Post 16

“At present the term hypertext refers both in theory and in practice to very different phenomena. In the most general sense, hypertext is simply a specific form of presentation characterized by the distribution of content to nodes or modules electronically connected via links. The result is a network” (Jakobs 356).

This notion of a hypertext-like network is very interesting. Aka the World Wide Web, which has grown exponentially as the years have gone on; to the point now that everyone is connected to it. This network, through websites such as Facebook and Twitter, has extended to people. As if the networking boxes above are both web sites and people. “Back in the day” this was far from reality, the web was used more for information gain rather that interconnectedness, this switch occurred recently and honestly there is no looking back.

This brings to question, have we gone too far? Where do we go from here? And, lastly are we going to regret going down this path?

Post 15

“Using the score, the algorithm captures the overall dynamic of the game, highlights the key plays and key players, looks for quotes, and generates a text out of these elements. In addition, it configures an appropriate headline and a photo of the most important player in the game - and there goes a very rough sketch of a sports article” (Bunz).

This concept of a computer actually “writing” is very interesting. To me, writing is a very human action because it uses a very human-like flow. It replicates the way time works in a human sense because it’s linear and has a start and a stop. This also exemplifies how humans think, and until now computers were not able to do this. This ability is slowly starting to bridge the gap between humans and computers by letting computers “think” through the art form of writing.

In the respect of computers writing news articles, this is very cool. As long as humans are the ones telling them to write the articles. The day computers tell themselves to write an article because they feel like it, is the day humanity needs to take a serious look at what they created… A.I. The terminator series has already warned us of what the consequences are of going down this road.  

Post 14

TED’s Chris Anderson speaks about how the internet, specifically web videos on the web are effecting our everyday lives from speeches to dancing. And the effect is a positive one. It’s as if the bar is being raised by videos online. This is being accomplished by videos being watched by millions of people and them commenting on and enjoying the videos online. In this modern age any one person can publish and post any idea and have people give feedback and recognition.

In other words, the web we have created is starting to allow us to shine through the billions of us and let one person have the spotlight. This was much more difficult 100 years ago, even though the population of humans is rising every day. Over that short period of time we have come this far, it will be very interesting to see where the internet takes us in the near future.

Our lives are becoming more and more attached to technology. In this sense should we ever work to draw a line in the sand with technology? Will we ever be able to at this rate? Or are we in a “death spiral” that for now we are all enjoying? It’s difficult to look that negatively at technology right now, but maybe it’s something we should all keep in the back of our heads.

Post 13

“Almost without our realizing it, writing is changing. Over the last few decades, the fields of literature and rhetoric and composition have more or less agreed that authors are not omnipotent (except as literary devices)” (Johnson-Eilola 199).

This notion of an omnipotent author is interesting. Back in the day an author could write a book 100% through and readers would take his word for the truth. Now books often have multiple authors, multiple editors and a multitude of sources. This transition raises the proverbial bar and forces more authors who would have been omnipotent to encompass more sources and other authors to produce a better, more holistic text.

The only issue with this transition, one could argue, is an author could feel their inherent “style” may be loss in this filter of additional authors and editors. It’s undeniable the act of placing someone else’s words into your own text is in turn de-stylizing the text. But only to an omnipotent author, but in fact the text still possess a “style”, just a combination of multiple sources “style”.