Random thoughts...

Well after completeing the hw .doc on the Fischer chaps I was having tons of thoughts and needed to write some down, dont read if you dont want but I need to get some postings in fa'sho.


The networked computer yields an unprecedented level of analysis of the social climate and the power of technology. For the first time, we actually have a ton of people giving first-hand accounts of there everyday lives; a critical development for the analysis of technology and society. So with the computer, we are able to quantify everything, and with the networked computer, we are able to quantify personalities, day-by-day lifestyles, and a plethora of other valuable information for sociologist, historians, and the populous alike. The problems of analysis then become extracting purposeful meaning from the mass quantities of information we are aggregating. Where do you look? How do you look? Why is the data collected? Who is collecting it? Is this a reliable source?

Now we must use the technology, in order to examine it and determine what people are doing with it; a profound cycle of people using technology, to see how other people are using technology. What does this mean for media studies? Will we have a bunch of new material to draw theory and practice from? Undoubtedly, but the real meaning I take from this, is that we have finally achieved a goal which we may or may not have consciously realized. That goal is the unity theory and practice. From the Renaissance, this distinction was made, and even back to Aristotle, theory and practice are separate. The two are complete opposites. Yet if we really think about it, has not all innovation come out of a unity of theory and practice? Inventors, Scientists, Alchemists, Engineers, all innovate side-by-side, and others come along, witnessing these discoveries occur side-by-side and cannot help but connect them to their own theories and practice. This in itself is a heuristic model, you have an idea, and in order for that idea to be valuable, it must be possible and must actually happen, and therefore you must practice through trial and error to learn something new, and certainly amend the original idea or theory in response to the practice. These things, although completely separate, are connected in the presence of human life. We have known this all along, but have been in opposition. Why? Maybe because so much good, along with so much bad has come from this resistance--WE’VE GOTTEN THIS FAR HAVENT WE?