Week 2: Response to “Long Live the Web” and “The Strange Geopolitics of the International Cloud” – Khaliun Dorjderem

“Long Live the Web” by Tim Berners highlights the freedom and universality of internet while discussing how the web and internet is changing rapidly. After reading his work, I was reminded by how Chinese government restricts their citizens’ access  to the internet, they only provide them with the data which they want their people to be informed. Also, I’ve heard all of their searches are being recorded by the government, and Tim Berners said it could possibly influence their job application in the reading. 

 Tim Berners wrote that “universality is the foundation” of the internet, and I completely agree with that. I think the universality of the internet is crucial because everyone should have the right to access information on the internet, not just the information those who are in power determine to be accessible.

Also, the monopolies he mentioned that were using our information for advertisement should stop interfering with our privacy because it is violating the fundamentals of the internet. This issue can be connected to the article “The Strange Geopolitics of the Internet Cloud”. It discussed how a company’s data center can be situated in a different country because of economics or even climate issues making complication in accessing the data for the company. This, which in turn goes back to the Chinese government issue again, making restrictions and building gated community on the internet will result in fall down of the freedom and universality of the internet.

Week 1: Response to “The Machine Stops” by E.M.Foster – Khaliun Dorjderem

In “The Machine Stops” by E.M.Foster, Vashti, who is completely adapted to the machine dominated world, talks to Kuno, who wishes to leave without these machines, through the use of machine. It reminded me of how I FaceTime with my mother who lives thousands of miles away from me, and I was afraid by the possible changes in the world described in the reading. It is a prediction of the future, but seeing us today, how much we rely on technology, I thought that prediction has a possibility to take place in real life soon. 

Even today, we are so used to smartphones that most of us will refuse to give up using that technology. We do everything with our smartphones, we communicate with each other through internet, we play online games when we’re bored, and we even order food when we’re hungry. It is just like the buttons we press to satisfy our needs in the little room described in the reading.

Seeing the similarities between the reading and real life today concerns me that the percentage of our future becoming like the reading is much more higher today than when it was written. I can’t imagine the world where we won’t talk face to face, where we only communicate through the use of machine, and where we can’t do anything without the help of machines.