|
TABLE OF CONTENTS
| Asimov, Isaac |
Laws of Robotics |
| Beniger, James |
Selected Innovations in
Information Processing & Communication 1830-87 |
| Berry, Wendell |
Wendell Berry's Standards for Technological
Innovation in His Own Work |
| Botkin, Jim & Stan Davis |
The Seven Ways Business is Mastering Opportunity |
| Covey, Stephen |
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People |
| Davies, John |
Myths Created by the Media |
| DeVry Institute |
Changing Technology Facts |
| Dyson, Esther |
Basic Principles for Communities |
|
Reasons to Choose to Be Anonymous |
| Easton, Thomas |
Controversial
Issues In Science, Technology, and Society |
| Florida, Richard |
3 Ts for a Creative Economy |
|
Creative Class Core Values |
|
Creative Worker Labor Market Characteristics |
|
Creativity Index |
| Gates, Bill |
Bill Gates' New Rules |
| Heim, Michael |
Signposts Along the Path to Virtual Realism |
| Kaku, Michio |
Stages in the Evolution of Our Universe |
| Kawakami, Kenji and Dan Paipa |
The Ten Tenets of Chindogu |
| Kay, Alan |
Three Ways of Thinking |
| Kroker, Arthur and Michael Weinstein |
The Four (Soft) Functions of the Virtual Class
The Virtual Manifesto
The Political Economy of
Virtual Reality Road Maps for Following
the Digital Route Taken by the Virtual Class Across the Landscape
of the Body Recombinant |
| Life Magazine |
The Top 100 Events of the Past
1000 Years |
|
The 100 Most Important
People of the Past 1000 Years |
|
Photography - 150
of History |
| Mander, Jerry |
Ten Recommended Attitudes
About Technology |
|
Four Arguments for the
Elimination of Television |
|
Seven Negative Points About Computers |
|
Eleven Inherent Rules of
Corporate Behavior |
|
Six Negative Points About Genetics |
|
Table of Inherent Differences between Native
and technological Peoples |
| McLuhan, Marshall and Bruce Powers |
Questions to Arrive
at a Set of Process Patterns |
| Naisbitt, Jonh |
Megatrends: Ten New Directions
Transforming Our Lives |
| Newsweek Extra |
The Power of Invention |
| Postman, Neil |
What We Want Students
to Know About Technology |
| Rawlins, Gregory |
The History of the World |
| |
Traditional
Programming Works Well Only When Five Things Are True |
| Sale, Kirkpatrick |
Lessons from the Luddites |
| Stoneall, Linda |
Dimensions of Five Community Theories |
| Tapscott, Don |
The Twelve Themes of the New Economy |
| Toffler, Alvin |
Industrialism's Six Interrelated
Principles |
| Tyner, Kathleen |
10 Media Literacy Strategies |
| Wells, Melanie |
How The Fall TV Lineup Fared |
| Wheately, Margaret |
Leadership and New Science |
| Miscellaneous |
First Countries to Use Stamps |
|
Social Impacts of Technology Session COMTECH 1997 |
|
Telecommunications Timeline for Alaska |
|
Technology and Society Issues - ASTE, 4/96 |
10 Media Literacy Strategies
Kathleen Tyner
It's not enough, in this age of technology, to simply know how to read books-we have to know how to
read new forms of electronic media, too. Media literacy is not so different from the traditional print
literacy that parents already value. The trick is to analyze the information, evaluate its usefulness,
and respond or reply to it. Kids especially need to learn these skills at some point children must practice
decision making about media for the times that you aren't around to guide them. Here are 10 ideas that you
can use to build your children's media literacy skills.
- Don't hesitate to censor media that violates your
family's values. Censorship is a loaded word, but censoring is an appropriate act for parents and teachers
of young children. Reject media that violates your family's values and establish guidelines your children
can follow. And though you can't eliminate the presence of all junk media, you can use it as a teaching
opportunity to explore and contrast you family's values against those messages conveyed through media.
- Emphasize the programming, not the medium. TV is a poor reward for good behavior.
By rewarding children with generic television watching, you risk placing more importance on TV than it deserves.
To combat generic television watching, use a VCR to tape the quality programs you like. Also, develop a media use
plan with your family. By using colored markers to highlight quality programs in the TV listings, you can provide
your children with a visual reference of programs that are acceptable to watch. Even if you don't stick to the
plan, your kids will get the message that it's important to choose programs, not just watch television.
- Respect your child's culture. Separate issues of taste from issues of harmful media content.
As parents of any teenager will attest, it is only natural that children will love media that you hate.
It is important for children to explore their own tastes and learn to make decisions about that they like
and don't like. The purpose of media literacy is not to protect children from the toxic waste of media,
but to teach them to analyze and evaluate the information provided by media.
- Deconstruct media. Media are not windows on the world or mirrors of society; they are carefully
constructed products with economic, political, social and cultural implications. Discuss how books, television,
and billboards are put together. Since children spend so much time with television, they probably know quite
a lot about its codes and conventions, although they may not yet have the vocabulary to articulate their knowledge.
Together, parents and children can discuss why producers, writers, and directors may have made certain decisions.
- Question all media. By questioning the media, children learn to question information every time it's
presented to them, analyze and evaluate it for themselves, and think independently. Ask children questions that,
delve deeper than the story's plot. Look at the way media are manufactured for specific purposes. For example,
watch the credits and ask who produced the program, or how may people worked on a film. Why did the director
use certain production techniques? How are cartoons made? Who is the audience for their favorite picture book?
- Recognize media stereotypes. Even though stereotypes rule the media root, experts caution against prematurely
raising disturbing questions about negative racial or gender stereotypes. Without context, bringing up societal
inequities could erode a young child's emerging self-esteem. Teaching about stereotypes is similar to teaching
about sex-there is no need to become explicit before a child is ready. But when asked about media stereotypes,
you'll know it is time to have a serious talk.
- Request media literacy programs in schools. Media literacy is mandated in the school curriculum of most
developed countries in the world-except in the United States. If you child's school uses media during the day,
you might suggest ways that teachers can teach about media as they use it. Your local public telvision station
might offer courses in instructional television for teachers, too.
- Lights. Camera. Action! Take a creative, hands-on approach to media literacy and encourage your children to
create their own videos, books, newspapers, magazines, comic books, or posters. If you own a video camera, your
children can write, direct, and act in their own "television" programs. In developing their projects, you children
will be exposed to the codes, conventions, and languages of media, which will help them better analyze mass media products.
- Form a media literacy study group. Parents around the country are forming study groups though their churches,
community centers, and PTAs to learn ways to approach media education.
- Keep you patience. Though media education is more work for parents, this slow process has its rewards.
It teaches children to think critically about all information-a skill that will enable a child to become a
more productive, fulfilled, and independent adult. This is something worth remembering next time your child
interrupts your favorite program with 15 questions about why or how something is being done.
Laws of Robotics
Isaac Asimov from I Robot
- A robot may not injure a human being, or through inaction allow a human
being to come to harm.
- A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such
orders would conflict with the First Law.
- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does
not conflict with the First or Second Law.
(Asimov, Isaac. I Robot. 1950)
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Selected Innovations in Information Processing and Communication, 1830-87
James R. Beniger
| Year |
Innovation |
| 1830's |
Wagon lines carrying freight between rural towns and ports
begin to operate on regular schedules. |
| 1837 |
Telegraph demonstrated, patented. |
| 1839 |
Express delivery service between New York and Boston organized
using railroad and steamboat. |
| 1840's |
Freight forwarders operate large fleets on canals, offer
regular through-freight arrangements with other lines |
| 1842 |
Railroad (Western) defines organizational structure for
control. |
| 1844 |
Congress appropriates funds for telegraph linking Washington
and Baltimore; messages transmitted. |
| 1847 |
Telegraph used commercially. |
| 1851 |
Telegraph used by railroad (Erie). |
| 1852 |
Post Office makes widespread use of postage stamps. |
| 1853 |
Trunk-line railroad (Erie) institutes a hierarchical system
of information gathering, processing, and telegraphic communication to
centralize control in the superintendent's office. |
| 1855 |
Registered mail authorized, system put into operation. |
| 1858 |
Transatlantic telegraph cable links America and Europe,
service terminates after 2 weeks. |
| 1862 |
Federal Government issues paper money, makes it legal tender. |
| 1863 |
Free home delivery of mail established in 49 largest cities. |
| 1864 |
Railroad postal service begins using special mail car.
Postal money order system established to insure transfer of funds. |
| 1866 |
Telegraph service resumes between America and Euorpe. "Big
Three" telegraph companies merge in single nationwide multiunit company
(Western Union), first in United States. |
| 1867 |
Railroad cars standardized. Automatic electric block
signal system introduced in railroads |
| 1874 |
Interlocking signal and switching machine, controlled from
a central location, installed by railroad. (New York Central) |
| 1876 |
Telephone demonstrated, patented. |
| 1878 |
Commercial telephone switchboards and exchanges established,
public directories issued. |
| 1881 |
Refrigerated railroad car introduced to deliver Chicago-dressed
meat to Eastern butchers. |
| 1883 |
Uniform standard time adopted by United States on initiation
of American Railway Association. |
| 1884 |
Long-distance telephone service begins. |
| 1885 |
Post office extablishes special delivery service. |
| 1886 |
Railroad track gauges standardized. |
| 1887 |
Interstate Commerce Act sets up uniform accounting procedures
for railroads, imposes control by Interstate Commerce Commission. |
(Beniger, James R. The Control Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press. 1986.)
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My Standards for Technological Innovation in My Own Work
Wendell Berry
- The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
- It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
- It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one
it replaces.
- It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
- If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the
body.
- It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided
that he or she has the necessary tools.
- It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
- It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take
it back for maintenance and repair.
- It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and
this includes family and community relationships.
(Berry, Wendell. "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer". Minutes
of The Lead Pencil Club: Pulling the Plug on the Electronic Revolution.
Ed. Bill Henderson. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press. 1996)
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The Seven Ways Business is Mastering Opportunity
Presented by the Knowledge Revolution
Stan Davis and Jim Botkin from "The Monster Under
the Bed"
- Business is coming to bear the major responsibility for the kind of education
that is necessary for any country to remain competitive in the new economy.
- The marketplace for learning is being redefined dramatically from k-12
to k-80, or lifelong learning, whose major segments are customers, employees,
and students, in that order.
- Any business can become a knowledge business by putting data and information
to productive use, creating knowledge-based products and services that make
its customer's smarter.
- A new generation of smart and humanized technologies will revolutionize
learning by employees and customers in business before it affects students
and teachers in schools.
- Business-driven learning will be organized according to the values of today's
information age: service, productivity, customization, networking, and the
need to be fast, flexible, and global.
- Schools will embrace businesslike practices to improve their own performance.
The three R's will be complemented by the new six R's: risks, results, rewards,
relationships, research, and rivalry.
- The revolution in the way we learn will worsen the already grave division
between social classes, requiring us to redress human and social inequities.
