May 13 & 15

The number of parallels that can be drawn from Poe’s, “The Descent into the Maelstorm,” and technology are many and varied.  When you view the story through the repurposed idea that we have been discussing in our class a very different version of the story comes to life.

The story starts on “Helseggen, the Cloudy” which can represent the cloudy view and thoughts that people in our age often have of the use of technology.  McLuhan’s, “The media is the message.” explains further our cloudy view of technology and what it can do for us.  Most people today see media as a liberating and boundary breaking innovation.  That is the message we are lead to believe by tech giants and their advertising departments, which leads many people not to question new technology, but to accept it and use it whether it results have positive or negative repercussions.  

The islands of Vurrgh, Moske, Ambarren, Iflesen, Hoeyholm, and so forth represent Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Google, Yahoo, HP, Dell and so on.  The sea that is described around these islands is a confusion of currents and waves coming from all directions and having no order.  I think that this represents the constant and unrelenting barrage of advertisements and messages about using technology or being left behind.  Poe uses the phrase, “monstrous velocity” to describe the current.  This phrase could also be used to describe the rapid pace of development of new technologies both positive and negative.

The uncontrollable force of the maelstrom can be viewed as the numerous negative effects that have come from technology use.  In recent times the consequences of texting and driving, and user created content in the web 2.0 frenzy that can shatter careers and lead to cyber bullying may be experienced by people who feel they have been sucked into the maelstrom of technology.

When the main character realizes his fate that he will be swallowed by the maelstrom and be killed, is the turning point that makes him realizes his arrogance, that he thought he could beat such a force of nature.  When he feels all his life will be lost is the first time that he starts to watch and think about what is going on around him, which in the end ultimately saves his life.   I wrote down the quote, “escape come from observation,” which I think is an important message when thinking about technology and how we use it.  I think the word observation could also be replace with reflection, which of course we have touch on in the Ellen Rose article.

I am starting to feel that reflection on technology is difficult because of the, “monstrous velocity” at which it is changing but at the same time, make the need for reflection all the more critical.


Lock in

Jaron Lanier introduced the idea of “lock in” in “You Are Not a Gadget” which is an idea that is not explored very often in media.  He relates it mostly to software design in chapter 1 but the idea of lock in can be applied to almost everything that we do.  The automotive industry is a perfect example of lock in.  We are tied to the internal combustion engine for many reasons but most people recognize the huge downside of this technology yet only the most superficial efforts to change this technology have appeared.  When I take time to look at some of the technology around me I find all sorts of locked in devices.  Many of the locked in devices around come from one company who is intentionally trying to lock me into their layers of devices that are interdependent to get the full value of them.  Lock in can happen unintentionally over time but I feel it can be very intentional by the creators and purveyors of technology and we should be wary of the companies that push the next greatest  life changing technology.