By: Brian Salchert

Brian Salchert — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:50:57 +0000

This post is heavy; therefore, this general (possibly unnecessary) observation
about humans and their inventions: The more powerful an invention is,
the greater its potentiality for both good and evil.
Just finished (thanks to your e-whip) reading Nicholas Carrr’s
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” which is in the July/August
Atlantic Monthly. I think, however Google’s designs play into it,
what is enhancing/changing/damaging our brains when we
engage with what is online is what the Internet makes available
and how those of us who access it choose to use it. During my
early days online–in 2000 and for a year or so after–I let myself
get hooked by a game I never was/ quite able to win. Finally,
one day, the provider of that game sent me a message:
“Thank you for letting us waste your time.” I haven’t played
a computer game since.
The Internet is my present house of learning. Sometimes I need to
read a long piece in two or more sittings, but if I feel a piece is
worth reading/ I am willing to spend time with it. Do I skim and
flit from here to there? Yes, but that is mostly when I am checking
search results. I keep a notebook specifically for when I am online,
though I do use it at times when I am offline. I place the date in
the margin, and note URI/URLs (including my own) and enter
quotations or whatever else seems of value into it. Certainly the
Internet influences my daily life and all that I am. My taking
time to make this comment is evidence of that. My calling a
hyperlink an e-whip is an example.
Are we becoming more automaton-like? Of course we are in
some ways. Using a computer requires acquiring computer
skills, at least to the degree needed to best carry out those
projects our funky, creatrive minds embark on. I am into one
now. Through it I am learning on-the-go. Luckily, I do not
need to buy special equipment for it. Many things I would
like to do I do not have the finances for, and so I do not do them.
Other things I once did, I either can no longer do or simply do
not want to do. It’s all in the choices one makes. Being online
is not an essential. Neither is having a computer. Nonetheless,
I have found it to be for me ever more valuable. My existence
is a hermit existence. As it is, I will continue to use the spaces
the Internest provides whether or not anyone visits my blogs
or communicates with me in other ways. And I am not put
off by online typing. I am used to making revisions easily.
Am I happy with the technologies available? No, but they
do improve over time. I have two blogs, each in a different
space. In the first of those spaces I can do things I cannot do
in the second. In the second of those spaces I can do things I
cannot do in the first. So it is.
Thank you for being. Thank you for being online. Mr. Carr
is right about the Internet power entities. He is also right about
the desires of those entities regarding Aritificial Intelligence.
The human mind is more than just a mechansim in need of
upgrading. Just look at how we humans toy with
whatever we invent.

Comments on: Poetry and Technology

By: Brian Salchert