Hold it right there! I find this article to be extremely ironic and hypocritical. Carr mentions how he has "been spending a lot of time online, searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet." It's totally crazy to me that he is even complaining about the Internet when he is clearly on it all the time. And when Carr talks about attention span and how the Internet is supposedly shortening it he talks about it for more than the time I can even focus on it. And what's more than that?! He wrote and published the article on the Internet!! I can't get over that. Haha.
Anyway, I think that sadly this article is pretty spot on. I wish it wasn't; but honestly, what am I doing right now? Not reading Cat's Cradle like I should be. I'm writing a BLOG on the INTERNET. But I'll continue on. So, I think that there is a point where we humans should stop learning and stop trying to figure everything out. And I believe that this point is being reached by the Internet. There is so much information out there. There is no way that we could ever take in all of it! But I don't believe that we're meant to. And this right here is where people split on this issue I believe. Some people are all about progress no matter what the cost. Knowledge just for the sake of knowledge. But then there are those people that learn because they like to learn and are genuinely interested in what they're learning. The problem is, the people that just learn a bunch of stuff are some of the people that are clogging up the Internet. I don't think that the Internet is a bad thing I just think that everyone needs to know when is enough is enough; personally.
The Internet also takes away an individuals ability to think and process things for his or her self. When you read something on the Internet it is normally in a quick and easy form to read and therefore you get all the information you need. Right upfront. This isn't good. Although we have all this information we don't know how to use it anymore because the thinking and analyzing has been destroyed. That is why I find the following statement from the article totally false, " The more pieces of information we can 'access' and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers."
This whole thing is frustrating to me because it kinda feels like man is just giving up and okay with the fact that this quote from Carr's article might actually become truth, "The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive."
Sorry if some of this makes not sense whatsoever. I'm dead tired. Woo color guard. HA!
Peace.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
The Hoenikkers' Graves; Who is the Most Important?
Hmmm...I don't really know what I wanna talk about this week. Nothing is really interesting to me right now. I'm gonna start talking about some stuff in Cat's Cradle I guess and see if I can't get any new ideas flowing.
Okay, so I find the tombstones of the Hoenikker parents to be quite interesting. The first question on one of the handouts we got this week talked about it and I wish we would have gotten through the questions because they're interesting. Anyway, I first think that it was interesting when John asked where the Hoenikker plot was the cemetery custodian simply told him "Can't miss it. It's got the biggest marker in the place." Now, when John shows up at the plot he is expecting to see Felix Hoenikker's grave. But what he actually finds is Angela Hoenikker's grave. All the children had written something on the stone or marked it in some way. It showed and love and that she was not forgotten even though she was dead. The tombstone was "..alabaster phallus twenty feet high and three feet thick." This is a huge memorial and seems suitable for such an amazing scientist. But it's not Felix's. How much bigger could his be? When John found Dr. Hoenikker's grave was just "..a marble cube forty centimeters on each side. 'Father,' it said." Shockingly Felix's tombstone was really small and the only thing it said on it was father. The narrator later find out that it was in his will that this be his memorial. But why? Why would he want something so small? Especially when his wife had something so big. Is this suggesting something? Was Angela more than just a wife? Maybe she had a part in everything Felix did. Maybe she did something even bigger and more important.
We don't really know much about Angela right now so I'm interested in finding out more and hopefully figuring this out. It's very interesting to me and I'm pretty sure that it has a meaning and it isn't just some stupid detail. If it was there wouldn't be two chapters on it.
Peace.
Okay, so I find the tombstones of the Hoenikker parents to be quite interesting. The first question on one of the handouts we got this week talked about it and I wish we would have gotten through the questions because they're interesting. Anyway, I first think that it was interesting when John asked where the Hoenikker plot was the cemetery custodian simply told him "Can't miss it. It's got the biggest marker in the place." Now, when John shows up at the plot he is expecting to see Felix Hoenikker's grave. But what he actually finds is Angela Hoenikker's grave. All the children had written something on the stone or marked it in some way. It showed and love and that she was not forgotten even though she was dead. The tombstone was "..alabaster phallus twenty feet high and three feet thick." This is a huge memorial and seems suitable for such an amazing scientist. But it's not Felix's. How much bigger could his be? When John found Dr. Hoenikker's grave was just "..a marble cube forty centimeters on each side. 'Father,' it said." Shockingly Felix's tombstone was really small and the only thing it said on it was father. The narrator later find out that it was in his will that this be his memorial. But why? Why would he want something so small? Especially when his wife had something so big. Is this suggesting something? Was Angela more than just a wife? Maybe she had a part in everything Felix did. Maybe she did something even bigger and more important.
We don't really know much about Angela right now so I'm interested in finding out more and hopefully figuring this out. It's very interesting to me and I'm pretty sure that it has a meaning and it isn't just some stupid detail. If it was there wouldn't be two chapters on it.
Peace.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Postmodernism in Cat's Cradle
Okay, I've read through 27 and I definitely think that Cat's Cradle contains postmodern theme. Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is the job of the scientists in this book. But this time it isn't the society as a whole that is focused on progress just for progress' sake. It's the individual. There are many people that call the scientists crazy but these people just see things in a different light than most people. One of the main characters in the book, the deceased Dr. Hoenikker, is presented as this insane and ridiculous man. But is that really the case? He was extremely intelligent and thought in ways that most people cannot even begin to understand.
When Jonah (John) was talking with Sandra she recalls a lecture from Dr. Hoenikker in which he explained the trouble with the world. "The trouble with the world was, that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He [Dr. Hoenikker] said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn't be all the trouble there was." This explains why Dr. Hoenikker was so different from others. He was so worked up in just figuring things out because they're interesting and he wanted to know the answer. The postmodern view is presented in the way that he lived. It says that he wasn't really connected with his family and this makes sense because he was just interested in the results of experiments.
The scientists might thing differently than others but that doesn't mean that they should be seen as weird people. Yet, in this society they are. While Jonah was with Dr. Breed he saw a dirty woman who "..hated people who thought too much. At that moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind." The outcast that the scientist becomes in this society is ridiculous. They shouldn't discriminate against someone if they just use what was given to them.
Okay, I know this blog is scatter-brained and some of the ideas aren't completely explained but that's just where I am right now in thinking about this book.
Peace.
When Jonah (John) was talking with Sandra she recalls a lecture from Dr. Hoenikker in which he explained the trouble with the world. "The trouble with the world was, that people were still superstitious instead of scientific. He [Dr. Hoenikker] said if everybody would study science more, there wouldn't be all the trouble there was." This explains why Dr. Hoenikker was so different from others. He was so worked up in just figuring things out because they're interesting and he wanted to know the answer. The postmodern view is presented in the way that he lived. It says that he wasn't really connected with his family and this makes sense because he was just interested in the results of experiments.
The scientists might thing differently than others but that doesn't mean that they should be seen as weird people. Yet, in this society they are. While Jonah was with Dr. Breed he saw a dirty woman who "..hated people who thought too much. At that moment, she struck me as an appropriate representative for almost all mankind." The outcast that the scientist becomes in this society is ridiculous. They shouldn't discriminate against someone if they just use what was given to them.
Okay, I know this blog is scatter-brained and some of the ideas aren't completely explained but that's just where I am right now in thinking about this book.
Peace.
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