(Botkin, Jim and Stan Davis. The Monster Under the Bed. New York: Simon
& Schuster. 1994)
- Top of page
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey
- Habit 1. Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Vision
- Habit 2. Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of
Personal Leadership
- Habit 3. Put First Things First: Principles of Personal
Management
- Habit 4. Think Win/Win: Principles of Interpersonal
leadership
- Habit 5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood:
Principles of Empathic Communication
- Habit 6. Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
- Habit 7. Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal
(Covey, Stephen R. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
New York: Simon & Schuster. 1989)
- Top of page
Myths Created by the Media
John Davies
- The media tell us how life really is.
- The media keep us well-informed; they are objective and balanced.
- The media and our mass-mediated cultures are inexpensive, even free.
- The media provide a free flow of information.
- Information overload is inevitable.
- Our mass-mediated culture is democratic and egalitarian.
- The issues of life are simple.
- Consumption is inherently good.
- The media have no impact.
(Davies, John. Educating Students in a Media-Saturated Culture. Lancaster,
PA: Technomic. 1996.)
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Changing Technology Facts
DeVry Institute
- During the early 1900's, 85% of workers were in agriculture. Now
agriculture involves less that 3% of the workforce.
- In 1950, 73% of U.S. employees worked in production or manufacturing.
Now less than 15% do.
- The Department of Labor estimates that by the year 2000 at least 44% of
all workers will be in data services -- gathering, processing, retrieving,
or analyzing information.
- You're in Paris, and you decide to use your American Express card.
Getting credit approval involves a 46,000-mile journey over phones and computers.
The job can be completed in 5 seconds.
- By the begining of the 21st century, less than half the workforce in the
industrial world will be holding conventional full-time jobs.
- There has been more information produced in the last 30 years than during
the previous 5,000.
- The information supply available to us doubles every 5 years.
- ENIAC, the first modern computer, was built in 1944. It took up more
space than an 18-wheeler's tractor trailer, weighed more than 17 Chevrolet
Camaros, and consumed 140,000 watts of electricity. ENIAC could execute
up to 5,000 basic arithmetic operations per second.
- Today's supercomputers can perform up to 60 billion calculations per second,
but scientists now anticipate "petaflops" computing, a level of performance
10,000 times greater than today's fastest machines.
- The Pentium is built on a tiny piece of silicon about the size of a dime.
It weighs less than a packet of Sweet 'N Low, and uses less than 2 watts of
electricity.
- The greeting card that plays "Happy Birthday" features more computer power
than existed in the entire world before 1950.
- The first practical industrial robot was introduced in the 1960's.
By 1982 there were approximately 32,000 robots being used in the United States.
Today there are over 20,000,000.
- Computer power is now 8,000 times less expensive that it was 30 years ago.
- By 1991, nearly 1 out of 3 American workers had been with their employer
for less than a year, and almost 2 out of 3 for less than 5 years.
- Web use is growing by 2,300% a year.
- Every 30 seconds, someone on the planet joins the Internet for the first
time. By the end of 1996, the number of users is expected to exceed
more than 50 million.
- The net now connects more than 95,000 networks, up from 48,000 a year ago.
- How many chips are out there? Perhaps 200 billion.
- Each of the 170 million or so microprocessors turned out annually is the
result of a fabrication process that has been compared in complexity to the
famous nuclear Manhattan Project.
- Since the ENIAC computer of 1946, the efficiency of information technology,
especially at the chip level, has jumped by 32 orders in magnitude - that's
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, or about 100 octilion times.
- In 1991, for the first time ever, companies spent more money on computing
and communications equipment than on industrial, mining, farm and construction
equipment - combined!
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Basic Principles for Communities
Esther Dyson
- Each participant should be clear about what he is giving and what he hopes
to get. Overall, those desires should mesh, although they may well be
different for each individual.
- There should be a way of determining who is in the community and who is
outside it. Otherwise the community is meaningless.
- Community members should feel that they have invested in the community,
and that therefore it is tough for them to leave. The ultimate punishment
in a strong community is banishment, expulsion, excommunication, exile....
All those words signify the terror of being cast out of a community.
- The community's rules should be clear, and there should be recourse if
they are broken.
(Dyson, Esther. Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age.
New York: Broadway Books. 1997)
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Reasons to Choose to Be Anonymous
Esther Dyson
- Discussing personal problems (especially those involving a third party)
with others. You could be an abused spouse, a parent with a rebellious
teenager, or simply a government lawyer trying to decide if she really wants
to stay in that career.
- Testing ideas you may not want to be associated with. Are you a politician
trying to float a trial balloon? Or perhaps a teenager wondering if
there's a case for virginity?
- Playing a harmless joke on a friend. This could backfire.
- Complaining about anything from messy washrooms to a sexually abusive boss,
a corrupt politician, or a tyrannical teacher. Or you could anonymously
warn a friend that his job is in trouble, her loud music is annoying the neighborhood,
or his kid is skipping school.
- Asking dumb questions. One example offered by anonymity service provider
Johan Helsinguis was that of a C-language programmer who needed answers to
some elementary questions and didn't want to reveal his ignorance to his boss.
- Trying out a different identity - real or imagined. Many of these
cases have to do with sexual orientation, but they could have to do with age
or other aspects of identity. In less innocent cases, people pretend
to be experts when they're not, and can cause considerable damage. (But this
list is about good reasons.)
- Support and arousing political consciousness in an oppressive political
regime. Often political dissent is crushed because dissidents don't
know that others feel the same way. Repressive governments, of course,
also benefit from anonymity: It hides the extent of dissatisfaction
and makes people afraid to trust one another - which is a downside of anonymity.
- Voting - perhaps the most widely recognized and approved form of anonymous
behavior. The answer to "Who voted for the opposition?" is properly: No one
knows. But their voices will be counted.
(Dyson, Esther. Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age.
New York: Broadway Books. 1997)
- Top of page
Controversial Issues in Science, Technology, and Society
Thomas A. Easton
Part 1. The Place of Science and Technology in Society
- Issue 1. Should the Federal Government Point the Way for Science?
- Issue 2. Is Science A Faith?
- Issue 3. Should the Theory of Evolution be Replaced by Creationism?
Part 2. The Environment
- Issue 4. Will Future Generations Have Enough to Eat?
- Issue 5. Should Society Be Concerned About Global Warming?
- Issue 6. Is Ozone Depletion a Genuine Threat?
- Issue 7. Are Electromagnetic Fields Dangerous to Your Health?
- Issue 8. Are Environmental Regulations Too Restrictive?
Part 3. The Cutting Edge of Technology
- Issue 9. Should the goals of the U.S. Space Program Include Manned Exploration of Space?
- Issue 10. Is It Worthwhile to Continue the Search for Extraterrestrial Life?
- Issue 11. Should Genetic Engineering Be Banned?
Part 4. The Computer Revolution
- Issue 12. Will the Information Revolution Benefit Society?
- Issue 13. Are Computers Hazardous to Literacy?
- Issue 14. Will it Be Possible to Build a Computer That Can Think?
Part 5. Ethics
- Issue 15. Is the Use of Animals in Research Justified?
- Issue 16. Is it Ethical to Use Humans as "Experimental Animals"?
- Issue 17. Is it Ethically Permissible to Clone Human Beings?
(Easton, Thomas A. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial
Issues in Science and Technology, and Society. Guilford, CT: Dushkin/McGraw-Hill.
1998.)
- Top of page
3 Ts for a Creative Economy
Richard Florida
- Technology
- Talent (creative not human capital)
- Tolerance
(Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class.
Basic Books, 2002.)
- Top of page
Creative Class Core Values
Richard Florida
- Individuality
- Meritocracy
- Diversity
- Openness
(Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class.
Basic Books, 2002.)
- Top of page
Creative Worker Labor Market Characteristics
Richard Florida
- horizontal vs. vertical careers
- identify more with occupation than company
- bear more responsibility for every aspect of their careers
(Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class.
Basic Books, 2002.)
- Top of page
Creativity Index
Richard Florida
The index is a mix of 4 equally weighted factors
- creative class share of the work force
- innovation measured in patents per capita
- high tech industry using Milken Institute's Tech Pole index
- diversity, measured by Gay Index (Bishop: "Where gay households abound, geeks follow."
(Florida, Richard. The Rise of the Creative Class.
Basic Books, 2002.)
- Top of page
Bill Gates' New Rules
Bill Gates
- Insist that communication flow through e-mail.
- Study sales data online to share insights easily.
- Shift knowledge workers into high-level thinking.
- Use digital tools to create virtuals teams.
- Convert every paper process to digital process.
- Use digital tools to eliminate single-task jobs.
- Create a digital feedback loop.
- Use digital systems to route customer complaints immediately.
- Use digital communication to redefine the boundaries.
- Transform every business process into just-in-time delivery.
- Use digital delivery to eliminate the middle man.
- Use digital tools to help customers solve problems for themselves.
(Gates, Bill. "Bill Gates' New Rules." Time 22 Mar. 1999: 72-82)
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Signposts Along the Path of Virtual Realism
Michael Heim
- Be clear about what virtual reality is in the strong sense.
- Avoid glib exaggerations such as "Now we're cyborgs," or "Everything's
virtual reality."
- Refuse to fear an all-pervasive technology monster.
- Virtual worlds do not re-present the primary world.
- VR transubstantiates but does not imitate life.
- Bracket the current attacks on "virtual life" and "virtual communities."
- Now is the time for constructive criticism, while the electronic
layer of reality remains largely in prototype on the drawing boards.
- Realism in VR results from pragmatic habitation, livability, and
dwelling.
- Observe closely those spots where high-end VR touches earth-centered
applications.
- Look closely at the bio-psychic imbalances created by computer technology.
(Heim, Michael. Virtual Realism. Oxford University Press. New York. 1998.)
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Stages in the Evolution of Our Universe
Michio Kaku
10-43 seconds
The ten-dimensional universe breaks down to a four-and a six-dimensional
universe. The six-dimensional universe collapses down to 10-32 centimeter
in size. The four-dimensional universe inflates rapidly. The temperature is 1032
o K.
10-35 seconds
The GUT force breaks; the strong
force is no longer united with the electroweak interactions. SU (3) breaks off
from the GUT symmetry. A small speck in the larger universe becomes inflated by
a factor of 1050, eventually becoming our visible universe.
10-9 seconds The temperature is now 1015
oK, and the electroweak symmetry breaks into SU (2) and U (1).
10-3 seconds Quarks begin to condense into
neutrons and protons. The temperature is roughly 1014oK.
3 minutes
The protons and neutrons are now condensing
into stable nuclei. The energy of random collisions is no longer powerful enough
to break up the nucleus of the emerging nuclei. Space is till opaque to light
because ions do not transmit light well.
300,000 years
Electrons begin to condense around nuclei.
Atoms begin to form. Because light is no longer scattered or absorbed as much,
the universe becomes transparent to light. Outer space becomes black.
3 billion years
The first quasars appear.
5 billion years
The first galaxies appear.
10 to 15 billion years
The solar system is born. A few
billion years after that, the first forms of life appear on earth.
|
(Kaku, Michio. Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through
Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension. New York: Oxford
University Press. 1994.)
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The Ten Tenets of Chindogu
Kenji Kawakami and Dan Papia
- A chindogu cannot be for real use
- A chindogu must work
- Inherent in every Chindogu is the spirit of anarchy
- Chindogu are tools for everyday life
- Chindogu are not for sale
- Humor must not be the sole reason for creating Chindogu
- Chindogu are not propaganda
- Chindogu are never taboo
- Chindogu cannot be patented
- Chindogu are without prejudice
(Kawakami, Kenji and Dan Papia. 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions.
