by, William Mitchell
Annotations by, Alyson Evans
by, William Mitchell
Annotations by, Alyson Evans
1. The net is fundamentally and profoundly antispatial
The Net is ambient -- nowhere in particular but everywhere at once.
So the Net eliminates a traditional dimension of civic legibility.
He explains that your address is not pinned down to one place therefore
you can access the Internet from wherever you are. Your address is an
access code with some storage space located somewhere on the net. The
Internet can recognize who you are from wherever because of your access
code. It's like telling the Internet, "hi, it's Alyson but I'm over
here today." It actually doesn't even care where you are just as long
as you have access. It is the most convenient thing in the world, it
comes to you.
2. (If you are homeless, of course, you are nobody.) You may find
yourself situated in gendered space or ungendered, domains of the
powerful or margins of the powerless;
I realize he put this in parenthesis to let the reader know that he was
considering this when he was writing. But it still is a very sensitive
thing in my mind. As digital culture become further advanced thus more
important to the world and daily life, the class divisions are going to
be unreal. Currently I don't think too many homeless people are upset
because they cannot access E-bay, they are more concerned with food and
shelter but what will happen in the future. The future he talks about
later when cash is eliminated and it becomes all plastic. Things like
that will be much more of a concern.
3. My Finger file on the Net supposedly establishes who I am IRL (in
real life), but it is itself just a set of potentially opaque or
misleading descriptor values.
The part I found notable here is the use of IRL. I didn't know that
there was an abbreviation for (in real life.) I'm not sure if he made
this up but it doesn't seem that he did. I find it just simply amazing
that something like that has an abbreviation, a much needed one at
that. I can think of several instances when this would have been useful
to use had I known about it. It is so interesting to think about when
you consider that it is a sign people have dual personalities. One is
the IRL person that has to take out the trash, and the other disembodied
identity with a URL.
4. It may even be that something with a definite electronic identity
has no physical embodiment at all. I can very easily conceal, leave
carefully ambiguous, or falsely signal gender, race, age, body shape,
and economic status.
This is true and very commonly done in cyberspace. I find this
dangerous on many levels. It's okay in the sense that quiet people may
become verbose and outgoing but people posing a danger to others have
the opportunity to disguise themselves as someone gentle. I do not need
to explain this further, we all know of the pedophiles that lure
children via chat rooms and people that compel young kids to run away.
It has a very "classified ad" aspect to it. DWF could actually be a GBM
once you respond to the ad. Another aspect I see a potential problem
with is it does seem to compel people to have multi-personalities.
People act one way IRL and another way on the Internet. I'm not sure
that's entirely healthy. Personally I think people should find out who
they are and be themselves at all costs. It might be fun to pretend to
be someone else for the day but it can easily turn into an obsession and
prevent people form handling problems IRL.
5. How do you know who or what stands behind the aliases and masks that
present themselves?
More or less, adults take the chance when they converse over the
Internet with others. If someone turns out to be a threat then, they
took that chance. People know what they are getting into when they use
the Internet and meet people and if it turns out poorly they understood
that was a possibility. How people fall in love over the Internet is
beyond me though. I just do not understand how someone can trust
someone over the Internet when there are so many opportunities to lie
and games to play. A woman sitting at home totally in love with a tall
dark and handsome man on-line should understand that man could turn out
to be a group of ten year old boys having fun. When it comes down to
it, it is a question of how desperate and lonely a person is.
6. Could we hack immortality by storing our aliases and agents
permanently on disk, to outlast our bodies?
I found this to be an interesting quote form the book. He does not have
the answer and neither do I. Nor do I even have a guess, but it is
something very interesting to ponder. How could that be done?
7. Answering machines and voice mail systems eliminate the frustration
of telephone tag. You can attend to your e-mail whenever it is
convenient to do so, not when you are unexpectedly and arbitrarily
interrupted by a telephone ring.
Absolutely my favorite aspect about e-mail is that I don't have to read
it if I don't want too. I can see that I got a message form someone and
save it for later. Mostly I love that it does not ring. Plus, the
messages are so much more informative than that of an answering
machine. It's not just "Hi, this is Jim call me." The message says
exactly, often very detailed, what it's about. The fact that you can
send just about anything along with the message is wonderful. There
are a few people that an e-mail message could never do justice to
hearing their voice but overall I would rather get an e-mail than a
call. This has been the best tool for my friends and I to use when we
all went to college and moved to different parts of the country and
world. No long distance charges and we talked every day.
8. It's simple; if you cannot get bits on and off in sufficient
quantity, you cannot directly benefit from the Net.
I am lucky because I own a great computer however this has spoiled me.
