Sam Griswold
Tony Prichard
English 203
4/30/10

Direct in Colorvision
Welcome to the evening news, this is Tom Tucker, today we see an outbreak of a new kind of parasite: technology, here’s Jim Whistler with the scoop.
Thanks Tom, as the years have gone by there have been astounding developments to this pastime we call “living” namely the addition of technology, screens appearing everywhere displaying information that we use or abuse constantly. After the certainty of human survival and dominance is achieved then technology really has two alternative purposes, luxury and communication between people. However, this new communication can cause people to act differently then they usually do, living out fantasies as they do not have to connect to social authority when texting or using Facebook. This communication can allow people to talk more, even over great distances at their convenience and in the way they choose, but as we can see by little Jimmy here, who plays World of Warcraft eight hours a day, this can backfire as well. Since we are social creatures, we can say that one of our base wants or even needs is this connection to others, so I would say the internet is almost like the parasites in the classic movie Shivers by David Cronenberg. The parasites there forced people to act on their primitive desires of reproducing, as does the internet almost force you to communicate something you think of value, so the freedom/chaos of the scenario is noticeable. So the real question is can communication technology and an almost fantasy lifestyle be both good and evil? To answer that-FLIP
Billy Mays here with another FANtastic product, tired of being yourself all the time? Consider any part of your life boring at all? Well I have the solution for you, try using the internet. I know what you’re thinking, “The internet, what’s that?” but relax, it’s very simple. All you need to do is to comment on information provided by other people or create an online persona that shares what you want to share about yourself, and you can choose what to leave out! Now there are a lot of reasons people would do this, because they are bored, they want to live as someone else, they want to experience as much information as possible, and NOW YOU CAN! Why think of your life as ordinary when you can behave like the Tomcat Murr from the book by Hoffmann? Why not be like Murr and regard your everyday achievements as that of epic literature, after all that is what they are worth to you! After all, the other way to go is to having an ordinary boring biography like the character Kreisler, with information simply what you did and none of the flavor of what it mattered and what it connected to. Now how do I know that this kind of activity is really living in the sense that we define it, well- FLIP
Welcome back to Cooking with Intangibility, once again I’m your host, Bret Summers and today we’re going to cook up some Living. Now how do we make a complete sense of living? Well first I’m going to start with a nice omelet of the normal experiences you have, hanging out with friends, watching television, observing a beautiful sunset, the works. Next, we’re going to add some sauce of technology, which you may ask, is it really living if you are on a computer? To answer simply, yes, you are still interacting with people and it is still a different experience then the rest of reality thus it does impact your existence and should. Now this is a very complex sauce as it provides a lot of experiences that you would not have otherwise experienced, but is hampered by the fact that it is not real, nor even similar to reality, you can see other peoples realities, but you are not there to witness them yourself so they do not create as much of an impact. Even if Lisa on Facebook has enjoyed the Muse concert, you were not there, but you can still think it’s awesome that she went and be jealous, thus is the duality of this special ingredient: it adds another layer to life and human communication. And despite the games, Facebook friends (different then real friends), and youtube videos, real life is still real eggs. However, what will happen when the carton eggs get as good or even better than those produced by chickens? But onto the next-FLIP
“You’re not going to get away with this Cobra! The world leaders and the Joes will never go along with your plotting!”
“Ah-ha, but you have to, G.I. Jerks you see my top engineers have designed a phone that is so small that you can bring it with you everywhere you go! This will cause developers to fantasize about having even smaller and better phones, which can be their own computers, and the designs will make me millions!”
“Bad news Cobra, your plan isn’t perfect, you forgot that the Joes have access to third party developers who can make phones and computers as good as yours.”
“Forgot? I counted on it, now none of humanity will be argue with the progression and advancement of technology, it will happen exponentially as a parasite attaching to the community, and soon everyone will not be able to survive without the phones, and then not be able to survive without the computers, until finally everyone is living inside a false world and I can take control of the real one.”
