Week Four response

This week I hoped to answer several questions. They were:

1. Is the hoped for egalitarian idealism promoted by Lanier truely lost in the face of individuals succumbing to self-interest?

2. does the chilling prediction of Moore’s Law mean that technology would become self-aware?

3. In reference to where does the line between private intellectual property law and the public’s “new folk” additions from the media end?

The readily nostalgic assumption made by Lanier was that, during its very inception, computer technology was an unspoiled environment were individuals couldn’t become susceptible to ulterior motives. I remember Mike talking about how back during his time when primitive operating systems were around, that individuals committed Internet harassment and contributed to unhealthy work environments. In addition to the Internet being used for self-gain there is also the fear that computer’s would become self aware and create a, as Lanier puts it from religious paintings seen in his New Mexico childhood, a “rapture”of humanity. It is thought that either humanity would be destroyed or become assimilated into the cyber universe. Towards the end of “You Are Not A Gadget” Lanier expounds upon the theory of computationalism to assuage our fears.

Computationalism is the theory that the human mind is just like the processor of a computer mainframe. This also means that the system has its own limitations. This comes in the form or interaction and the ability to physically change surroundings. i.e. without a physical form to actually make concrete changes, the artificial system is limited. It appears that technology is limited to the minds that create them.