Whenever I use a different computer of lesser intelligence I act very
impatient with it and it makes me thoroughly frustrated. I don't like
waiting for sites to download. Or when they take a long time to
download and then the pictures cannot be viewed because the computer is
lacking some program or another. It is a good thing that you cannot
tell what kind of computer someone has from over the internet because it
breaks down that class barrier but I have become more paranoid about
sending people files. I have been yelled at many times about how it took
someone 45 minutes to download my e-mail and then they couldn't even
open it. But how could I possibly know their computer couldn't handle
it. It's because my computer can handle it therefore I think their
computer can to. It's about the same as pulling up next to a bike in
your car and asking them to race.
9. With improvements in telecommunications technology we can expect
growing availability of higher-bandwidth connections, which will make
machine-mediated conversation and companionship seem better bargains.
A key point in this book is bandwidth is the key to Internet use and
more likely it will become monopolized like the telephone. I'm sure
they will try to make it more affordable to people like it's stated here
but then when it is monopolized it will work like all the others. They
will start hitting you with all sorts of charges for things that you
don't want or need but have to have if you use that company. The
initial fee will probably be very low but then there will be hidden
charges and deals that you'll be roped into.
10. Spatial cities, of course, are not only condensations of activity
to maximize accessibility and promote face-to-face interaction, but are
also elaborate structures for organizing and controlling access. They
are subdivided into districts, neighborhoods, and turfs, legally
partitioned by property lines and jurisdictional boundaries, and
segmented into nested enclosures by fences and walls.
It is very easy to understand when he explains it like this. He also
compares it to being on your turf or someone else's. Being in private
and being in public. Access and exclusion like this comes into play on
the net, when thought of in terms of a spatial city. There are parts
occupied by only one person and others are multi-user oriented. They
often announce themselves with a name or title. People greet and
introduce people then agree on a conversation. It all sounds so
civilized in theory, when I know it's the equivalent of throwing paper
airplanes some of the time.
11. Stephen Hawking, cyborg, speaks. Speaks? Stricken limbs and the
Voltrax allophone generator built in his wheelchair team up to produce
electronically mediated utterances.
Yo-Yo Ma, hypercellist, plays on the stage at Tanglewood. 2 His wrist,
bow, and cello are all wired with special sensors.
Without leaving my office at MIT, I teach a class in Singapore.
We are all cyborgs now. 3 Architects and urban designers of the digital
era must begin by retheorizing the
body in space. 4
I really like this because it helps me cope with being told I'm a
cyborg. Examples like these are real and feel more human than robot
like.
12. Anticipate the moment at which all your personal electronic
devices-headphone audio player, cellular telephone, pager, dictaphone,
camcorder, personal digital assistant (PDA), electronic stylus,
radiomodem, calculator, Loran positioning system, smart spectacles, VCR
remote, data glove, electronic jogging shoes that count your steps and
flash warning signals at oncoming cars, medical monitoring system,
pacemaker (if you are so unfortunate), and anything else that you might
habitually wear or occasionally carry-can seamlessly be linked in a
wireless bodynet that allows them to function as an integrated system
and connects them to the worldwide digital network.
I tend to think of these devices more as tools than parts of me. But
maybe that's just two different takes on the same meaning. I think they
are parts of "us" in the sense that they are important to "us." I can
believe that. But I don't actually think they are PARTS of us as in
limbs or appendages. It's fascinating to me that people do think of
them as parts. Yes, I will give that a pacemaker becomes part of its
owner. Yet I can't speak for someone with a pacemaker, but I do wonder
what they think about it.
13. Your room and home will become part of you, and you will become
part of them.
Why are these items considered pieces of people rather than technical
tool which people use and benefit from. Some more important than
others, pacemaker. Some frivolous, camcorder. I respect the tools that
I use like my computer because it truly is a wonderful MACHINE. I use
the machine to write people messages from me, and when I chat, people
could say, "that's Alyson." So maybe I'm just holding back from the
inevitable fate that I am a cyborg. Maybe I wouldn't be me if all this
stuff was taken away.
14. Every place with a network connection will potentially have every
other such
place just outside the window.
I believe this but don't believe it will ever replace what is on the
outside of the window. Technology should expand your mind and make life
easier, but some things can't be replaced. Like, physical movement.
One thing that shouldn't be tossed aside so easily with this subject.
People are becoming more and more immobile because they don't need to
be. I wonder if people will turn into hermits IRL even if they are very
popular on-line. Do they feel just as satisfied with themselves? Do
they feel productive? Do they feel good? I know that my Dad is a
Information Technology Consultant and sits at a computer all day. He
only eats dinner yet is about 60 lbs. over weight. I can see the future
and it isn't pretty. I wonder if as technology changes into
disembodiment, will societies idea of beauty?
15. Physical movement and phenomenal motion can now be disconnected; we
teleporting cyborgs have found
loopholes in Newton's laws.