New York: W. W. Norton. 1997.)
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Three Ways of Thinking
Alan Kay
- storyform
- logical argument- an explanation is set forth as a tightly connected sequecne of assertions
about the words; it is a powerful clockwork for working out implications
- systems dynamics- a kind of ecological way of thining about complexity, in which parts actively interact
(Kay, Alan. Revealing the Uses and Misuses of Computers in Education)
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The Four (Soft ) Functions of the Virtual Class
Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein
- Soft Money: The Information Economy
- Soft Power: The Information Leviathan
- The Cyber-Net: Soft Health / Soft Sex / Soft Intelligence
- Soft Values: Information Culture
(From Data Trash: The Theory of the Virtual Class by Arthur Kroker
and Michael Weinstein)
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Road Maps for Following the Digital Route Taken by
the Virtual Class Across the Landscape of the Body Recombinant
Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein
- Map 1: The Digital Superhighway as Ruling Metaphor
- Map 2: The Information "Superhighway" Does Not Exist
- Map 3: Seduce and Virtualize
- Map 4: The Information Elite
- Map 5: Soft Idology
- Map 6: The Red Guard Meets Generation X
- (From Data Trash: The Theory of the Virtual Class by Arthur Kroker
and Michael Weinstein)
- Top of page
The Political Economy of Virtual Reality
Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein
- Pan-Capitalism
- Surplus Bodies
- Abuse Value
- Virtual Capitalism
- Virtual Politics
- Liberal Fascism
- Retro-Fascism
(Kroker, Arthur and Michael A. Weinstein. Data Trash: The Theory
of the Virtual Class. St. Martin's Press, New York. 1994.)
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The Virtual Manifesto
Arthur Kroker and Michael Weinstein
- Tactical Envelopment
- The Disappearing State
- A Definition of the Virtual Situation
- Ideological Delegitimation
(Kroker, Arthur and Michael A. Weinstein. Data Trash: The Theory of
the Virtual Class. St. Martin's Press, New York. 1994.)
- Top of page
100 Top Events of the Past 1000 Years
LIFE Magazine
| 100 |
1582 |
Fixing the Calendar |
| 99 |
1954 |
Elvis Presley became the first rock'n roll
performer |
| 98 |
1799 |
Discovery of the Rosetta Stone |
| 97 |
1896 |
Founding of the modern Olympic movement by
Baron Pierre de Coubertin |
| 96 |
1605 |
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra published Don
Quixote de la Mancha |
| 95 |
1683 |
The first public museum opened, the Ashmoleaan,
at Oxford University |
| 94 |
1588 |
Defeat of the Spanish Armada |
| 93 |
1846 |
Boston dentist William Morton spread the
news of the use of ether as an anesthetic for surgery |
| 92 |
1453 |
Mehmed II Khan captured Constantiople marking
the Rise of the Ottoman Empire |
| 91 |
1804 |
Haiti gets its freedom |
| 90 |
1907 |
Development of Plastic |
| 89 |
1324 |
Mansa Musa embarked on a holy pilgrimage
to Mecca with an opulent flourish |
| 88 |
1868 |
U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry arrive in Tokyo
Bay and demanded that Japan open its ports to trade |
| 87 |
1880 |
Cézanne changed the world of painting |
| 86 |
1947 |
Independence of India |
| 85 |
1169 |
12th century European renaissance begins
with the work of Ibn-Rushd |
| 84 |
1407 |
First founding of a public bank |
| 83 |
1008 |
The first novel finished, The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu |
| 82 |
1886 |
Coca Cola invented |
| 81 |
1545 |
Discovery of silver in the Andes Mountains |
| 80 |
1869 |
Suez Canal opened |
| 79 |
1601 |
The Poor Law passed in Britian, the beginnings
of public assistance to the poor |
| 78 |
1450 |
The Sufis in Yemen were the first to begin
drinking coffee |
| 77 |
1854 |
Otis's safe-elevator unveiled at the New
York City fair |
| 76 |
1953 |
Crick and Watson unraveledthe couble helix
and discovered DNA's design |
| 75 |
1260 |
The Cathedral at Chartes was dedicated |
| 74 |
1821 |
Simón Bolívar freed Venezuela |
| 73 |
1350 |
Fashion began reinventing itself annually |
| 72 |
1838 |
One of the first labor unions organized by
craft workers, the London Working Men's Association |
| 71 |
1150 |
Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument
in the world, completed |
| 70 |
1962 |
Rachel Carson's best-seller, Silent Spring,
jump-started the modern environmental movement |
| 69 |
1543 |
The beginning of the modern science of anatomy
marked by the publication of On the Structure of the Human Body by Andreas
Vesalius |
| 68 |
1906 |
William Joseph Seymour advances the flame
of Pentecostalism |
| 67 |
1851 |
Isaac Merritt Singer improved the sewing
machine and began to make them affordable |
| 66 |
1325 |
Tenochtitlan, the most sophisticated city
in the pre-Conquest Western Hemisphere was founded by the Aztecs |
| 65 |
1413 |
Filippo Brunelleschi invents the illusion
of infinity that exists in painting, the rules of perspective |
| 64 |
1934 |
Mao Zedong led his soldiers on the Long March |
| 63 |
1867 |
Alfred Nobel invents dynamite |
| 62 |
1854 |
Henry Bessemer invents the process using
a blast of oxygen to produce steel strong enough to withstand an explosion |
| 61 |
1895 |
Discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen |
| 60 |
1596 |
Invention of the "water closet"- a wooden
seat with a sictern and a valve for flushing - by John Harington |
| 59 |
1609 |
The weekly, four page newspaper,Relation,
first published in Strassburg, Germany |
| 58 |
1839 |
Charles Goodyear discovers the process of
vulcanization for rubber |
| 57 |
1914 |
Margaret Sanger publishes The Woman Rebel,
a challenge to the pro-conception climate |
| 56 |
1120 |
First emerging restaurant culture in Kaifeng,
China, according to the journal of a Chinese bureaucrat Meng Yuanlao |
| 55 |
1633 |
Moravian bishop Johan Amos Comenius advised
in The School of Infancy needed to play to learn, advocating forchildhood |
| 54 |
1535 |
Jacques Cartier first partakes of tobacco
as he has seen the Iroquioans smoke along the St. Lawrence River |
| 53 |
1834 |
Artifically made ice was possible with the
patent for the compressor by Jacob Perkins |
| 52 |
1656 |
Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens constructed
the first pendulum clock, the first clock of precision |
| 51 |
1865 |
The U.S. Civil War ended |
| 50 |
1088 |
The university as we know it today began
in Bologna, Italy |
| 49 |
1628 |
William Harvey published An Anatomical Study
of the Motion of the Heart and of the Blood in Animals, demonstrating
that the heart controls circulation |
| 48 |
1812 |
First canned foods appeared |
| 47 |
1859 |
First pumping of oil from a shallow well
in Titusville, PA |
| 46 |
1829 |
First water purification when Chelsea Water
Works of London installed its landmark slow-sand filter on the Thames |
| 45 |
1917 |
Bolshevik Revolution |
| 44 |
1674 |
The science of microbiology was born when
Leeuwenhoek first looked at a drop of water through a lens |
| 43 |
1722 |
Publication of Book I of The Well-Tempered
Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach, marking a watershed in Western music |
| 42 |
1866 |
Gregor Mendel aired his discovery of the
basic laws of heredity |
| 41 |
1844 |
First telegraph line inaugurated between
Washington, D.C. and Baltimore by Samuel F. B. Morse |
| 40 |
1848 |
Women publically demand suffrage |
| 39 |
1537 |
Potatoes first encountered in Peru by Spanish
explorer Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada |
| 38 |
1844 |
Karl Marx teamed up with Fredrich Engels |
| 37 |
1826 |
Joseph-Nicéphore Niépce took
the world's first photograph |
| 36 |
1905 |
Albert Einstein published E=mc2 |
| 35 |
1603 |
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,
by William Shakespeare was first published |
| 34 |
1789 |
Beginning of the French Revolution |
| 33 |
1969 |
Neil Armstrong first stepped on the moon
surface |
| 32 |
1895 |
Auguste and Louis Lumiére premiered
10 films, the beginning of the picture show |
| 31 |
1900 |
Sigmund Freud published The Interpretation
of Dreams, changing the psychological and cultural landscape of the
modern world. |
| 30 |
1947 |
The first transistor demonstrated |
| 29 |
1211 |
Genghis Khan began his conquest of China,
later to overrun Persia, Iraq, and parts of Korea, Burma, and Vietnam |
| 28 |
1610 |
The Dutch East India Company first brought
tea to Europe from the island of Hirado, off the coast of Japan |
| 27 |
1903 |
Orville and Wilbur Wright flew
the first airplane, keeping Flyer aloft for 59 seconds |
| 26 |
1914 |
The First World War, "The War to End All
Wars", the first modern war with weapons of mass destruction |
| 25 |
1901 |
The first wireless signal sent and received
across the Atlantic Ocean by Guglielmo Marconi |
| 24 |
1830 |
The world's first steam-driven railway inaugurated
in Britian, to run between Liverpool and Manchester |
| 23 |
1666 |
Newton discovered the Law of Gravitation |
| 22 |
1928 |
Alexander Fleming first discovered the mold
that became penicillin |
| 21 |
1348 |
Bubonic Plague killed a third of Europe's
inhabitants |
| 20 |
1876 |
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone |
| 19 |
1215 |
King John of England was forced to sign the
Magna Carta, which is credited with sowing the seeds of Democracy |
| 18 |
1095 |
Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade |
| 17 |
1908 |
The automotive age began when Henry Ford
unveiled his "car for the great multitude", the Model T |
| 16 |
1945 |
The atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki |
| 15 |
1859 |
Charles Darwin published Origin of Species |
| 14 |
1928 |
The world's first television broadcast by
Ernst F. W. Alexanderson, which laid the foundation for one of the most
powerful media in history. |
| 13 |
1796 |
Development of a smallpox vaccination by
Edward Jenner |
| 12 |
1509 |
The earliest African slaves arrived in the
New World |
| 11 |
1876 |
Edison developed the incandescent lamp |
| 10 |
1117 |
The compass goes to sea |
| 9 |
1933 |
Hitler comes to power |
| 8 |
1776 |
The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration
of Independence |
| 7 |
1100 |
China develops gunpowder weapons |
| 6 |
1882 |
Robert Koch showed that a specific bacilus
caused a specific disease, discovering the microbe that causes tuberculosis |
| 5 |
1640 |
Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter which supported
the idea that the earth moves around the sun. |
| 4 |
1769 |
With the patent of a version of the steam
engine, James Watt triggered the beginning of the machine age |
| 3 |
1517 |
Martin Luther nailed "Ninety-Five Theses"
to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg, Germany opening
the door to the Reformation |
| 2 |
1492 |
Christopher Columbus voyaged across the Atlantic
and made his first landfall on an island he renamed San Salvador |
| 1 |
1455 |
Gutenberg prints the Bible using the first
Western movable-type system |
("The 100 Events," LIFE Special Double Issue, The Millennium.
