came out of his study and did something he’d never done before. He tried to play with me. Not only had le never played with me before; he had hardly ever even spoken to me” (pg 11-12). “Father stuck his head out the window, and he looked at Angela and me rolling on the ground, bawling, and Frank standing over us, laughing. The old man pulled his head indoors again, and never even asked later what all the fuss was about. People wasn’t his specialty” (pg 17). How is it a possible for a father to not even interact with their kids or even care about their kids safety? For Felix, it seems like to him the only thing that mattered was new knowledge and how to obtain it. He is the perfect depiction of postmodernism so far in the novel.

So I guess I’m about done now. I don’t really have much else to say about chapter 1-7 and since this blog is a Cat Cradle’s Chapters 1-7 Response, I’m all out of blogging ideas unless we talk about chapters 1-27. =]

Frustrated & Clueless

Well, what can I say about this blog? I guess I can start out by being truthful and the truth is that I have no idea what to write about. Honestly, I have only read up to chapter eight and so I really do not know what I can say about the book as a whole. Therefore, this 300 word requirement is going to be quite challenging for me. I know that we were supposed to be through to chapter fourteen by tomorrow, but I’m not there yet so yeah. Hopefully I will be caught up in the book by Friday, but knowing my luck Mr. Dominguez is probably going to be like “Class, finish the book by Friday.” Anyway, of what I’ve read so far, a few ideas are floating in my head.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Huxley portrays a perfect society in which there is acceptance and happiness.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Huxley portrays a society in which its’ citizens can be considered machines due to their development and growth.

In Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Huxley challenges religion with the coming of Ford society.

For now, these are the only big ideas that come to my mind for when I write my essay. Hopefully I stick with them, but knowing me I always have trouble with essays so who knows. Also, since these thesis sentences so far are pretty bad, I’m probably going to tweak them when the prompt is given to me.

Since I still need to write about another 100 words or so, I think I’ll elaborate on my topics. In general, I guess I’m trying to say that in Huxley’s novel a world that is to be considered perfect is the total opposite of ours. In a way, it seems like the novel is criticizing our world today. Yet, how can it be because it was written before our time. Therefore, I somewhat think of it as a warning to our society today. I guess with the rapid advancements of technology these days, this “brave new world” is a possibility.

So I’m about done now. I don’t really have much more to say and since that last chunk as exactly 100 words, I think I’m permitted to stop. Anyway, hopefully when I make my two comments, more ideas will come rushing to me. Yet, that will most like not happen.
Okay, bye now. =]]

Myths and Narratives

So for this blog, I don’t really know what I’m suppose to be writing about. Therefore, for now I am going to consider the questions of Mr. Dominguez. =)

I guess for me, I believe the function of myths and narratives are to play as the foundation of certain societies. They are the building blocks for certain societies where the culture and belief is based on what myths/narratives the ancestors of the past have created. In the past, without myths or narratives there would be no common ground of beliefs for the members of the society. Also, I think that myths/narratives were created to control the society in a way. Myths/narratives allow the ancestors of the past to teach the same morals and beliefs through each generation of the future. It keeps the teachings of that group the same through the years with few changes. “And at the same time [myths/narratives] legitimize the society in which they are told. The teller of the myth does not have to prove, like a scientist...” (24). This comment in a way supports what I was saying about myths and narratives and how they are just there to serve as a base of knowledge or control, without any proof behind them.

One example of a type of narrative is a grand narrative. Grand narratives are explained as, “big stories, stories of mythic proportions that claim to be able to account for, explain and subordinate all lesser, little, local narratives” (29). This type of myth can have a tremendous effect on a society. With grand narratives comes less myths in total and eventually instead of believing in several local myths; a society will follow the philosophy of one general myth. This means that with grand narratives, the minority discourses will be greatly influenced and not in a positive direction. As time goes by, the number of minority discourses will decrease only to have one large mythic story that is able to account for mostly everything. That's why there's people like the mythbusters who try to tone down the numbers of myths ot there by proving them wrong or right.

