Unit 7 - The Machine is Us/Using Us

Question:

The title of the video that you were asked to view this week is "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us." Referencing what you have learned about Web 2.0 through the readings in the Courtney text and through watching the video, why do you think that Professor Wesch gave this title to the video?

Similar to any machine, the computer, the Internet, and Web 2.0 are devices which humans utilize for a multitude of purposes. From early time, humans have used devices or tools in an attempt to improve their existence. Tools may be physical objects which are utilized to help humans or even replace them to accomplish work of some sort. Tools may also be a process which provides assistance. In the Stone Age, early man/woman used a rock as a tool when put in the position of predator or prey. During the Agricultural Era, man/woman employed a hoe to help grow crops rather than relying on gathering wild plants. Beginning in the Industrial Era, the assembly line process greatly enhanced production of materials. In the mid twentieth century, man/woman initially relied heavily on the computer itself to complete complicated and/or massive computations much more quickly than the human mind could do so. Computers stored large volumes of data as well. Eventually, computer-driven robots were programmed to accomplish repetitive, dangerous, and/or delicate tasks. In this manner, the physical aspect of the human was replaced in some cases.

As the computer evolved and the Internet and web tools were created, the gateway to information burst open; the Information Era was born. The knowledge of how to access, evaluate, retrieve, and apply information became a marketable entity. The computer was no longer utilized to simply compute and store data. Websites were established; information was available for anyone, anywhere, anytime as long as one had a computer and Internet access. The Internet replaced information resources such as textbooks, bulletin boards, newspapers, billboards, etc. Like its predecessors, delivery of information on the Internet was useful, but static.

Today, the computer is used in almost every form of communication. In most cultures, the computer, the Internet, and Web 2.0 are essential tools for a viable existence in the 21^st century. With the onset of Web 2.0 tools, the Internet experience is more collaborative, interactive, engaging, innovative, and current. The ownership of the Internet experience no longer belongs to a minority of individuals. As Stephen Abram states in Library 2.0 and Beyond: Innovative Technologies and Tomorrow’s User, “Web 2.0 is all the websites out there that get their value from the actions of users” (Courtney, 2007, p. 119). Courtney also mentions “(t)he evolution of the web, from passing static text only in 1995 to graphical, dynamic web content and mashups, is becoming more and more interactive to engage users and involve them in the process of using and creating information” (2007, p. 119). Who is the audience? We are the audience. Who is the creator? We are the creators.

In the YouTube video “Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us," Michael Wesch states that everyone is connected. However, because form and content on the web are no longer connected together, more individuals are able to participate; no special knowledge or training is necessary to create and produce content on the web. He also mentions that not only are humans helping machines to organize data, but machines are using logarithms to organize data in concert with humans. As Kevin Kelly proclaims in the title of his 2005 Wired Magazine article, “We are the Web.” According to Kelly, the Web is a:

planet-sized computer…comparable in complexity to a human brain. Both the brain and the Web have hundreds of billions of neurons (or Web pages). Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page branches into dozens of hyperlinks. That adds up to a trillion "synapses" between the static pages on the Web. The human brain has about 100 times that number - but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The Machine is.

Kelly also states:

What will most surprise us is how dependent we will be on what the Machine knows - about us and about what we want to know. We already find it easier to Google something a second or third time rather than remember it ourselves. The more we teach this megacomputer, the more it will assume responsibility for our knowing. It will become our memory. Then it will become our identity.

Machine…human,
Human…machine,
Machine and human…human and machine.
We are but one…