Fall 1997)
- Top of page
The 100 Most Important People of the Past 1000 Years
LIFE Magazine
The 100 people who made the millennium had to change more than just a corner
of the world, he or she had to divert the great stream of human history.
- Thomas Edison- Inventor of the incandescent lamp as well as many other
modern conveniences society takes for granted
- Christopher Columbus - His "discovery" of the American continents changed
the economy of Euorpe
- Martin Luther
- Galileo Galailei
- Leonardo Da Vinci - The Renaissance Man
- Isaac Newton - Law of Universal Gravitation
- Ferdinand Magellan - Provided proof that the world was round by circumnavigating
the globe
- Louis Pasteur - Pasteurization of foods and beverages, understanding of
germ theory, and advancing the science of immunology
- Charled Darwin - Theory of evolution
- Thomas Jefferson
- William Shakespeare - Playwright whose masterful use of the English language
has captivated audiences for 400 years
- Napoléon Bonaparte - Seized power in France and set out to conquer
the world until stopped by a union of Euopean armies.
- Adolf Hittler - Chancellor of Germany who embarked on a vicious campaign
of global domination
- Zheng He - Great Chinese naval explorer
- Henry Ford - Made the automobile affordable to the average American family,
so that it became a necessity of life
- Sigmund Freud - His views on the power of the unconscious to influence behaviour
gave rise to the age of psychotherapy
- Richard Arkwright - The founder of the modern factory system, a system in
which specialized workers using specialized machinery, work together in one
place
- Karl Marx - Father of Communism
- Nicolaus Copernicus - The sun is the center of the solar system
- Orville and Wilbur Wright - Flew the first powered airplane
- Albert Einstein - Theory of relativity
- Mohandas Gandhi - Led India's drive for independence through his policy
of non-vioolent non cooperatioon and civil disobedience
- Kublai Khan - Ruler of the Mongols who completed the conquest of China and
became the first emberor of the Yüan dynasty
- James Madison
- Simón Bolívar - Fought for the independence of northern South
America
- Mary Wollstonecraft
- Guglielmo Marconi - Invention of the wireless
- Mao Zedong - Communist Chinese leader
- Vladimir Lenin - Powerful Russian leader of the Bolshevik revolution
- Martin Luther King Jr. - Leader of the Civil Rights movement
- Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor of the telephone
- René Descartes - I think therefore I am.
- Ludwig Van Beethoven
- Thomas Aquinas
- Abraham Lincoln - President of the United States as the nation faced the
Civil War
- Michelangelo - The greatest sculptor of all time
- Vasco Da Gama - The first European to round Africa's Cape of Good HOpe
- Süleyman the Magnificent - Greatest Sultan of the Ottoman Empire
- Samuel F. B. Morse - Developed the first telegraph machine
- John Calvin
- Florence Nightingale - Worked for health-care reform in the military, improved
conditions in hospitals, workhouses, and established first school for nurses
- Hernán Cortés - Led the conquest of the Aztec's in Mexico
- Joseph Lister - Revolutionized surgery
- Ibn Battuta - Islam's most extraordinary traveler, having traveled from
Spain to the east coast of China
- Zhu Xi
- Gregor Mendel - Discovered the fundamentals of genetics
- John Locke - Enlightenment philosopher who wrote that people by nature have
certain rights, including life, liberty and property
- Akbar - The greatest of India's Mughal emperors
- Marco Polo - Inspired Europeans to seek out the Orient
- Dante Alighieri - Author of The Divine Comedy, a walk through the cultural,
political and religious landscape of 13th century Italy
- John d. Rockefeller - The first American billionairre who made his money
in oil and turned to philanthropy in later life
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau - A polemicist who wrote that a good society could
improve people if they would submit their own desires to the General
Will
- Niels Bohr - Elucidation of quantum theory changed how we understand the
smallest components of matter and energy
- Joan of Arc - French hero who led the French to crucial victories in the
Hundred Years War
- Frederick Douglass- Advocate for freeing the slaves and a beacon of morality
- Louis XIV - The Sun King, credited witth making France a leadinng power
and blamed for precipitatinng its decline
- Nikola Tesla - An inventor of the electric age, patenting his work on the
rotating magnetic field and alternating current
- Immanuel Kant - He established the direction of modern philosophy
- Fan Kuan - Chinese painter of monumental landscape, Travelers Amid Streams
and Mountains, based Taoist principles of becoming one with nature
- Otto Von Bismarck - Unification of Germany into a single powerful nation
- William the Conqueror - The conqueror of England in the Battle of Hastings
in 1066
- Guido of Arezzo - Musical theorist who devised a system of musical notation
and perfected a method of teaching sight-singing
- John Harrison - Developed the marine chronometer
- Pope Innocent III - His 18 year reign dominated the Middle Ages, increasing
the influence of the Chatholic Church
- Hiram Maxim - Changed the way we wage war with the invention of the recoil
mechanism for weapons
- Jane Addams - Founder of Chicago's Hull House, helped to found the American
Civil Liberties Union.
- Cao Xueqin - Wrote the greatest novel written in vernacular Chinese
- Matteo Ricci - Influenced European Enlightenment thinkers with his manuscript
on China
- Louis Armstrong - His improvisational verve and technical virtuosity defined
jazz
- Michael Faraday - Discoveries and inventions dealing with magnectic flields
and electric currents laid the groundwork for the electrical age
- Ibn-Sina - Islam's most renowned philosopher-scientist
- Simone De Beauvoir - Developer of existentialist philosophy and writer of
the most influential feminist book of the 20th century
- Jalal Ad-Din Ar-Rumi - A 13th centruy Sufi Mystic whose poems spread Islam
to a wider audience
- Adam Smith - Scottish economist whose principles would become the bedrock
of modern capitalism
- Marie Curie - Won two Nobel Prizes for her work with radioactivity and isolation
of radium
- Andrea Palladio - The man who is probably history's most imitated architect
- Peter The Great - Willed Russia to be a modern world power, a great reformer
and a great despot
- Pablo Picasso - Spanish artist who dominated 20th century art
- Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre - Developed a practical process of photography
- Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier - Founder of modern chemisstry
- Phineas T. Barnum - The consumate showman
- Edwin Hubble - Discovered that the Andromeda nebula is located beyond the
Milky Way, and that the universe is expanding
- Susan B. Anthony - Tireless campaigner for women's suffrage, a leader in
the first wave of American feminism
- Raphael - Italian artist who has influenced artists every since the early
1500's
- Helen Keller - Renowned author, antiwar activist and advocate for the rights
of workers and women, the deaf and blind
- Hokusai - One of the greatest artists of the millennium whose works include
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
- Theodor Herzl - Father of the movement that led to the founding of a Jewish
state
- Elizabeth I - Ruled England for 45 years providing a span of stability,
growth and achievement
- Claudio Monteverdi - Wrote some of the first successful operas
- Walt Disney - Creator of a stable of unforgettable cartoon characters; a
multimedia visionary
- Nelson Mandela - South African leader agains apartheid
- Roger Bannister - First man to run a mile in under four minutes
- Leo Tolstoy - Russian author and philosopher
- John Von Neumann - One of the greatest mathematicians of time, working on
both the hydrogen bomband the digital computer
- Santiago Ramón Y Cajal - His work is the basis for modern neuroscience
- Jacques Cousteau - Popularized exploration of the oceans, promoted marine
conservation, invented scuba-diving equipment
- Catherine De Médicis - Italian-born queen of France and mother of
three French kings
- Ibn-Khaldun - A Tunisian diplomat, one of the 14th century's most brilliant
minds, wrote a history of the Muslim world
- Kwame Nkrumah - Worked to gain independence for Ghana, triggering decolonization
throughout Africa
- Carolus Linnaeus - Devised system of naming orders, genus and species of
plants and animals
("The 100 Most Important People of the Past 1000 Years". LIFE Special
Double Issure, The Millennium. Fall 1997)
- Top of page
Photography- 150 Years of History
LIFE Magazine
| 1839 |
Daguerre publishes instructions; immediately after the French
government divulges details for the daguerreotype process. The 79-page
manual is an instant hit. |
| 1839 |
The Propylaea at Athens by Canadian P.G. J. de Lotbiniére is
a typical early daguerreotype. Buildings are favored subjects. What else
can hold a pose for 15 minutes? |
| 1839 |
The arsenal and cupola of Philadelphia's Central High are the subject
of the oldest extant American photograph, shot by U.S. Mint official Joseph
Saxton. |
| 1840's |
Exposure time is reduced to half a minute, allowing nude models to pose
as comfortably for a daguerreotypist as for a painter. |
| 1840 |
Probably the earliest moon shot is taken by New York chemistry professor
John William Draper. It will be unearthed in a Greenwich Vilage bookshop
in 1969. |
| 1840 |
Hippolyte Bayard is the first to print direct positve images on paper. |
| 1840 |
The first portrait lens is invented by Viennese mathematician Joseph
Max Petzval. It takes circular pictures. |
| 1841 |
The Calotype (Greek for 'beautiful picture") process is patented by
W.H. Fox Talbot. |
| 1844 |
In his London studio French daguerreotypist Antione Francios Jean Claudet
introduces the painted background, using it in his portrait of colleague
Talbot. |
| 1844 |
Talbot begins publishing serially "The Pencil of Nature" a book of photographic
plates "impressed by the agency of Light alone." Queen Victoria buys a
copy. |
| 1845 |
Friedrich von Martens, a German printmaker living in paris, invents
a panoramic camera with a lens that moves horizontally in an arc of more
than 150 degrees to capture an image on a curved plate. |
| 1845 |
The earliest photomicrographs - a daguerreotype camera was combined
with a solar microscope - are published. |
| 1846 |
One of the earliest medical photos is the restaging of the first painless
operation - by Boston dentist W.T.G. Morton, using sulfuric ether as an
anesthetic. |
| 1846 |
The Mexican War is the first war to be documented photographically. |
| 1849 |
Sir David Brewster designs a twin-lens scope for viewing stereographs.