“Well you’re right about one thing, we cannot argue with technology, the fantasy of wanting more that is not real in life is tempting enough for any scholar or writer, but we have a secret weapon. But this fake world does not have to be a false paradise for humanity to dwell in, it can be a realm for the human spirit to grow and express. We called upon our resources to get the famous Tony Prichard to give us consult, and he told us about how we blindly pay attention to authority (he did not speak to us for an entire class once and we still paid attention), and maybe people will notice how addictive and commanding this communication structure can be and know how to moderate. He brought up the idea of the period in a movie/game where a person has been bitten by a zombie but have not been turned yet. Perhaps this period is now, in technology, as we can still tell the difference between reality and fantasy, but we can see that on the horizon there is virtual reality or augmented reality out there that is better in some ways visually then what we see normally. So the value people put on what is “real” is what is going to defeat you Cobra.”
“COBRA SHALL PREVAIL!”
“At least now we know that our intrinsic value of reality is what is keeping us from completely worshipping the authority of technology, and knowing is half the battle. And the other half of the battle is-“ -FLIP
Now back to Planet Plurk, where we examine the extraordinary amounts of life that lurk in parts of the internet where we do not expect it, especially considering Plurk is intangible. Now unlike the jungles of youtube we discussed earlier, there are no predators or “trollers”, or at least few of consequence. Sites like Plurk and Facebook benefit from the idea that you can add only the people you want to add, which means there is very little disagreeing or if there is it is friendly. Now considering that there are people sharing art, whether made by themselves are not, sharing references, sharing ideas, how can this place not be considered reality? Is it not the same as sitting in a room with a lot of people talking to each other, or at least somewhat similar? Well as we examine the geography of Plurk we can see that that is not the case, multiple conversations of human interaction are going on, with WRITTEN word. The written word on Plurk is like an ever-changing landscape, with contexts changing shape, plurks (words posted by a user, or plurker) being forgotten in the vast time-line, plurks commented on a few times and the forgotten or ones carried to over two hundred comments. Perhaps now we can define reality more clearly, as in real life people can only do or say one thing at once, while in plurk they can switch between different ideas quickly and add what they want when they want. However, both are connected by the reality of thought, what people/plurkers are thinking is still done by the same method in real life and in Plurk, the scenario has changed but the ideas behind it have not. Organisms flourish differently in these scenarios, some plurk more than talking others talk more than plurking, this ratio defines what type of communication they are good at or have adapted to. Now, a freestyle plurk is intruiging, after all in Plurk you can add in colored verbs before a statement (username thinks, feels, wonders, etc.) or you can choose to leave this out. The impacts of this is you are saying something more personal or concrete, as the verbs show that a plurker could be plurking simply to plurk. Perhaps in another context real life is just one freestyle plurk at a time.
CLICK
I would like to think that reality is more than channel flips of what I see and what I want to see, I really would, but where else can I search for meaning? It is easier to say that we have a choice of whether or not to accept technology than to lay down how difficult the choice is to deny it when virtual reality comes up. My roommate Noah’s computer broke, so he started spending a lot of time outside or playing video games, and I wondered what that would feel like, to be severed from my symbiotic relationship, would I find more meaning or less? I think that in the end, the amount of meaning I find in anything is determined by me (obviously), and that both technology and real life are not better than one another (as I have been going back and forth with) but are just two parts of a whole, one based off the other and visa versa. I know facebook is bad because it distracts me, but I also know it is good because I can be in contact with friends who live in Tacoma. I think that I am content to be both a zombie and a human my entire life (at least for now), because brains sound delicious, but so does other food too. Maybe if I am lucky, it means more ways to find whatever the fuck meaning is, more ways to read equals more ways to learn. After all, reality is not always real life.

