Author: Madison Eberhardt

“The Medium is the Message” written by Marshall McLuhan illustrates the idea that the message is something that’s content is recognized by its audience in order to communicate information. It is this message of any medium (or technology) that changes the pattern it introduces into human affairs. He gives the example of a railway in which not only improves our transportation of course, but also led to the creation of accessing more cities and gave us more leisure. I found his description of “content” using the electric light very interesting in which he explains how when performing surgery or during a nighttime baseball game, electric light is essential or else you couldn’t perform these things without it. This content is what therefore shapes our actions and human association, as we are shaped by the technology we use.

Machinery and technology are so central and superficial in its involvement with human relationships that it now affects our sight, sound, and even written perception of things without us even realizing it. As McLuhan puts it, we are “numb in our new electric world.” His text forces us to look into how technology has affected our own lives. I’ve noticed personally that without my phone or computer, I almost feel incomplete. So many aspects of my life now revolve around technology (School, email, social media, etc), these “mediums” change my perception of the world and change my communication. While this all has great benefits and advantages, it also can give false illusions (like beauty stereotypes) and even disconnect people from reality.

Tim Berners-Lee article, “Long Live the Web,” brings into the picture the web as this expansive tool created through “egalitarian principles” in which individuals from everywhere would work together in improving it. With this came the threatening of principles in which built the web at the start. The web is a democratic, public space, and open community for the world to access, and this has to be protected by its original principles by the people from these companies, governments and more. Universality, decentralization, and the separation of layers are the keys to ensuring, “that the technological protocols and social conventions we set up respect basic human values” (Lee 85).

One of the most important aspects of the web and internet that was brought up was about human rights. It should be the user of the web’s right to have no interference while using this open and fair space, yet this is being threatened by topics such as net neutrality. The web is so crucial to our daily lives, that this isn’t a topic that should just be avoided as Lee brings up. It is the users, us, who hold the power in protecting its principles.

Just as Burrington describes in her article, specifically describes how the web or the cloud is not just something that can be seen as being created as a whole, but in fragments. The future is envisioned by Lee as being one in which the web is used openly and to serve all of humanity. Burrington is describing this notion as she explains how the web wouldn’t have even advanced without being distributed throughout to different individuals, networks, etc.

E.M. Forsters, “The Machine Stops,” is about a futuristic society in which is controlled by a type of god called, “the Machine.” In the beginning, I believed this “machine” was just the object that Vashti was living in, but then it was Vashti’s whole world, a god in which she would call to in times of need and even would quote from. It can also be noted that it is capitalized and has its own book that is very important to Vashti, as it quotes, “This was the Book of the Machine.” (4) I was wondering whether this book acted more as a bible or like a manual for these futuristic individuals. One aspect that really stood out to me while reading is how Vashti constantly was repeating, “I have no ideas here” even when she was. For example, when she discovers all the beautiful geography below her on the trip to see her son, she continues to persuade herself that no ideas of her own would come of seeing the earth. The machine has completely destroyed the once unique and natural world, leaving its people powerless in its control. They are in belief that safety, happiness, or comfort, is all because of what the machine has provided for them.

Reading how Vashti and Kuno live alongside “the machine” in which has completely taken control over the ideas, lives, and communication of the world, one can compare this to today’s society with the internet and technology. Without both of these advancements today, society would no longer be able to function normally. Our generation is one of the first to grow up with so much access to tech & communication, we are already seeing how disconnected it is making us. Just like how in “The Machine Stops” once the machine stops working, the entire society collapses, I wonder if this has any relation to what could happen if our technology or internet completely stopped working. How would society function? Would individuals simply give up or work to connect back together again?