Until the end of the century, the device is so popular it is claimed that
no home is without one. |
| 1853 |
G.N. Barnard's picture of burning mills in Oswego, N.Y. is one of the
earliest news shots of a disaster. |
| 1854 |
Cheaper than the daguerreotype, the ambrotype is a glass negative with
a dark backing that makes it appear positive. |
| 1854 |
Caretes ´de visite, photographic calling cards, are patented in
France. "Cardomaina" spreads abroad and everyone from dancing girls to
royalty collects them. |
| 1856 |
The ferrotype is introduced. Later called the tintype, it is so cheap,
lightweight, sturdy and suitable for mountinng in albums that it outstrips
the ambrotype. |
| 1857 |
The first stop-action shot - of bombshells fired from a cannon in London
- is taken by Thomas Skaife with a pistolgraph camera he designed. |
| 1858 |
Henry Peach Robinson creates a composite photograph by printing five
negatives on one sheet of paper. |
| 1858 |
The Pyramids of Sakkarah are recorded by Englishman Francis Frith, who
popularizes the photo album. Frith sometimes uses tombs as darkrooms. |
| 1860 |
From a tethered balloon, 1,200 feet over Boston, James Wallace Black
takes the first American aerial photo. Nadad had snapped Paris by air
two years earlier. |
| 1861 |
By photographing a tartan ribbon through red, green and blue filters
and then superimposing the transparencies, physicist J. C. Maxwell creates
the first color picture. |
| 1861 |
The Civil War's destruction is documented by teams of photographers,
one led by Alexander Gardner, who deal with unwieldy wet plates at battle
sites. |
| 1865 |
Lincoln's assassination spawns the earliest existing U.S. "Wanted" poster,
complete with glued-on cartes de visite of John Wilkes Booth and accomplices. |
| 1867 |
Shoshone Falls, Idaho, is included in the first U.S. geological survey
of the West. Photographer Timothy H. O'Sullivan is part of the government
team. |
| 1868 |
What will become the oldest family-owned studio in the U.S. is opened
in Baltimore by 24 year old David Bachrach, an ex- Mathew Brady apprentice. |
| 1868 |
Pictures that he took of his hometown of Agen, France, are used to test
Louis Ducos du Hauron's method of color photography, the basis of the
Kodachrome process. |
| 1868 |
The slums of Glasgow, Scotland, are depicted by Thomas Annan. His grim
documentary work predates that of Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine in America. |
| 1873 |
The halftone process to print photos is used for the first time in America
in the New York Graphic. The subject is Manhattan's Steinway Hall. |
| 1880 |
On of the earliest Christmas cards with a photograph of the senders
on it costs only pennies to mail. Printers often supply the frame and
the holiday message. |
| 1886 |
A thousand autogravure copies of Peter Henry Emerson's Gathering
Water Lilies sell out at $23 to $32 apiece. Nature, not posed models,
is his inspiration. |
| 1887 |
Baseball cards bearing photographs instead of lithographs appear with
Old Judge cigarettes. |
| 1888 |
George Eastman introduces the Kodak. The debut of the $25 model does
more to popularize photography than any other event. |
| 1890's |
Photographs begin to replace drawings in advertisements. |
| 1890's |
The Detective Photo Scarf, a spy camera, is a fad. Other cameras are
concealed in field glasses, parcels and revolvers. |
| 1890 |
The Illustrated American, the first U.S.photojournalism magazine,
hits the stands. Its "picturesque chronicling" includes scenes in an Illinois
prison. |
| 1892 |
Paul Martin muffles his shutter noise and becomes the original candid
cameraman. |
| 1895 |
At Bavaria's University of Würzburg, Wilhelm Röntgen produces
the first photo through live flesh: his wife Bertha's ringed hand. The
X ray is born. |
| 1896 |
The National Geographic goes topless with a Zulu couple. |
| 1900 |
The one-collar Brownie (film for six exposures costs a dime) is designed
by American inventor Frank Brownell and turns millions of kids into shutterbugs. |
| 1903 |
Camera Work begins publication as the first important U.S. magazine
that is dedicated to art photography. |
| 1903 |
Japan brings out the wooden Cherry Hand Camera. "There's a devil lurking
inside the black boxes I made," is the boast of a Rokuosha craftsman who
builds them. |
| 1904 |
A Paris aircraft exhibit in 1909 is shot in Autochrome, a color method
invented by brothers Auguste and Louis Lumiere. Its graininess resembles
pointillism. |
| 1906 |
Wild deer are lighted for the camera by onetime Congressman George Shiras's
flass apparatus, the first device to allow the capture of nocturnal action. |
| 1907 |
Edward Sheriff Curtis and team complete the most exhaustive photographic
survey of North American Indians ever compiled. |
| 1909 |
Edward Steichen's landmark photo of Manhattan's flatiron Building is
a masterpiece of the gum-bichromate process, which uses color pigments
in the printing. |
| 1914 |
All U.S. passports are required to include a photograph for identification. |
| 1914 |
WWI prompts the first aerial reconnaissance photos. |
| 1917 |
Paul Strand's Porch Shadows - representative of a new movement
in photography, abstractionism - is published in the last issue of Camera
Work. |
| 1919 |
The Prince of Wales makes the first front page of the illustrated Daily
News. Called "sobby, dirty, bloody and glamorous, " the tabloid is
a best-seller. |
| 1921 |
Forgoinng a camera, Man Ray, a pioneer of surrealism, begins creating
photograms by exposing photographic paper to a bare bulb. |
| 1925 |
Siberian Anatol Josepho patents the first photo booth, producing eight
snaps in eight minutes. |
| 1926 |
The first underwater Autochromes are taken 15 feet below the surface
in Florida's Dry Tortugas. |
| 1931 |
Erich Salomon's candid shots of celebrities are the first of their kind. |
| 1931 |
Inventor Harold Edgerton uses a strobe to freeze action in photography. |
| 1932 |
Magnolia Blossom, the work of Imogen Cunningham, reflects the
sharp-focus style and philosophy of Group f/64, formed on the West Coast. |
| 1932 |
The Weston Exposure meter (Model 617) which uses a self-generating photoelectric
cell, helps shooters obtain proper exposure readings. |
| 1935 |
When the image of an airplane crash in the Adirondacks is transmitted
from New York to 25 cities, the age of the Associated Press Wirephoto
begins. |
| 1935 |
Chemists Leopold Godowsky and Leopold Mannes create Kodachrome, a color
film breakthrough. |
| 1935 |
Arthur Rothstein records a seven-year Depression-era survey for the
Farm Security Administration. |
| 1936 |
As race tracks across America install cameras, the era of the photo
finish begins, providing proof to owners and bettors of the outcome of
by-a-nose events. |
| 1936 |
Margaret Bourke-White's photo essay on the town of Fort Peck, Mont.
is in the debut issue of LIFE magazine. |
| 1937 |
An avuncular Führer stars when the camera is exploited as a propaganda
tool, and Hitler's photographer Heinrich Hoffmann takes thousands of shots. |
| 1941 |
Photos of such scenes as street corner murder witnesses in Brooklyn,
made Weegee (Arthur Fellig) the master newspaper lensman, the first to
have a police radio. |
| 1942 |
To save cargo space, WWII GIs and their correspondents use V-mail (the
"V" is for victory). The forms are microfilmed, flown overseas and reenlarged. |
| 1948 |
Designed by Edwin H. Land, the five-pound Polaroid Model 95 (so named
because it was to sell for $95) produces a print one minute after exposure. |
| 1952 |
The Decisive Moment is the title and theme of photojournalist
Henri Cartieer-Bresson's most influential book. |
| 1953 |
Playboy debuts with an au naturel Marilyn Monroe as its Sweetheart
of the Month and promises "a beautiful, full-color, unpinned pinup in
each new issue." |
| 1955 |
The most ambitious photo exhibit (68 countries) ever assembled is the
Museum of Modern Art's "The Family of Man." |
| 1957 |
A radiant Veil Nebula in the constellation Cygnus is captured by astrophotographer
William C. Miller, opening the way for color pictures in space. |
| 1958 |
Infrared-sensitive film is invented, intended mostly for scientific
and technical photography. |
| 1960's |
Using lasers, scientists create a hologram, a three-dimensional representation.
Holography's theory was described in 1948 by Hungarian Dennis Gabor. |
| 1960's |
Enlarged 300,000 times with a perfected field-ion microscope, individual
atoms of heavy metals become visible for the first time. |
| 1960 |
The U.S. launches Tiros I (Television Infra-Red Observation Satellite)
into space. Operational for 89 days, it transmits the first clear pictures
of earth. |
| 1963 |
Pop in a film cartridge and this Instamatic ($15.95) is ready. Kodak's
founder, George Eastman, wanted "a camera as easy to use as the pencil." |
| 1965 |
A seven-week-old embryo is shown by Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson
in an unprecedented series documenting the earliest stages of human life. |
| 1966 |
The cool protagonist of Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow-Up
exhibits such finesse that he influences hundreds of moviegoers to take
up fashion photography. |
| 1967 |
When the first "drive-thru" Fotomat opens at the Loma Square Shopping
Center in San Diego, Calif., it is the dawning of the age of express film
processing. |
| 1967 |
Triplets, nudists, freaks, tranvestites, and female impersonators by
Diane Arbus are part of a new, controversial documentary approach in photography. |
| 1969 |
Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler coins "photo opportunity' a term
implying an all-too-brief session for cameramen, showing the President
at his best. |
| 1969 |
The Metropolitan Museums's "Harlem on My Mind" exhibit brings fame to
studio photographer James Van Der Zee. |
| 1972 |
Superceleb Jackie Onassis is dogged by master paparazzo Ron Galella
until a U.S. judge orders him to stay 50 yards away from his profitable
prey. |
| 1972 |
The first CAT scan is made in London. Such X rays will exceed two million
annually. |
| 1976 |
Space photography takes a giant leap as Viking I relays the first color
images from another planet, Mars. |
| 1987 |
The world gets a 35mm disposable camera. Four ounces, the Fujicolor
Quick Snap ($9.95) comes with 24 exposures. Just say "cheese' and chuck
it out. |
("Milestones: A look at 150 years of innovation". LIFE. Volume 11, Number 10, pp. 26-34.
Fall 1988.)
- Top of page
Ten Recommended Attitudes About Technology
Jerry Mander
- Since most of what we are told about new technology comes from its proponents,
be deeply skeptical of all claims.
- Assume all technology "guilty until proven innocent."
- Eschew the idea that technology is neutral or "value free." Every
technology has inherent and identifiable social, political, and environmental
consequences.
- The fact that technology has a natural flash and appeal is meaningless.
Negative attributes are slow to emerge.
- Never judge a technology by the way it benefits you personally. Seek
a holistic view of its impacts. The operative question is not whether
it benefits you, but who benefits most? And to what end?
- Keep in mind that an individual technology is only one piece of a larger
web of technologies, "megatechnology." The operative question here is
how the individual technology fits the larger one.
- Make distinctions between technologies that primarily serve in the individual
or the small community (e.g., solar energy) and those that operate on a scale
outside of community control (e.g., nuclear energy). The latter kind
is the major problem of the day.
- When it is argued that the benefits of the technological lifeway are worthwhile
despite harmful outcomes, recall that Lewis Mumford referred to these alleged
benefits as "bribery." Cite the figures about crime, suicide, alienation,
drug abuse, as well as environmental and cultural degradation.
- Do not accept the homily that "once the genie is out of the bottle you
cannot put it back," or that rejecting a technology is impossible. Such
attitudes induce passivity and confirm victimization.
- In thinking about technology within the present climate of technological
worship, emphasize the negative. This brings balance. Negativity
is positive.
(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology
and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra
Club Books. 1992.)
- Top of page
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Jerry Mander
Argument One: The Mediation of Experience
- A. The Walling of Awareness
- B. Expropriation of Knowledge
- C. Adrift in Mental Space
Argument Two: The Colonization of Experience
- A. Advertising: The Standard-Gauge Railway
- B. The Centralization of Control
Argument Three: Effects of Television on the Human Being
- A. Anecdotal Reports: Sick, Crazy, Mesmerized
- B. The Ingestion of Artificial Light
- C. How Television Dims the Mind
- D. How We Turn Into Our Images
- E. The Replacement of Human Images by Television
Argument Four: The Inherent Biases of Television
- A. Information Loss
- B. Images Disconnected from Source
- C. Artificial Unusualness
- D. The Pieces That Fall Through the Filter
(Mander, Jerry. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television. New
York: Quill. 1978.)
