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Week 2: Response to Long Live the Web and A Network of Fragments–Jialu
When I think about the Internet, I used to imagine all types of invisible digital information flying in the air above our heads like pigeons carrying letters around. Just as what is mentioned in A Network of Fragments, people tend to pay much attention to data center and data-center regions and seldom do they think of how these data connect with each other. Just as what Burrington said:”… the truest and most compelling moments happen not at the landmark but somewhere between landmarks, in the places hidden in plain sight and only really comprehended as they recede from view.” Those cables, though quite and hard to be noticed, are “reminding us of where the Internet actually lives”. The universal, free and all-accessible future that is envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee couldn’t come true without these visible cables connecting the invisible information. They are literarily linking people around the globe together and serving as the bloodstream of the entity of the Internet. So I think that is why Burrington wrote down this at the beginning of his article:” There’s a poetry in the bits and pieces of Internet infrastructure that hide in plain sight all around us.” Those physical fragments are worth being admired just like how people admire the room where the Internet was born. They never really ask for much attention, but that doesn’t mean that we can ignore them, because “at the end of the day these fragments remain the only forms I trust.”
“The Machine Stops”by E.M.Forster – Jialu Li
“Man is the measure.” I think this is the key point of this story. In this story, people gradually lose themselves living in the comfort and convenience provided by the Machine. They lost their creativity and their own thoughts because of the existence of the Book. Every question they meet, there is a standard answer in the Book. No idea in their head is original—they are encouraged to generate ideas from other people’s ideas instead of facts. In a world like that, there is no such concept as “society” where people each have their own job, own responsibilities and they cooperate with each other to build the world they live in. Instead, they are isolated and are heavily dependent on the Machine. They don’t really have a life. Every single day is the same. They seem to have thousands of friends, but the truth is that they are isolated, living in their own little cell all their life. There is communication, even though is it through electrical signals, but all the message they were exchanging was hollow “ideas” and there were no human emotions involved. They have long forgotten how to make a living by themselves—the Machine can do everything for them and they can hardly think of any new things to do due to the lack of imagination and creativity. Man is no longer the measure of their own life, the Machine is. They worship the Machine and are grateful for everything that the Machine gives them. However, they no longer remember that it was human who built the Machine and, as human, they still can create machines that are more powerful than the Machine, they can still make a difference to their life, to the world. Under the convenience of the Machine, people are becoming too lazy to think, too timid to imagine and create something new.
I think E.M.Forster created a huge world view in this story. There are so many aspects that are worth thinking about, like the interactions between people, the fear for the nature, the reliance on the technology, the assimilation of culture and so on. However, there are still some points that I don’t think Forster had made clear enough. Like who is controlling the Machine? If the Machine is intelligent enough to make decisions by itself then what’s the point of the existence of the Central Committee? If the Machine is operated by the Central Committee, does this mean that it is actually the Central Committee that is limiting people’s imagination and blinding people’s visions? What’s their purpose of maintaining a peace world like this? Where do the fuel of the Machine and the food of the people come from if they never go out to the natural world? Do they grow crops underground? It seems that there is no concept of money or society in this world, why is that?……I know some of these questions are not helpful in showing the theme of this story, but I still find it interesting to think about these questions.