Questions & Responses on Chapter 10:
1. What is Bolter referring to in his final statement that "It is fair to wonder whether the late age of print may also become the late age of prose itself? 2. In Bolter's stance that the humanities are "fragmented" fields of study and in mentioning McIntyre's idea that the Enlightenment was apparently a cultural disaster for moral philosophy, I was quite taken aback by such claims. Never before had I heard such fields of study referred to as "broken" or such periods of revolutionary thinking as a "disaster." Does Bolter truly believe that the development of humanistic studies has in a sense inhibited our cultural development as opposed to expanding it? 3. Bolter refers to the loss in the belief of high culture as being a present and unifying element in our culture anymore. Would this perhaps suggest that the sporadic network of "small interest groups" throughout the World Wide Web have created an online "middle" class that has dominated the development of various cultural elements today?—Doug
xxxxx —Farad
I believe that the World Wide Web is a revolutionary way of doing things uniformly. I would not ever hope to think that constraints or limits are put on it, seeing as how anything nowadays can be put on the web. I know that some may think that the internet may denounce what art stands for, but on the contrary, I think the web enhances virtual art, and gives physical art (paintings, photos, ect.) a nostalgic feeling. I love physical art, and I love virtual art and I know that they can coincide. I also feel that as one flourishes, it strengthens the value of the other. I liked the discussion about AI and human interaction. It was pretty interesting to think that some things will never be able to emulate human characteristics (that we know of). One of my favorite chapters by far. —Jim
xxxxx —Jae
the world wide web has definitely created a world for inidividuals to adapt to according to their own interests. with all the links, sites, and chat rooms, individuals can join a new wave of fashion and entertainment that resembles them the most. just as easily can they seperate themselves from these fads. in a way we rely on the uniqueness and intuitivness that certain internet sites provide to base our own values and lifestyles. for instance, people break up through facebook, buy groceries online, and take internet college courses! we do these things because of the popularity. if millions of other people use this technology, then individuals are more comfortable with joining them. this has definitley caused the diversity and reproduction of new cultures. geocities, godaddy, and other url sites have given people of all educational levels the same ability to display to the world whatever they want. —Justin
xxxxx —Katy
In this chapter, we learned about culture on the world wide web. It talks about how communities are established which creates networks of culture. Networks meaning interest groups or cultural groups like music, literature, pop culture, etc. Bolter argues that this is unfair to people who have limited means of living, while countries like the U.S. and Europe have access to almost everything. He also says that "the late age of print is like late capitalism in this respect...hierarchies based on gender, race, and economic advantage remain strong in our culture." —Krista
Chapter 10 is dealing with writing culture mostly referring to this day and age. It is increasingly apparent to me that writing has grown by leaps and bounds from hand writing a note and mailing it off to your friend through "snail mail." Nowadays electronic communication is increasingly the way to go with how we make our friendships and how we communicate for our jobs. It is easy and worry free of judgment. There can be no one single favored form of entertainment because through the web, writing is thought about meticulously and can be erased and begun again. When considering the web as world wide, it becomes limited to such countries as America, Europe, and some countries from the Far East. This is already limiting us with contact with countries outside the norm. This is mainly due to poverty stricken countries. It is true to say the culture has been immensely changed from what it used to be, but as technology advances, it will not be such a bad idea after all. —Laura
I think Networking is very important. The internet has helped that tremendously!!!!! For example we can network though facebook, to see who we worked with, went to school with etc. This can further us in finding jobs and an getting further in life. We can even network to audio and visuals now on the internet!!! —Lorin
xxxxx —Matt
xxxxx —Nicole
xxxxx —Rachael
xxxxx —Rob
I agree in certain areas as to the value of art being demoted because of electronic advances. I can also see how electronic sources have increased uniformity within society. However, the larger question at hand, to me personally, is how far are we going to let our electronic freedoms get out of hand before a central authority is put into place? It is wonderful to have the freedom of speech and expression; however, without some sort of authority, anyone can put practically anything on the web. Also, it becomes a bigger issue in the question of equality, with not all countries having access to the "world" wide web. Only those that are industrialized have this advantage, which once again puts many third world countries and others at an overwhelming disadvantage once again! These issues are items that I feel should be given a further look in the future.—Sarah J.
“It is fair to wonder whether the late age of print may also become the late age of prose itself.” I think Bolter makes an excellent point with this statement, appropriately the very last statement outside of the brief, disappointing one page of Chapter Eleven in the book. While it is impossible to say whether or not this day will come, I (an obviously biased future English Language Arts teacher!) certainly hope this is not the case. It is difficult and almost painful for me to imagine a world where writing is seen as a last resort, only to be used when face-to-face technologies fail. The premeditated, easily editable, and then relatively permanent nature of prose is so far superior to the spoken word in my mind that I certainly hope—as I assume Bolter (an author!) does—that people will continue to use writing as a form of reflection, an exercise in mediation, that simply can’t be replaced by the spoken word. My only consolation is that I’m pretty sure I’ll never live to see the late age of prose:) —Sarah S.
I found the discussion about the interaction between human and artificial intelligence interesting. We are reluctant to have devices that can talk to us or engage in dialogue. We expect to only to be needed at the beginning to supply the computer with the problem/data and at the end to interpret the results. Despite our reluctance to think of ourselves as being similar to computers, there is very definitely similarities between us. After all, we did create them, so some part of ourselves is used in the process of programming and building these devices. I also found it interesting that the AI programmers try to find "the program as author" much in the same way that others search for God as the author of our lives. These programmers look at a result the machine spits out and then try to deduce how the machine came up with the answer. Is it simply a series of algorithms or equations or is there something more to it than that?—Stephanie
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