- Top of page
Seven Negative Points About Computers
Jerry Mander
- Pollution and Health
- Employment
- Quantification and Conceptual Change
- Surveillance
- The Rate of Acceleration
- Centralization
- Worst-Case Scenario: Automatic Computer Warfare
(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology
and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
1992.)
- Top of page
Eleven Inherent Rules of Corporate Behavior
Jerry Mander
- The Profit Imperative
- The Growth Imperative
- Competition and Aggression
- Amorality
- Hierarchy
- Quantification, Linearity, and Segmentation
- Dehumanization
- Exploitation
- Ephemerality
- Opposition to Nature
- Homogenization
(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology
and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra
Club Books. 1992.)
- Top of page
Six Negative Points About Genetics
Jerry Mander from In the Absence of the Sacred
- The "Andromeda Strain"
- Mandatory Genetic Screening
- Creation of New, Patentable Animal Species
- Gene-Line Therapy and "Designer Babies"
- Monoculture in the Genetic Wilderness
- Gene Wars
(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of
Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco:
Sierra Club Books. 1992.)
- Top of page
Table of Inherent Differences between Native and Technological Peoples
Jerry Mander
ECONOMICS
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Concept of private property a basic value: includes resources,
land, ability to buy and sell, and inheritance. Some state ownership.
Corporate ownership predominates. |
No private ownership of resources such as land, water,
minerals, or plant life. No concept of selling land. No inheritance. |
| Goods produced mostly for sale, not for personal use. |
Goods produced for use value |
| Surplus production, profit motive essential. Sales
techniques must create "need," hence advertising. |
Subsistence goals: no profit motive, little surplus production. |
| Economic growth required, especially in capitalist societies,
hence need for increased production,, increased use of resources, expansion
of production and market territories. |
Steady-state economics: no concept of economic growth |
| Currency system - abstract value. |
Barter system - concrete value. |
| Competition (in capitalist countries), production for private
gain. Reward according to task/wages. |
Cooperative, collective production |
| Average workday, 8-12 hours. |
Average workday 3-5 hours. |
| Nature viewed as "resource." |
Nature viewed as "being"; humans seen as part of nature |
POLITICS AND POWER
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Hierarchical political forms. |
Mostly non-hierarchical: "chiefs" have no coercive power. |
| Decisions generally made by executive power, majority rule,
or dictatorship. |
Decisions usually based on consensual process involving
whole tribe. |
| Spectrum from representative democracy to autocratic rule. |
Direct participatory democracy; rare examples of autocracy. |
| Operative political modes are communist, socialist, monarchist,
capitalist, or fascist. |
Recognizable operative political modes are anarchist, communist,
or theocratic. |
| Centralization: most power concentrated in central authorities. |
Decentralization: power resides mainly in community, among
people. (Some exceptions include Incas, Aztec, et al.) |
| Laws are codified, written. Advers verdana process.
Anthropocentrism forms basis of law. Criminal cases judged by strangers
(in U.S., western Europe, soviet Union). No taboo. |
Laws transmitted orally. No advers verdana process.
Laws interpreted for individual cases. "Natural law" used as basis. Criminal
cases settled by groups of peers known to "criminal." Taboo. |
| Concept of "state." |
Identity as "nation." |
SOCIOCULTURAL ARRANGEMENTS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Large-scale societies; most societies have high population
density |
Small-scale societies, all people acquainted; low population
density. |
| Lineage mostly patrilineal. |
Lineage mostly matrilineal, with some variation; family
property rights run through female. |
| Nuclear two- or one-parent families; also "singles." |
Extended families; generations, sometimes many families,
live together. |
| Revere the young |
Revere the old. |
| History written in books, portrayed in television docudramas. |
History transmitted in oral tradition, carried through
memory. |
RELATION TO ENVIRONMENT
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Living beyond nature's limits encourages; natural terrain
not considered a limitation; conquest of nature a celebrated value; alteration
of nature desirable; anti-harmony; resources exploited. |
Living within natural ecosystem encouraged; harmony with
nature the norm; only mild alterations of nature for immediate needs;
food, clothing, shelter; no permanent damage |
| High-impact technology created to change environment.
Mass-scale development; one-to-millions ratio in weaponry and other technologies. |
Low-impact technology; one-to-one ratio even in weaponry. |
| Humans viewed as superior life form; Earth viewed as "dead." |
Entire world viewed as alive: plants, animals, people,
rocks. Humans not superior, but equal part of web of life.
Reciprocal relationship with non-human life. |
ARCHITECTURE
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Construction materials transported from distant places |
Construction materials usually gathered locally. |
| Construction designed to survive individual human life. |
Construction designed to eventually dissolve back into
land (except for pyramids built by minority of Indians); materials biodegradable
in one lifetime. |
| Space designed for separation and privacy. |
Space designed for communal activity. |
| H-edged forms; earth covered with concrete. |
Soft forms; earth not paved. |
RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY
| Technological Peoples |
Native Peoples |
| Separation of spirituality from rest of life in most Western
cultures (though not in some Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist states); church
and state separated; materialism is dominant philosophy in Western countries |
Spirituality integrated with all aspects of daily life. |
| Either monotheistic concept of single, male god, or atheistic. |
Polytheistic concepts based on nature, male and female
forces, animism. |
| Futuristic/lineal concept of time; de-emphasis of past |
Integration of past and present. |
| Individuals gain most information from media, schools,
authority figures outside their immediate community or experience. |
Individuals gain information from personal experiences. |
| Time measured by machines; schedules dictate when to do
things. |
Time measured by awareness according to observance of nature;
time to do something is when time is right. |
| The dead are regarded as gone |
The dead are regarded as present. |
| Saving and acquiring. |
Sharing and giving. |
(Mander, Jerry. In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure
of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations. San Francisco: Sierra
Club Books. 1992.)
- Top of page
Questions to Arrive at a Set of Process Patterns
Marshall McLuhan and Bruce R. Powers
- What does any artifact enlarge or enhance?
- What does it erode or obsolesce?
- What does it retrieve that had been earlier obsolesced?
- What does it reverse or flip into when pushed to the limits of its potential
(chiasmus)?
(McLuhan, Marshall and Bruce R. Powers. The Global Village: Transformations
inWorld Life and Media in the 21st Century. Oxford University Press.
New York. 1989.)
- Top of page
Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives
John Naisbitt
| Old |
New |
| Industrial Society |
Information Society |
| Forced Technology |
High Tech/High Touch |
| National Economy |
World Economy |
| Short Term |
Long Term |
| Centralization |
Decentralization |
| Institutional Help |
Self-Help |
| Representative Democracy |
Participatory Democracy |
| Hierarchies |
Networking |
| North |
South |
| Either/Or |
Multiple Option |
(Naisbitt, John. Megatrends: Ten New Direcitons Transforming Our Lives.
New York: Warner Books. 1982)
- Top of page
The Power of Invention
Newsweek
I. How We Work: Henry Ford's new techniques of mass production changed the
way we build things. The personal computer changed everything.
- The Assembly Line
- The Transistor
- The Houses of Invention
- Sticky Stuff
- The Computer
- The Silicon Chip
- Faxes and Copiers
- The Future
Landmarks: the combine harvester, shopping malls, airbags, the cloverleaf,
the computer mouse, cell phones, bar codes
II. How We Live: No king in history has had the array of gadgets we use every
day with the flick of a finger.
- Household Appliances
- Air Conditioning
- Plastics
- The Movies
- The Compact Disc
- Television
- The Boeing 747
- The Future
Landmarks: La-Z Boy, the Brownie camera, disposable diapers, long-playing
records, spandex, Teflon, pop-top cans
III. How We Fight: Mankind has paid a heavy price for the tools of warfare, but
they have yielded benefits, too.
- The Atomic Bomb
- Radar
- Rockets
- The Future
Landmarks: napalm. helicpoters, tanks, smart bombs, poison gas, parachutes,
the bulletproof vest
IV. How We Heal: Science has not only helped us live longer. We're happier,
healthier- and better-looking.
- Antibiotics
- Body Imaging
- The Birth-Control Pill
- The Future
Landmarks: vaccines, blood typing, the contact lens, pacemakers
(NewsweekExtra Winter 1997-98)
- Top of page
What We Want Students to Know About Technology
Neil Postman
- All technological change is a Faustian bargain. For every advantage a new
technology offers, there is always a corresponding disadvantage.
- The advantages and disadvantages of new technologies are never distributed
evenly among the population. This means that every new technology benefits
some and harms others.
- Embedded in every technology there is a powerful idea, sometimes two or
three powerful ideas. Like language itself, a technology predisposes us to
favor and value certain perspectives and accomplishments and to subordinate
others. Every technology has a philosophy, which is given expression
in how the technology makes people use their minds, in what it makes us do
with our bodies, in how it codifies the world, in which of our senses it amplifies,
in which of our emotional and intellectual tendencies it disregards.
- A new technology usually makes war against an old technology. It
competes with it for time, attention, money, prestige, and a "worldview."
- Technological change is not additive; it is ecological. A new technology
does not merely add something; it changes everything.
- Because of the symbolic forms in which information is encoded, different
technologies have different intellectual and emotional
biases.
- Because of the accessibility and speed of their information, different
technologies have different political biases.
- Because of the conditions in which we attend to them, different technologies
have different social biases.
- Because of their technical and economic structure, different technologies
have different content biases.
(Postman, Neil. The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School.
New York: Alfred A. Knoph. 1996)
- Top of page
The History of the World
Gregory Rawlins
The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is and
has been is but the twilight of the dawn.
H.G. Wells, The Discovery of the Future
History in the computer world divides into seven epochs, moving from the absolute
outer darkness of the Second World War and on in to the garish klieg lights of
the twenty-first century.
Prehistory (before 1945). Nobody had computers to play with. Nothing happened.
The Paleolithic (1946-1964). Computers existed, but they were far too unreliable, expensive, and
hard to use. In those near-prehistoric times, almost nobody had computer
access. Even halfway through the Paleolithic there were no commercial
computers at all. All computers were one-of-a-kind laboratory instruments,
all finicky prototypes used almost exclusively for warmaking or scientific research.
They were so big and expensive that a priesthood grew up around them to protect
and serve them - and to bask in their reflected glory.
The tail end of the Paleolithic, however, saw the first primitive computer
languages and the first commercially successful minicomputers.
The Neolithic (1965-1971). Computers got a bit easier to use with some reasonable, but still
primitive, languages. The machines were steadily becoming cheaper but
were still much too costly and unreliable for most uses. Most of them were ungainly
behemoths needing lots of care and attention. The priests continued to
keep everyone else's hands off; making the computer easier to use would only
threaten their status.
Toward the end of the Neolithic, some computers were finally given keyboards
and screens. Programs that made operating the machine easier were then
also becoming common.
The Dark Ages (1972-1981). The microprocessor was born and languages began to improve a little,
although many people still had to use punch cards and other Neolithic technologies.
In those ancient days, computers were still largely confined to big corporations,
universities, and government installations. Nonetheless, there was a massive
movement away from military and scientific tasks and toward commercial and financial
ones. The priesthood began to wither, although its dying hand continued to control
how easy computers were to use.
Toward the end of this period, prices plummeted and power skyrocketed.
Commercial personal computers appeared and punch cards vanished almost entirely.
