---Lost post retrieved---
Marc-André, Romain, Miles, Audrey, Alex
The first extract entitled “Man-Computer Symbiosis” talks about the interaction between man and computer. According to J.C.R Licklider, the computer should obtain a certain freedom of action instead of always depending on human intervention, to be most efficient. The computer should be “capable of programming themselves contingently” as man can. Much time is lost in searching for the information rather than processing it. If computers could research the information more accurately without the permanent intervention of man, then we could concentrate on reflection. He talks about “thinking centers”, which would contain tones of information and have the necessary functions to retrieve the information effectively. We have nowadays a massive “thinking center”: the internet. But the functions meant to retrieve the information (mainly search engines) are not perfect. The “thinking” is still limited to medium complex functions such as link popularity (for internet sites). One could say that the internet’s capacity for storage has largely surpassed our technology in information mining. The next step could be developing such powerful functions that computers would be able to adapt their thinking methods when unexpected elements appear. But how can one program the unexpected without expecting it?
The second extract focuses on the imagination. Flusser explains how mankind evolved from one type of imagination to another. At first we took a step back from the existing world to imagine it. Then we described this imagination, and then analyzed this description. Finally, the new imagination appeared when “man projected synthetic images out of analysis” (when numeric code became digital code). This last step is essential in this extract. Man had to break free from linearity to critique imagination. Numeric code was attached to alphabetic code which is linear. But digital code detaches itself totally from the image. Instead of taking the information from the four-dimensional life-world, images are projected from the zero-dimensional world. This last reflection is very interesting. Through digitalization, we have managed to reverse imagination. At first we went from our image to the representation. Now a machine represents the image for us to imagine and analyze it.
The only link we found between these two texts is the impact of computation on human beings, the impact on our way of thinking, of working and of imagining.
The first extract entitled “Man-Computer Symbiosis” talks about the interaction between man and computer. According to J.C.R Licklider, the computer should obtain a certain freedom of action instead of always depending on human intervention, to be most efficient. The computer should be “capable of programming themselves contingently” as man can. Much time is lost in searching for the information rather than processing it. If computers could research the information more accurately without the permanent intervention of man, then we could concentrate on reflection. He talks about “thinking centers”, which would contain tones of information and have the necessary functions to retrieve the information effectively. We have nowadays a massive “thinking center”: the internet. But the functions meant to retrieve the information (mainly search engines) are not perfect. The “thinking” is still limited to medium complex functions such as link popularity (for internet sites). One could say that the internet’s capacity for storage has largely surpassed our technology in information mining. The next step could be developing such powerful functions that computers would be able to adapt their thinking methods when unexpected elements appear. But how can one program the unexpected without expecting it?
The second extract focuses on the imagination. Flusser explains how mankind evolved from one type of imagination to another. At first we took a step back from the existing world to imagine it. Then we described this imagination, and then analyzed this description. Finally, the new imagination appeared when “man projected synthetic images out of analysis” (when numeric code became digital code). This last step is essential in this extract. Man had to break free from linearity to critique imagination. Numeric code was attached to alphabetic code which is linear. But digital code detaches itself totally from the image. Instead of taking the information from the four-dimensional life-world, images are projected from the zero-dimensional world. This last reflection is very interesting. Through digitalization, we have managed to reverse imagination. At first we went from our image to the representation. Now a machine represents the image for us to imagine and analyze it.
The only link we found between these two texts is the impact of computation on human beings, the impact on our way of thinking, of working and of imagining.
posted by Marc-Andre at 9:04 PM
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