Writing about nothing

To first give you some insight into myself (after all that's what blogs are for), I am not someone who jumps on a "fan bandwagon" easily, it takes a lot for a show or video game to make me want to talk about it. However, I found that shows with exceptional writing are the kind that draw me into it, and by exceptional I do not exactly mean the general plot (for example I enjoy Lost but it does not fall into this kind of writing). I mean fantastical writing, like the crazy shows on adultswim that they show at 11:00 or 12:00 at night, shows featuring this type of character:

Xavier: Renegade Angel

So my question to myself is why? Why connect to these types of writing so far from the "reality" of television in appearance, and even more in discourse? Obviously one of the reasons people read or see or desire fantasy is because of its distance to reality, everyone wants to see or perhaps escape into a world where things are different. Why do you think Harry Potter sold so well? Now imagine that it's the fantasy of a troubled child with bad parents, in other words most of us at some point in our lives.

But I digress...the writing I'm talking about is different then this kind of fantasy, some of the writing I am talking about may connect with the real world in terms of similar language, but the rest are characters and situations that are completely different then anything else I have read or seen on television. The strange thing to me is that no one else has heard of or enjoys this, if I mention Delocated, Superjail!, or perhaps even Ugly Americans (it's a newer show, so I don't know how popular it is) very few people will know what I am talking about. It reminds me of how not a lot of my peers (or at least the ones I know) have read the book Stranger in a Strange Land, because these shows put you into a world where you cannot grok anything (look it up if you don't know what it means). The situation of the Tomcat Murr is similar as he understands the human world from a cats point of view, and learns things differently because of it, so you enter these worlds of writing and get mindfucked by the uniqueness of it. His life is incredible to him because he percieves it in a different and more interesting way then Johann, and this gives him more self-confidence, after all if you woke up one day and life was fun you'd think the same way, that it was because of you.

I think the reason I envy these writers is because they have such freedom in what they say, as it does not have to apply to anything, but as long as I'm writing this, blogging into the vastness of space I think I'll start writing the way I want to and not try to sound smart.

Starting.....now

ok, listen up, open your ears and brain-ears for information that will affect you, how deeply i do not know but i'm a firm believer that if something is mentioned and someone is listening it will affect them no matter how minor or inconsequential, if those terms really do exist

the time is 2:46, the mood is chill yet slightly nervous, the song playing is "Electric Demons" by Electric Six, probably followed by "Tomorrow Comes Today" by the Gorillaz

music is another form of communication so i should discuss it in the context of the other writings, what about unique sounding music? ahhhh, that's interesting, when i think of music i think of how it evokes different moods, so maybe it is the same with the writing that was just discussed by intellectual_grizz, if writing evokes moods maybe the reason unique writing effects me is because what i strive to connect with is the mood of ridiculousness, a connectedness of being to an area that is simply crazy but the kind of crazy where i can relax and let it happen because it's funny

side note- the punctuation is as such because i am used to speaking to well-known individuals over IM so i thought perhaps this would allow me to communicate in a more personal fashion to the absence of a reader

so why do i crave this ridiculous state? as with most hobbies avoiding responsability is a definite part of it, but i'd like to think that i can enjoy something for a good reason

perhaps like the Tomcatt Murr I want everything to be an adventure, a journey of some sort mentally or otherwise and with these shows there is no destination, there is simply a sense of rambling on that can be quoted to the point where it is never really dead, it is just waiting to be rewatched

i remember reading a kurt vonnegut book called "A Man Without A Country", his last book, as i recall, and it talked about how a lot of literature in the world is really about how god damn hard life is, as are most television shows, movies, etc. there HAS to be drama, there HAS to be a struggle

now my idea is that yes life is a struggle but maybe not the kind that other people tell us it is, maybe it is like the philosopher in the video told us, the struggle is determining if we are truly behaving rightly, or going back to class doing what is MEANINGFUL

but this does not mean that dealing with other people has to be a struggle, that dealing with the work forced upon us has to be more then a part of our schedule, or that the general bad things that happen to us on a day to day basis externally

in other words: the true fight is within (did that sound as nerdy and dramatic as i think it did? probably, fuck it i think i'm almost done with my blog by now)

lastly, todays class reminded me a great deal of the greek philosopher Cicero, who wrote the six mistakes that man make:

1. the delusion that personal gain is made by crushing others

2. the tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected

3. insisting that a thing is impossible because you cannot accomplish it yourself.