The Middle Ages (1982-1992). Personal computers existed, but they didn't have enough memory or
speed to do anything really useful, and they were too big and clumsy to carry
around comfortably. Software tools were still pretty bad, but at least
they were now fairly common.
At the very end of the Middle Ages, portable computers finally became practical.
Although they were still pricey and had weak batteries and poor screens, millions
of normal people started using them.
The Modern Age (1993-present). Computers continued to get cheaper and better, faster and smaller,
and stronger. They also started talking to each other across international
networks. They almost had enough memory and speed to start doing something
really useful. They were still unreliable, although less so than before;
computers continued to crash regularly, for the stupidest reasons.
Still, improved, less detailed languages were becoming a little more common.
Rudimentary handwriting- and speech-recognition systems appeared in portables.
Useful computers had almost become cheap enough for most middle-class families
inn advanced countries to afford one.
They shrank in size to the minimum needed for us to use them comfortably.
The notebook became the portable of choice. Big dinosaur computers died
like flies in a snowstorm. High-powered computers reached paperback size.
Enormously good graphics machines went on sale as children's video games.
Now little Timmy or Janie could get for Christmas something that would have
supported a multimillion-Dollar graphics lab ten years before.
The price of high-caliber computers had steadily dropped from the price of
jumbo jets to that of houses, cars, and then refrigerators. Today -
still plummeting - they are approaching the price of expensive toasters. Massive
memory, high speed, and tiny machines are not facts of life. Hardware
prices continue to tumble, while poser and reliability skyrocket. The price
of software, however, has not kept pace with the hardware's cheaper prices.
It remains hard to use and is still handmade.
The Future. In the future, computers will be much better. They will be a million
times smaller, cheaper, and faster, have a million times more memory, and, best
of all, be a million times easier to use, because they'll no longer be stupid
enough to do exactly as we say. They'll more often do what we actually
mean. Software won't be hand made anymore.
In that future, computers will be as common as shoes. Everyone will
have at least one, itself made of many, perhaps millions, of smaller computers.
They will become life time companions; we'll all get one at birth, take it
everywhere, and use it for everything. Some will be pets, and we'll probably
ask them to fetch sticks and frisbees for us. Cats, of course, will continue
to ignore us.
(Rawlins, Gregory J.E..Slaves of the Machine: The Quickening of Computer
Technology.pp. 58-61.A Bradford Book, The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1998)
- Top of page
Traditional Programming Works Well Only When Five Things Are True
Gregory Rawlins
- First: We know exactly what we want to do.
- Second: We can foresee every possible eventuality.
- Third: We can predict a correct action for each such eventuality.
- Fourth: We can execute each such contingent action flawlessly.
- Fifth: The solutions we need are especially efficient.
(Rawlins, Gregory J.E..Slaves of the Machine: The Quickening of Computer
Technology.p. 79. A Bradford Book, The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1998)
- Top of page
Lessons from the Luddites
Kirkpatrick Sale
- Technologies are never neutral, and some are hurtful.
- Industrialism is always a cataclysmic process.
- Only a people serving an apprenticeship to nature can be trusted with machines.
- The nation-state, synergistically intertwined with industrialism, will
always come to its aid and defense, making revolt futile and reform ineffectual.
- But resistance to the industrial system, based on some grasp of moral principles
and rooted in some sense of moral revulsion, is not only possible but necessary.
- Politically, resistance to industrialism must force not only "the machine
question" but the viability of industrial society into public consciousness
and debate.
- Philosophically, resistance to industrialism must be embedded in an analysis---an
ideology, perhaps---that is morally informed, carefully articulated, and widely
shared.
- If the edifice of industrial civilization does not eventually crumble as
a result of a determined resistance within its very walls, it seems certain
to crumble of its own accumulated excesses and instabilities within not more
than a few decades, perhaps sooner, after which there may be space for alternative
societies to arise.
(Sale, Kirkpatrick. Rebels Against the Future; The Luddites and
Their War on the Industrial Revolution; Lessons for the Computer Age.
New York: Addison-Wesley.1996.)
- Top of page
Dimensions of Five Community Theories
Linda Stoneall
|
Human Ecology |
Structural Functionalism |
Conflict |
Social-Psychological Approaches |
Network-Exchange Analysis |
| Metaphor |
Plant and animal communities |
Organic and mechanical systems |
War |
Artistic creation; drama |
Electronic connections; net |
| Methods |
Surveys; census data and maps; statistical analysis to
test relations among populations, organizations, technology |
Participant observation; data on values and institutions;
comparative analysis; demonstrate institutional integration; latent values |
Historical documents, participant observation; data on
income, housing, class composition; reconstruction of inequality, macro
confict |
Participant observation, life histroies, ethnography; data
on perception, interaction, symbol use; reconstruction of typifications |
Surveys and interviews; take a point and trace through
links to test hypotheses about communities |
| People Institutions |
Organization of subsistence activities; accommodations
to populations and space |
Integrated, based on consensus to hold communities together |
Hierarchies dominated by political economy |
Reciprocal typifications |
Specialized networks |
| Stratification |
Dominance |
Reward systems |
Class and power |
Identification of self; various rankings |
Unequal exchange; coalitions, distributive justice |
| Interaction |
Mediated through environment |
Roles |
Exploitation, alienation, ideology |
Face to face; validation and creation of community; negotiation |
Form and content |
| Time History |
Cycles of competition and succession; evolution of technological
change |
Evolution, adaptation |
Revolutions; changes in mode of production |
Reconstructed biography |
Build up of reciprocity |
| Process |
Shifts in populations through space |
Equilibrium |
Dialectics |
Cognition; conversation |
Activation of network exchange |
| Space Territory |
Zones and natural areas; resource |
Localization of systems |
Scarce resource for profits |
Tool of community construction |
Liberated from |
| Boundaries |
Physical restriction of movement; limits of subsistence
organization |
Boundary maintenance |
Political; point of conflict |
Changing with situations |
Set by analysis; extent of links; boundless |
(Stoneall, Linda. Country Life, City Life: Five Theories of Community.
New York: Praeger Publishers. 1983)
- Top of page
The Twelve Themes of the New Economy
Don Tapscott
| Theme 1: Knowledge |
The new economy is a knowledge economy: Smart clothes,
smart cards, smart houses, smart roads, smart cars, smart tires, smart
pucks, smart radios and Tvs, smart telephones |
| Theme 2: Digitization |
The new economy is a digital economy. |
| Theme 3: Virtualization |
As information shifts from analog to digital, physical
things can become virtual--changing the metabolism of the economy, the
types of institutions and relationships possible, and the nature of economic
activity itself. Virtual additions to society include: virtual alien,
virtual ballot box, virtual business park, virtual congress (aka virtual
hearings) virtual corporation (virtual enterprise, extended enterprise,
interenterprise), virtual coupon, virtual government agency, virtual job,
virtual mall, virtual market, virtual office, virtual reality, virtual
sex, virtual stockyard, virtual store, virtual village, virtual water
cooler...for starters. |
| Theme 4: Molecularization |
The new economy is a molecular economy. The old corporation
is being disaggregated, replaced by dynamic molecules and clusters of
individuals and entities that form the basis of economic activity. The
organization does not necessarily disappear, but it is transformed. "Mass"
becomes "molecular" in all aspects of economic and social life. |
| Theme 5: Integration/Internetworking |
The new economy is a networked economy, integrating molecules
into that network with others for the creation of wealth. |
| Theme 6: Disintermediation |
Middleman functions between producers and consumers are
being eliminated through digital networks. Middle businesses, functions,
and people need to move up the food chain to create new value, or they
face being disintermediated. |
| Theme 7: Convergence |
In the new economy, the dominant economic sector is being
created by three converging industries that, in turn, provide the infrastructure
for wealth creation by all sectors. |
| Theme 8: Innovation |
The new economy is an innovation-based economy. |
| Theme 9: Prosumption |
In the new economy the gap between consumer and producers
blurs. |
| Theme 10: Immediacy |
In an economy based on bits, immediacy becomes a key driver
and variable in economic activity and business success. |
| Theme 11: Globalization |
The new economy is a global economy. |
| Theme 12: Discordance |
Unprecedented social issues are beginning to arise, potentially
causing massive trauma and conflict. |
(Tapscott, Don. The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked
Intelligence. New York: McGraw-Hill. 1996.)
- Top of page
Industrialism's Six Interrelated Principles
Alvin Toffler
- Standardization
- Specialization
- Synchronization
- Concentration
- Maximization
- Centralization
(Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: Bantam Books. 1981.)
- Top of page
How The Fall TV Lineup Fared
Melanie Wells
This chart compares how the 26 new fall shows broadcast on ABC, CBS, Fox and
NBC are faring from Madison Avenue's perspective, two weeks after the season's
official launch Sept. 22. Measurements used are:
- Viewer share is the percentage of TV sets in use that are tuned
to a particular show as measured by Nielsen Media Research.
- Projected share is what advertisers expected to the average for
the fourth quarter
- Actual share is the average for the weeks of Sept. 22 and Sept.
29
Advertisers are compensated by the networks when shows fall short of viewership
guarantees for the quarter. compenstaion most often comes as additional
ad time. If the show over-delivers, it's a bonus to advertisers.
Bonus value (conpensation owed) figures shown here are estimates
for 30 second spots. They were calculated by multiplying a show's ad rate
by the percentage difference between the projected and actual shares.
| SHOW |
NETWORK, day, time, (ET) |
Viewer Share Proj. |
Viewer Share Actual |
Ad rate/ 30 sec. |
Bonus Value (Compensation
owed) |
| Veronica's Closet |
NBC, Thurs., 9:30 |
29% |
33% |
$400,000 |
$55,172 |
| Dharma and Greg |
ABC, Wed., 8:30 |
15% |
18% |
$210,000 |
$42,000 |
| Union Square |
NBC, Thurs., 8:30 |
23% |
25% |
$310,000 |
$26,957 |
| You Wish |
ABC, Fri., 9:00 |
14% |
15% |
$140,000 |
$10,000 |
| Tony Danza (1) |
NBC, Wed., 8:00 |
12% |
13% |
$115,000 |
$ 9,583 |
| Ally McBeal |
FOX, Mon., 9:00 |
10% |
10% |
$120,000 |
0 |
| C-16 |
ABC, Sat., 8:00 |
10% |
10% |
$ 80,000 |
0 |
| Wonderful World of Disney |
ABC, Sun., 7:00 |
15% |
15% |
$2000,000 |
0 |
| Jenny |
NBC, Sun., 8:30 |
12% |
12% |
$160,000 |
0 |
| Teen Angel |
ABC, Fri., 9:30 |
14% |
14% |
$130,000 |
0 |
| The Visitor |
FOX, Fri., 8:00 |
11% |
11% |
$ 90,000 |
0 |
| Public Eye (Bryant Gumbel)(1) |
CBS, Wed., 9:00 |
12% |
11% |
$100,000 |
($8,333) |
| Between Brothers (1) |
FOX, Thurs., 8:30 |
9% |
8% |
$100,000 |
($11,111) |
| Cracker |
ABC, Thurs., 9:00 |
10% |
8% |
$ 60,000 |
($12,000) |
| Nothing Sacred |
ABC, Thurs., 8:00 |
11% |
8% |
$ 55,000 |
($15,000) |
| Total Security |
ABC, Sat., 9:00 |
11% |
9% |
$ 85,000 |
($15,455) |
| 413 Hope Street (1) |
FOX, Thurs., 9:00 |
10% |
8% |
$ 80,000 |
($16,000) |
| Timecop |
ABC, Mon., 8:00 |
11% |
9% |
$ 90,000 |
($16,364) |
| Brooklyn South |
CBS, Mon., 10:00 |
20% |
18% |
$165,000 |
($16,5000) |
| Built to Last (1) |
NBC, Wed., 8:30 |
11% |
9% |
$100,000 |
($18,182) |
| Dellaventura |
CBS, Tues., 10:00 |
18% |
14% |
$100,000 |
($22,222) |
| George and Leo |
CBS, Mon., 9:30 |
16% |
14% |
$200,000 |
($25,000) |
| Michael Hayes |
CBS, Tues., 9:00 |
16% |
13% |
$150,000 |
($28,125) |
| Gregory Hines |
CBS, Fri., 9:00 |
14% |
11% |
$145,000 |
($31,071) |
| Meego |
CBS, Fri., 8:30 |
13% |
10% |
$145,000 |
($33,462) |
| Hiller and Diller |
ABC, Tues., 9:30 |
20% |
17% |
$270,000 |
($40,500) |
(1) aired only one week
Sources: The Myers Report, Nielsen Media Research, agency estimates,
Advertising Age/p>
(Wells, Melanie. "Networks pay when viewers stay away."UAS TODAY10
Oct. 1997: B1+.)
