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Hum 110 wake tech week 10a electronic media
- 1. Hum 110 Week 10 Electronic Media and Digitalization
- 2. Miniaturizing and Personalizing Technology
Notes de l'éditeur
- Electronic Media and Digitalization So, what IS the relationship between TECHNOLOGY and CULTURE? Together they are a mixture of sociology and science. One definition of technology, in fact, is applied science or science applied to living. Technology is even embedded into our ECONOMIC SYSTEMS: Karl MARX wrote about our COMMODITY FETISHISM (or fascination with stuff) as a result of CAPITALISM. The film The Matrix gives us a cinematic view of technology gone wild in its relationship with human culture. The central idea of the film and many others is that mankind is fundamentally different by nature from machine. There are certain things that machine cannot or would not do. Music was thought, for example, to be the exclusive realm of humans. The synthesizer compromised the human monopoly in music. A software called Symphony actually composes music without the help of a human. Djing, translation software, elegantly translates the most idiomatic of languages. Humankind may be losing his claim on abilities that he believed would make man unique forever. It would be logical to believe that humans shape technology. Sometimes technology seems to have a will of its own. In 1996, Bruno Latour authored Aramis, or The Love of Technology. Latour calls this book scientifiction, a tale meant to caution us against TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM. That refers to applying the principles that Darwin developed to technological change. Technology continues to develop (or evolve) until it reaches a functional peak. The product changes until it is the best it can be in the current environment. The big question in this book, which is a kind of murder mystery, is “Who killed Aramis? “ But Aramis was a project not a person. It was to be the ultimate in public transportation. Latour says, “T here are two models for studying innovations: the linear model and the whirlwind model. Or, if you prefer, the diffusion model and the translation model” (118).A linear model says there is a plan and the technology follows the development outlined in that single plan. Frequently, however, there are many forces acting on the plan. They can be contradictory. That’s when technology takes on a life of its own. It doesn’t follow any single plan. That’s the whirlwind model. Aramis was to be personal transportation (like a car) on the subway system of Paris. But the subway riders who most needed car-like service were from outside the city. Lots of people wanted the system but had different mental images of what the system would be. Aramis became a whirlwind nightmare. Some stakeholders had an image of the project that was based on convenience. In that model, Aramis stations were located every two hundred yards apart. Unfortunately, in the engineers’ models there were parallel tracks at every departure point or station. That meant stations so close together would increase the cost of track by 50%. For some riders, the appeal of Aramis was that each rider had a separate car. When the cost became prohibitive because of suburban use, the riders were expected to share cars with other riders. Riders refused to enter small cars with strangers. In some trials, Aramis appeared to be more technically ready that it actually was. In others, functions were shown to the press prematurely making small problems appear to be catastrophes. There was no shared vision of the project. Civil engineers, financial managers, the administrators of mass transportation, the press, potential riders within the gates of Paris, potential riders from the suburbs all had different goals and visions of the project. The Engineers built a hybrid that pleased no one but which developed a will of its own (175). Technological projects enroll people, engines, and things. Latour says “ T he only way to increase a project’ s reality is to compromise, to accept sociotechnical compromises” (99). Or as Volti might say the technology is shaped by artifacts, skills, organization structures and attitudes. Together in the whirlwind blender they become something other than what anyone might have envisioned. The bigger the project the more independent the technology. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Science--Technology--and-Society/
- The first electronic in-home media was the gas-tubed, sometimes antennaed radio. It was roughly the same size as the home’s “ice-box.” The social implications of the radio transcend entertainment. Families would collect to hear programs that homogenized America. Regional differences among the Americans of the Northeast, the Deep South and the Midwest start to disappear. Time difference tended to exempt the West Coast from some of the new cultural unity. But advertisers began to reach all segments of society. American began to shop for the same products. We began to listen to the same news and music. We became one culture. Radio stations were monoliths with enormous reach. Some transmissions approach one thousand miles in breadth. The operational costs limited competition and entry into the market. So there were relatively few stations broadcasting. Rich and poor, young and old listened to the same entertainment. The next era in the development of entertainment happened in 1948. This stage was the result of two concurrent developments. AT&T Bell Labs invented the transistor that year. By the 1950s, teens and preteens are holding their own transistor radios up to their adolescent ears. They listened to radio stations broadcasting rock and roll, top forty formats. By the 1960s, FM stations with less range but offering more choice began the expansion of choice. This began the undoing of homogenized America. Improved transistors, advanced miniaturization and ultimately democratization allow for more choice, portability, downloads and random play make entertainment personal.
- Some related facts provided by Rudy Volti… The first radio station KDKA in Pittsburg broadcast from the Westinghouse Headquarters. On November 2, 1920 they went on the air with the presidential election results to an audience of several hundred listeners. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) won a suit for payment in 1923. This decision made broadcast services a part of the entertainment industry. In 1924, Bell Labs transmitted video and audio via a variation of the Nipkow disk (Secty of Commerce Hoover, Washington to New York). In 1998, 98% of American households have TVs, 235M sets. 2.4 per home. There has never been a year when viewing decreased significantly. However, viewing and set operation may be a different criteria. Twenty percent of the time there is no one in the room.The average adult watches TV for 3 hrs and 16 minutes per day.