Week 3

Week 3 looked at the reading by Sue Halpern, who discusses the topic of mind control and the internet. I personally thought this article was incredibly informing and interesting on so many levels and it really did make me question things about my habits on the internet and how in the future, our minds can be linked so seamlessly to it. According to Halpern, 'it seemed like the Singularity- the long standing science fiction dream of melding man and machine to create a better species-might have arrived (Halpern, S 2011).' This article just examines how people are so painfully unaware of the finer functioning’s within the internet and how large corporations/the government are monitoring people’s online habits to then tailor advertisements to their searches/interests. Not only that, but it ventures into the probabilities of cybernetic implants within the future, where inserting 'biochips' to then be interconnected with the internet would become the norm for the broader population. 

As Jaron Lanier points out: 'We (the engineers) make up extensions to your being, like remote and ears (webcams and mobile phones) and expanded memory (the world of details you can search for online). These become the structures by which you connect to the world and other people. We tinker with your philosophy by direct manipulation of your cognitive experience. It takes only a tiny group of engineers to create technology that can shape the entire future of human experience with incredible speed.'

^That quote kind of stuck with me in particular. Kind of opened my eyes to the way things are and can be, I suppose. My happiness is determined by the speed of my internet, so I understand that technology like 'biochips' will be commercialised in the near future. People are so dependent on the internet, so what is being said within the article comes to no real surprise to me because it doesn't seem like that far of a stretch to accept that this form of new communication technology is just around the corner...that people will consume this without much argument. 

Reference: 

Halpern, S (2011). Mind Control & the Internet.  New York Review of Books, retrieved at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/mind-control-and-internet/?page=3

Tutorial Task: This week's task was to find our lecturer's first academic article about Brisbane in a journal. I found his article by searching 'Stephen Stockwell Brisbane' through the Griffith Library database. 
Reference: Stockwell, S (2007) Alternative Media in Brisbane: 1965-1985. Queensland review, vol. 14, issue 1, pg. 75-87