- Top of page
Leadership and New Science
Margaret Wheately
| Newtonian, Old Science |
Quantum, New Science |
| 1. Info goes to a few/ the few filter out good info that
the many could have used |
1. Info goes to everyone; more observers means more possible
info |
| 2. Hierarchically referenced reality is dependent of observation |
2. Self-referencing reality is a product of being
observed |
| 3. Objective reality exists |
3. No objective reality exists; only what we create exists;
therefore, you can not talk people into a reality; they have to help create
it |
| 4. Structure structures |
4. Process structures - things that maintain form but have
no rigidity of structure |
| 5. Structures set at the outset which do not change; assumes
no change |
5. Structures emerge as temporary solutions; assumes change |
| 6. Seeks control, even at the expense of order |
6. Seeks order, even at the expense of control |
| 7. Either/or |
7. Both/and |
| 8. Predictability |
8. Flexibility |
| 9. Order through control |
9. Order through |
| 10. Fixed Leadership |
10. Roving leadership, which emerges as it is needed |
| 11. Focus on facts |
11. Focus on relationships |
| 12. Vision seeks a destination |
12. Vision seeks to permeate "the now" of an organization |
| 13. Material structures control flow of energy |
13. Energy structures control flow of material |
| 14. Info in an organization must be controlled; loose info
is the devil's playground |
14. Info not controlled; widely distributed |
| 15. When info not porvided, people make it up; rumors |
15. Doesn't make it necessary to make up info; informs
people in the organization |
| 16. Parts are separated, connected linearly |
16. Part is in the whole, whole is in the part; neural
nets |
| 17. Focus on parts |
17. Focus on whole |
| 18. Linear Shannon info flow model |
18. Transactional model |
| 19. Organize around business units |
19. Organize around core competencies |
| 20. Closed to environment; openness to environment breeds
instability; |
20. Open to environment; meshing with environment provides
opportunities; self-organizing dynamics dominate the system |
| 21. Info stored and drawn upon when needed |
21. Info stored and allowed to interact to create new information |
| 22. Managers maintain order |
22. Manager stirs up the pot, facilitating disorder until
things become so jumbled that a new order emerges |
| 23. Build layer upon layer |
23. Unfold; with interpenetration, bottom up and top down |
| 24. Tune out psychologically, let the fate of the organization
determine your attitude; let the organization's life or death be your
life or death |
24. Personal meaning making is a way of dealing with chaos,
of dealing with an organization in chaos |
| 25. Organization coherence most important |
25. Personal coherence most important |
| 26. meaning provided by organization; whether or not an
individual's life makes sense depends on whether the organization makes
sense |
26. Meaning created by an individual a la Victor Frankl,
an individual's life can make sense even when an organization does not |
| 27. Hierarchy |
27. Adhocracy |
| 28. The few filter out good info; more observers = more
possible info in the process of observing interpretations |
28. More observers = more possible info in the interpretations |
(Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and New Science.San Francisco: Berrett-Hoehler.
1994.)
- Top of page
Technology and Society -- Ways to Support the Big Picture
From ASTE conference, 4/96
Issues:
- Have's and Have-not's empowered vs. disenfranchised
- Maintaining a fix on why we are doing this -- beyond being just fun
- What's the means and What's th ends?
- Reality vs. Surrogate Reality
- Practical used of technology
- Focus on process rather than devices
- Dealing with people who wil not have information technology employment
-- What is the place of skills of "old" but necessary skills
- How to deal with all of the information
- The impact of information technology on indigenous culture
- The impact of information technology on where we live
- The discriminating use of technology and understanding when technology
helps vs. addressing real issue -- technology co-dependence
- Inter-generational paradigm -- speed of change
- Global restructuring -- economic and cultural change
- The impact of technology on relationships and communication -- changes
in the way people interact with one another
- Impact of technology on our sense of community
- Impact of technology on public education -- values have changed/ what will
be
- Speed of communication is driving "sound-byte" mentality -- it's hard to
achieve depth and people want that these days -- living in a world of abstracts
- The need for technology is driving budget decisions
- Is technology training students for the sound-byte mentality
- Balance between mine-body-spirit is becoming unbalanced
- Who's paying for and who is controlling it -- who are the gatekeepers controlling
the flow of information
- The Internet is designer Proac -- people go on-line because they know they
can be someone different (virtual vs. non-virtual person)
- Kids need one experience: school and real-world -- need to teach real-world
skills
- Need to increase independence -- elimination of "basic skills"
- Either or vs. Both and
- Lots of people being let out
- People who are fearful of technology
- Quality of information
- We are now free to publish mis-information
- Driven by human fascinationwith gadgets and new stuff
- Time commitment needed
- Keeping up with the changes
- Training concerns -- need for support within school system
- Focus has changed to self-directed learning vs. what classes can I take
- Sharing enthusiasm with others vs overwhelming them -- levels of knowledge
- Filtering information presented to us -- where do we start with so much
coming in
- Is technology driving education or is education driving technology?
- Stress vs. excitement of living in a constantly changing world -- evolution
will select for life-long learners
- Change is happening everywhere in our society
- Separating out what is useful information
- People don't know what to "ask" for
- Technology allows people to rediscover the job of learning
- Empowered to become the "experts' in this new field of technology
- Early users have opportunity to learn what is really happening -- the friendlier
it gets, the less we know about what is really happening, the more we have
to trust other people
- We can fix things but can't always develop things we need
Solutions:
- Techno support groups
- Allow kids to be risk takers with support
- Role-playing issues related to use of technology -- FDA of technology
- Help people learn how to solve the problem vs. solving the problems for
them
- - Top of page
Social Impacts of Technology Session
ComTECH '97
Asked of the participants: What are the issues that compel you to
be here?
- Impact of technology on social skills.
- Impact of technology on communities - less verbal communications.
- Technology additions - within home - larger scope
- Impact of technology on health - physical and mental
- Just because we can upgrade - do we have too?
- Basic compatibility issues
- Quantity vs. Quality - indiscriminate use of information
- Sound-bite mentality
- Reversal of employer-employee roles
- Organizational restructuring
- Collapse of the pyramid
- Veracity of information on the internet
- Privacy issues: personal files - accuracy of personal information.
- Price of being highly competitive
- Learning technology at the expense of education fundamentals
- Using technology at the expense of understanding the processes that are
involved
- Using technology for technology sake rather than a tool
- A lack of sensory and meta information
- A lack of body language and eye contact
- A lack of intimacy
- Workable system of ethics - copyright issues
- The effect on intellectual revolution
- On-line communication can be more inclusive than face-to-face communication
- The have's vs. the have nots
- When technology we are addicted to fails - what then?
- Does technology really save time?
- Lack of adult training in technology-training/awareness
- Can the technology control us - Big Brother
- Changing employment base-types of jobs
- Rapid change in jobs and the need for life long learning
Question posed to participants: What should we teach our children?
- Teach them balance
- Difference between right and wrong - ethics
- Technology vs. Behavior issues
- Other ways of knowing
- Slowing down
- Is technology necessary for success
- Thinking critically
- Don't assume the machine's right
- Common sense
- Realities change over time
- Relativity of ethics
- Difference between analog and digital
- Naturalistic inquiry
- Basic communication
- Time
- Change is the universe and life is understanding
- Balance between inner-awareness and external awareness
- Awareness of native needs
- The importance of the Three R's, even in a high tech. world
- Consumer education
- More interest in safety and the environment
- Proactive consumerism
- - Top of page
Telecommunications Timeline in Alaska
| National and State Events |
Decade |
Communications Events |
| 1867 Alaska Purchase |
1860 |
|
| 1876 Telephone invented |
1870 |
|
|
1880 |
|
| 1890's Gold Rush in Alaska |
1890 |
|
| 1903 Wright Brother's first airplane flight |
1900 |
1900 Congress authorizes WAMCATS
1904 WAMCATS completed; includes first use of wireless radio |
| 1914-18 World War I |
1910 |
|
| 1929 Beginning of the Great Depression |
1920 |
|
| 1939-45 World War II |
1930 |
1935 WAMCATS renamed the Alaska Communications System (ACS) |
|
1940 |
1941-45 ACS greatly expanded. Telephone Switchboards
introduced. |
1950-53 Korean War
1957 U.S.S.R. launches the first artificial satellite
1959 Alaska becomes the 49th state in the Union |
1950 |
1950's Military builds White Alice Communications System
(WACS)
1952 Operator-assisted long distance calls begin |
1961 Man first orbits the earth
1964 Good Friday Earthquake strikes Alaska
1968 Oil discovered at Prudhoe Bay
1969 Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on moon |
1960 |
1962 Air Force takes over ACS from U.S. Army
1967 Alaska's Centennial Congress authorizes sale of ACT
1969 RCA Corp. purchases ACS. First live tv via satellite. |
1973 Arab countries enact oil embargo against the U.S.
1974 Richard Nixon resigns as president
1976 U.S. Bicentennial
1977 Oil begins flowing via the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
1979-81 Iran seizes and holds U.S. citizens hostage |
1970 |
1971 Alascom takes over ACS
1972 Direct Distance Dialing (DDD) begins in Anchorage, Fairbanks
1973 First intrastate TV via satellite
1975 Rurla earth station construction begins
1976 Area code 907 created
1978 Satellite and live TV begins in rural villages
1979 Live TV available to 90% of Alaskans; Shishmaref becomes Alascom's
101st small earth station site |
| 1981 First launch of the space shuttle |
1980 |
1982 AURORA, Alaska's own satellite, is launched |
- Top of page
First Countries to Use Stamps
| Great Britain |
1840 |
| USA |
1842 |
| Switzerland |
1843 |
| Brazil |
1843 |
| Mauritania |
1847 |
| Bermuda |
1848 |
| France |
1849 |
| Belgium |
1849 |
| Germany |
1849 |
| Spain |
1850 |
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