Exactly what I was saying, technology should make life easier, meeting,
lectures, education, etc. Things that would be costly and difficult
otherwise. People who are disabled ordering groceries and people who
need books that are hard to find. But what about exercise?
16. Just as boxers with long arms stand less chance of getting belted
in the jaw than opponents with shorter
reaches, so cyborg soldiers equipped with teleoperated weapons can stay
safely in the rear echelon and avoid the dangers of front-line combat.
In the Gulf War, for the first time, teleoperated weapons actually
played a significant battlefield role.
Hey, I thought people WERE cyborgs. I feel this is a bit of a
contradiction. If it's not I really don't like that people can jump
back and forth between robot cyborgs and human cyborgs. I need a
concrete definition of a cyborg and then I can make better judgements.
Besides this is starting to sound a lot like Terminator and I don't like
it when people base things on Schwarzenegger films.
17. Library attendants would then retrieve volumes from the stacks for
use at a reading table. (In later years, tourists would come to look for
the very table at which Karl Marx sat absorbing vast amounts of printed
information and transforming it into a blueprint for revolution.) The
cycle would be completed by performing the task of reshelving the books
until they were needed again. Functionally, the whole thing was a very
large, very slow version of what computer technicians now know as a
database server: you send requests, and you get back items of stored
information.
I just have to say that I love how he explained this. This would have
been something that would have normally overwhelmed me completely. A
constant theme throughout the book is to relate city of bits to a real
life city. The whole concept is easy to grasp. It is nice to put
something ungraspable and anti-spatial, into something that can easily
be understood, like a library system.
18. In a virtual museum digital images of paintings, videos of living
organisms, or three-dimensional simulations of sculptures and works of
architecture (perhaps destroyed or unbuilt ones) stand in for physical
objects, and a temporal sequence on the display plays the role of a
spatial sequence along a circulation path. This yields tremendous
spatial compression; a huge collection can be viewed, exhibit by
exhibit, on a personal computer or in a small video theater. Sprawling
gallery spaces become unnecessary.
He says gallery spaces become unnecessary. He also says that the role
of the museum will be to go back to the original. I see art on the
Internet the same as in books but more convenient because of the easy
access. You can to the Lourve in your pajamas. Therefore I see it more
as reference material. I see a museum as a cultural experience. It
would be the same as going to the Opera vs. renting Die Hard.
19. As the twentieth century draws to a close, the idea of a virtual
campus -paralleling or perhaps replacing the
physical one-seems increasingly plausible.
Yes, this is a good thing for educational purposes. It is better
perhaps for graduate degrees. Going to college was for me, not just
about classes but about leaving home and my experiences with that. What
happens to college students when you take their campus away. They can't
go eat their lunch and read their book under the tree in the courtyard.
Where's the interaction with noisy neighbors, keggers, and potential
friends? It would be a really hard thing to do to convince me that
virtual campus is better.
20. Telemedicine is emerging. It brings advanced medical care to widely
scattered populations and makes old-style assemblies of patients around
specialized medical facilities less necessary.
An obvious peril is that health care delivery may become an even more
depersonalized and technocratic process.
This is a very serious concern. I read that you have approximately 26
seconds to tell the doctor what is wrong with you once they walk through
the door before they interrupt. Healthcare is something exceedingly
personal to most people. I don't know it this could ever be done,
successfully, in a purely virtual world. I really doubt it. I would
hate to tell my health problems to a machine rather than a human that
could help or comfort me. Things to do with money and sales, I really
have no problem with in a purely virtual sense because they seem so
impersonal anyway. Order something on line and it comes to you, that's
actually very nice. These are things that don't need a human touch.
Medicine is totally different.
21. So their tissue is mostly composed of desks equipped with
information-handling devices (telephones, computers, fax machines,
printers, file cabinets, inboxes and outboxes, and the like), meeting
and conference rooms, copying centers and mailrooms, and reception and
circulation spaces.
This is one of the best things to come out of the virtual age. Who
could ask for anything more? I would be overjoyed if someday I could
work at home via Internet. Office workers live in the suburbs and
commute. It does cut down on commuting and saves quite a bit of time in
doing so. When people need to meet face to face something can be
arranged but most things can be done over the phone or computer. Like
the author says, "The postman now knocks anywhere." Work becomes better
and easier thus making for happy employees. A happy employee is a good
employee.
22. Such instabilities and ambiguities in space use also challenge
traditional ways of representing social
distinctions and stages of socialization.
Socialization in what sense. To have a million friends all over the
world via Internet or one friend IRL that can hug you when you feel
sad. It's up to the individual. To me, the decision is very clear. I
understand that in his examples he uses "is it office space or is it
work space?" I don't know. It's your house or apartment. That's for
the government to decide.
