Month: January 2017

A key trait I’ve noticed in all the material we’ve covered is that everyone thinks that technology advancements only bring benefits. However, all the material has shown that technology advancements also produce negative repercussions.

This was an easy trait to see at the World’s Fair. At what really was the start of a century long arms race, countries from across the globe showed off all there military advancements trying to out do the others countries at the World’s Fair. One general was quoted as saying something along the lines of [the only way to maintain peace is by advancing your military]. It only took 20 years for this general to be proved wrong. WW1 was the first of a series of unprecedentedly large wars that caused millions of deaths.

Like the General’s at the worlds fair, Hank Morgan believes firmly that advancements in technology will completely better everyone’s lives. Yet in the end, Morgan’s technology just leads to tens of thousands of deaths. His technology was meant to aide the unfairness and social inequality he was seeing; however, in this case his means did not justify his ends.

I really liked the  historical documentary we watched in class: Magic of the White City by Gene Wilder. The 1893 Chicago’s World Fair expo highlighted the cinematic experience of Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of the new world. Not only did the event symbolize the brotherhood of nations and mankind, but it also embodied optimism, progress, and peace. The Chicago World Fair cost over 22 million dollars with ten cents a day labor and over 28 million people visited within the first three months of opening. During the 19th century, fairs were big, popular commodities/parties that celebrated the world’s greatest achievements in science, technology, and culture. In 1893, Chicago’s economy was booming with extravagant cultural life including prostitutes  roaming the city, crowded bars with alcohol flowing like a river, vulgar and naked art with risque dancers, and corrupt investors (Carter Harrison) taking advantage of this fair. Foreigners from all over enjoyed the commercially successful fair, however, racial discrimination deterred some from entering. Native Americans, at the time, were extinct, around eleven Italians were lynched, and Chinese immigrants were banned from the U.S for ten years. Even though the “White City” inspired future technological innovations including Henry Ford and Frank Lloyd Wright, in many ways, I believe the name of the city symbolized racism, prejudice, and  white supremacy.

In Mark Twain’s, “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” chapter 1 mentions a lot of auditory and olfactory imagery including the buzzing of insects and the spring smell of flowers. The Yankee and the knight are one a journey to Camelot, where they meet a 10 year old girl with golden hair with a poppies headband. The author describes the little girl as sweet and innocent but startled when she sees Hank. They pass a rural town, described in much detail with farm animals, thatched cabins, and nude children playing in the alleys. Soon they reach the castle of Camelot as described in great detail with a mid-century drawbridge, banners of a dragon, 4 surrounding walls, and men at arms. The castle immediately made me think of the castle in Shrek. In chapter 2, I didn’t understand why the Yankee asked the commoners where he was? I’m very confused why he thinks he’s in an asylum? Or is Camelot an asylum? Clarence says that Hank is Great Lord Sir Kay, Arthur’s foster brother’s prisoner. This chapter confused me because I’m not really sure who was thrown into the dungeon? Was it the Yankee or Hank, or are they the same person?  The Yankee observes the prisoners being hacked and abused in a disturbing way. I felt such sympathy towards the author’s descriptions of the dirty prisoners and the sharp pain they suffered, weary, hungry, and dehydrated with groans and wounds.

This week we delved deeper into understanding what this course is about and how we will go about learning more in this subject.

Our readings this week was the entirety of Mark Twain’s ‘Connecticut Yankee’ as well as the first chapter of ‘The Human Machine’ both readings held significant meaning to the course.

‘Connecticut Yankee’ was a discussion of how technology is accepted and produced, in the setting of King Arthur’s court this topic took a very interesting approach. We were able to see the hypothetical progress that an entire civilization might undergo if there was a huge shift in the technological situation of those people. I personally enjoyed the book due to the progress we saw in the characters. Sandy as well as Clarence are prefect examples of individuals who fully exemplified the progress one might see from the exposure to such advanced technology.

The other subject I would like to touch on is the documentary of the White City. The grandeur and scale of the exposition was incredible and is likely something we will never see again. But by far the most important part of the fair was the technology put on display. The only modern equivalent to the expo we might see today is a conference put on by companies and research organizations, but those conferences are very narrow in scope and would never see such diversity as what was at the 1893 fair. The fair personified the momentum that technology had during that time period. There were new discoveries being made every year which helped the fair to be as extravagant and impactful as it was.

Thoughts on:

Documentary; I thought that it was very interesting to hear about some of the advancements made just because of the construct of the White City. I never realized the spray paint made its debut just before the 1900s. Also, I was impressed at the acceptance shown for other cultures, I was always under the impression that we were not a very inclusive culture at that time, no matter what we tried to say.

CYIKAC; as I mentioned in class, I was surprised at the difference in connotation for the word Factory from the 19^th century to now. In my mind the word factory creates an image of an assembly line stretching on where the workers look tired and bored from standing and completing the same task day after day. In the context that Hank Morgan and by extension Twain is using it, the word factory could mean a place of creativity and change.

The 1893 World’s Fair was an impressive achievement both in showing people new technology and different cultures. It showed off various countries’ cultures and how they viewed technology of the time. It showed important aspects the American culture and how they thought. The city was built in two years and only to be temporary. I think this important because of how our society views technology now. Today we are focused on consumerism and in order for it to work people have to keep buying new technology. Companies try to make new technology that lasts only long enough so that the consumer doesn’t lose faith in the company and will buy the newest and greatest piece of their technology. In class we talked about how a company can put out software updates that makes a phone or computer run slows and make it feel like the technology isn’t working well anymore when in reality it would be working fine without the software updates.

Even if the technology we own is working fine we tend to want the newest piece of technology on the market. When a new version of a smartphone comes out every couple of years there are a lot of people who will get the new version even if their current phone is working perfectly fine. This is part of the consumeristic nature of our society. I think we subconsciously judge those with old technology because they haven’t been contributing to the economy in the traditional consumer ways.

Society has difficulty keeping up with the constantly changing technology which can be both a good and bad thing. As we talked about previously technology can change the way we interact with the world around us. It changes how we communicate with other people and how we gather information.