Anyway, I’m about done now because if I try to write anymore I would just be babbling on about nothing(like now). So peace out AP Lit!! =]]

Ridiculous New World Instead....

From the beginning Brave New World was such a confusing book for me to read, but after reading the first few chapters several times I finally understand what it was saying. So far I think that the society described in the novel is a horrible and awful place to live. How can it be humane to control every aspect of the development of a human being? From the class stature to their physical aspect, ever little detail of an individual is being customized in this so-called, Conditioning Centre.

I think that it is a terrible how the children are being molded from such an early age. They aren’t allowed to become an individual or stand out from the others one bit. From an early age of only eight months, these toddlers are being taught to hold hatred against books and flowers, “now we proceed to rub in the lesson with a mild electric shock” (21). The Director would later on add, “…after two hundred repetitions of the same or similar lesson would be wedded indissoluble” (22). How can a group a people stand by and watch while a group of toddlers are being electrocuted just because they touched a book? It’s like this future society not only prohibits individualism, but apparently no one has any emotion at all.

However, it wasn’t all of the children who were being treated this way. The treatment was directed only towards a class of people. From the very beginning the babies are fertilized in groups according to Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons. Therefore, according to the standard of each category, the kids are to be brought up a certain way, For example, the betas are to listen to tapes during their sleep saying, “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder then we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m a Beta because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and the Deltas, etc, etc…” (27). These kids are being taught to discriminate against classes and to only be proud of their social standard.

So, the question is do we consider these modifications of the world an improvement to our world today? Personally, I think its more like a downturn to what the world is like today. Why would it be an improvement, if the mere mention of the words “father” and “mother” bring upon giggles and snickers from already grown boys. It is amazing how in the society describe in the novel, these two fairly common words for us are considered something of horrible meaning (like the f-bomb for us). I guess the only improvement I see in the story so far is the technology that I am seeing being used.

Anyway, time to wrap it up now. Even though I have so much more to say, I’m afraid this blog might just go on forever. Therefore, I guess the only comment I still have to make is how confusing it was for me to get through chapter 3. with all the point of view shifts I had to label which ones went together in my book. Hopefully for me, the book begins to get a little easier to read. However, at this moment I still really like the book even though it’s a little weird and difficult to understand sometimes. Anyway, peace for now 6th period and I’m looking forward to commenting on all the other blogs. xD

History?

So last week in AP Lit the class had a very interesting discussion on religion and history. It wasn't until then I really began to think about history and how it affects people today. At first, I thought that history was all about facts and not opinions, but I didn't realize that is has a lot to do with opinion. Depending on who is the person recording the history there are always several points of views to certain subjects and events. As for the religion part, I don't believe that there should be any additions of religion (christianity) to history. Not all citizens of the United States are Christian so how can it be possible that "America's founding principles are biblical." Futhermore, if the reasons for adding a more Christian view to history was to better history for the learners, why are key individuals of history being voted to be deleted from history alltogether? (ie) Anne Hutchinson. Also, if the religious views of Christianity is so important to the events from the past,why aren't the religous views of other religions just as important in making history what it is today?

Anyway, back to the dialogue in class, during the conversation we had as a class I realized that a lot of what we were talking about had to deal with the recent book our class has read, 1984. In this novel, the history mattered a lot to The Party. The Party was determined to change history according to how it would benefit the group. They believed "who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past." Therefore, as long as they were able to manipulate history in a way that the citizens of Oceanic would believe in' then they would have controls of the citizens themselves. The image to above, actually is a good example of how important power is to the Party. It is a good resemblance of the quote said above about how control is almost key to Big Brother and The Party. It shows how as long as The Party was able to control what their citizens were thinking about and believing in, they were able to control them.

I guess in the end, all I can say is that whether it was twenty years ago or twenty years into the future, the information recorded as history is very important to those who are learning it. If history was to be written in a biased opinion or through certain religious influences, it will dramatically affect those who are learning it. The students will grow up to have a narrow-minded view of life and they would probably be very easily influenced into believing in something that contradicts what they have learned since childhood. Anyway, I guess I'm done blogging for now so until next time my sixth period classmates.