23. They will look, sound, and feel more realistic, they will enable
richer self-representations of their users, they will respond to user
actions in real time and in complex ways, and they will be increasingly
elaborate and artfully designed. We will not just look at them; we will
feel in them. 12 We can expect them to evolve into the elements of
cyberspace construction -constituents of a new architecture without
tectonics and a new urbanism freed from the constraints of physical
space.
This does make me very excited for the future of the net. When he puts
things like this, I can really see myself engaging in associating
activities relating to this. Maybe it can replace reality for the next
generation, and get everyone connected if it is actually "the future."
24. In the built fabric of a city, the enclosing surfaces of the
constituent spaces-walls, floors, ceilings, and
roofs-provide not only shelter, but also privacy.
I do not feel very safe of sheltered on the Internet at any time. I
feel like anyone who wants to can look in and see. Maybe it's just my
ignorance but I don't think a "private" space can exist on the
internet. It is the equivalent of a locked gate but in that case,
someone could break in. Passwords can be stolen and copied and then the
criminal can go gallivanting all over the internet as you.
25. Meanwhile, the Clinton administration pushed its plans for the
Clipper Chip, a device that would accomplish much the same thing as RSA
but would provide a built-in "trapdoor" for law-enforcement wiretapping
and file decoding. 28 The effect is a lot like that of leaving a spare
set of your front door keys in a safe at FBI headquarters.
With many laws, I'm not sure if they are good or bad. I do not think
the government wants to do this for the good of the people. I really
think they like to get their foot into any door that they can and this
is just another case. Like any spoiled child, the government doesn't
like to be left out. This will of course, raise questions for freedom
of speech and expression. When it comes down to the bottom line, I'm
sure the government will get involved and regulate it as much as they
regulate newspaper, books or other media.
26. If you surf around the World Wide Web for a while, or explore the
offerings of any commercial online service, you will find booming
activity at all of these levels.
You can't possibly tell me that if everything is put on-line many people
won't be out of a job. Sales people, department stores, etc will all
suffer a blow. I worked a huge bookstore and saw that people would
rather order a book that would take days to come, than to get up and go
to the store. The internet will virtually wipe out all other retail
that is obvious but it will hurt the economy as much as it will help
it.
27. Merchants get to potential customers by accessing lists of
electronic addresses; the key to successful marketing is not being in
the right neighborhood with the right sorts of customers for whom to lay
out wares, but (as with the older strategy of direct-mail marketing)
having the right lists for sending out advertising.
Junk mail! No! I just figured out how to get the telephone solicitors
to stop calling. Like the phone, I really feel it is a violation of
privacy to be put on lists without consent. It's just as irritating in
cyberspace as it is when I'm having dinner and someone calls to see if I
want to order the newspaper. It's irritating because they know where
you live and they know how to get a hold of you. That is all personal
information and it is simply scary when people find out this information
without you giving it to them. Although encryption provides some
security, and piece of mind, people are hesitant about giving things
like credit card numbers over the internet.
28. Such automata were not available in ancient Greece, but in
cyberspace they are; programmers can construct intelligent bit
puppetssoftware tools to do their bidding.
These little puppets are tools. They are our slaves to do our bidding.
They are also very useful and common. It also give me piece of mind
that we, humans, are dominant over cyberspace. Even viruses make me
feel better even though they are very bothersome. A person, for
whatever sick reason made it. But, it is not a life from. It is
artificial intelligence. Cyberspace can never become something that
people do not create or invent. Though that doesn't give me much
solace, since there are some real weirdoes out there, it gives me hope
that it will not get completely out of control.
29. When votes from large numbers of people scattered over wide areas
must be collected and tabulated by manual means, the process always ends
up being a sluggish, cumbersome, and expensive one. It just isn't
practical to repeat it too frequently
Politics on-line sounds great to me but it's never going to happen. It
would be fast and get things done in a reasonable amount of time. All
things that are not inherently governmental. People won't vote on-line
because of the long list of fraud associated possibilities. Politicians
will not perform business on line because they like to shmooz too much.
The government is too much of an institutional practice with a long
history of tradition to ever change. Look who you have in office.
Reformers and Traditionalists. Even if some of the Reformers are for
cyber-government majority would still have rule. And the majority would
never vote for this.
30. So you can now fire off your comments on the day's issues to
president@whitehouse.gov or vice.president@whitehouse.gov.
Oh this is wonderful. If only there was some way to know if someone of
importance could do something about it. Realistically, if you wrote
something negative, or positive, they could now track you. Then you
would have Big Brother right their in your bedroom. This could open the
door for investigations into personal lives of innocent people. This
has the potential of being very destructive.
Critical Approaches to Culture, Communications + Hypermedia is a set of resources on the World Wide Web developed by Ron Burnett in Vancouver, Canada. All rights reserved. ©Ron Burnett 2000