4. refusing to set aside trivial preferences

5. neglecting development and refinement of the mind

6. Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do

in translation= CHILL BITCH

thank you invisible audience, it's been fun

Strategic Communication

I think that one of the concepts that I am most interested in is the decisions people make about what to say when they talk to each other. The readings I have done for Parasites so far have made me think about how more often people go beyond simple thinking. Say you think of the act of speaking to people as a game, where you plan your moves to have a good conversation as you go and to keep a forward progression going (avoiding awkward silences). Then what you say is not based on answering what they have said, it is about finding the best way to communicate what you mean in a way that shows your intended relationship with the person, continues the conversation, etc. Another level of thought I had recently was how people bring up a lot of similar topics (the most basic being what classes do you have, what is your major, etc.) and how if enough people talk about the same things there starts being a metagame of knowing when and how to bring up these topics to everyone can relate. An example is the phrase "We need to talk" which if said seriously first makes me think "Oh shit!" then makes me automatically start thinking about ways to explain myself or plan a strategy to communicate with someone not happy with me. The result of this kind of thinking is a parasite which infects people to have "safe" words or terms that immediately form a familiar context.

The question comes to mind, why have this more complicated system of expression when the whole idea of being an individual is to be yourself as much as possible to attract people who are similar? Well, this is true but because of how expansive language is there are many different ways to put sentences together to reveal some of the speakers individuality, sometimes more then the message itself. Slang is an example (and also a parasite), giving other people an idea of what you are like even if you are barely saying anything at all, after all how much you care about grammer or swearing is important.

In the reading by Austin, he discusses how philosophers and grammarians know that the definition of a statement or question is difficult to see if thought about conciously. This made me think about how easily the brain can interpret and judge people by very small acts or phrasing on their part, and how little we think about the process itself (like how few understand the internet or computers only more personal).

What came to mind when I thought of the most awkward person ever oblivious to this logic I thought of this:

(although having a talking cat would be pretty awesome).

One way conversations work is that people reveal what they think of themselves or what they think of others by using words like "I" or "You" to preface their comments and show that they are trying to connect (like we discussed in class). However what matters is what they choose first, and this is where the aforementioned parasites come in. Have you ever known people who were such good friends that they could communicate almost entirely with inside jokes? This is an example of as you get to know someone the parasite gets deeper into your understanding of hubs of thought to branch off of in conversation becomes clearer. My closest friends and I can almost speak entirely in quotes from youtube videos, movies, tv shows, etc. because we understand the context that each others lives have. In essence, our words become more valuable and meaningful because we can see the process in which they are formed, which is perhaps the level of understanding that "I" or "You" really aspire for: knowing someone well enough to understand how their brain processes information and filters it through their context or place in life.

Different means of communication also serve different purposes of expression, as it is easier to express other interests or ideas through different means. When it comes to facebook, plurk, twitter, etc. you can talk about things that come into your head that would not normally come up in conversation, or you can show people stuff that would not make sense if you just mentioned it to them.

For example try explaining this video to someone in a normal conversation without sounding crazy:

Formula 409

Words that go out on facebook or the internet in general are different then talking to someone , it is almost as if you are speaking to an entity with no visible reactions whatsoever, and most of the comments you get are going to be good (though not as personal as speaking). This begs the question if you make a post, and nobody comments on it, did it really exist? After all you already knew or believed what you said and if no one else noticed then it never made an impact so its existance is negligable. However, you still do not know if anyone looked at it, or in other words how much communication took place in general, for example say I post this link:

Infinite Machine

If human curiosity is what it is then that means most people who read this will open it , but I do not know what kind of impact it will have. Maybe someone will spend the rest of the day exploring ytmnd.com or maybe they will not enjoy it and learn to avoid it, either way I was not witness to their thought process so I will never know unless I am told. This relationship between poster and commentor allows people to connect to each others similar ideas and learn what they do or do not like. This goes back to the beginning of the blog (oh so long ago) where it gives a parasite that can be used to discuss things later.

First blog done!.....I'm gonna go Plurk now

-Sam out