Month: January 2017

Throughout this week one of the themes that really stuck with me was the contradiction between work and leisure and how the definitions of these words have changed over time. I studied Latin for 6 years before coming to Bucknell and we always talked about the fact that the Romans did not have a true word for “work”. They had words for vacation, leisure, rest, and slavery but they did not have a word for “work”. To them the only people that were supposed to truly work were slaves and that already had a word: slavery. To them, their time should be spent in leisure. Of course many of them had a craft that they kept up with to make a living, but to them it was not important to strain themselves making a lot of money. They sold their craft when they needed to and other than that they enjoyed life.

I see a similar mentality shared by the people of the 6th century. When Hank first arrived he was so astonished that nobody was working. They were all wandering around with no sense of where they had come from or where they were going, and they lacked all sorts of drive or motivation. Hank presumed that he must be in an insane asylum because nobody of their right mind would spend the day just walking around with no purpose, destination or any sort of work. Hank’s view bring us to the more modern view of our definition of work and leisure. To us work is a necessity for all to live. We believe in the “American Dream” where if you work hard, you can move up in the world and in society and make a good life for yourself. We see leisure as a time of reward and something that is earned. It does not come around all the time and it must be earned and it is enjoyed in small doses. However, leisure is not always so accepted when it is abused or when it becomes the focus of ones life. In modern day we see work as the main time commitment and leisure as a small reward at the end. Most of our lives are spent in work not leisure. In contrast, the Romans saw work as a time when they weren’t in leisure, we see leisure as a time when we are not in work.

These are two very different viewpoints and shows that throughout time, work and leisure took up a different amount of people’s time and was regarded much differently in their lives. Currently, those who are unemployed are seen to be in a state of unrest. They are looked down upon by society for not having the ways and means for providing for a family, and they rush to the unemployment office or their next interview to try and fix this. It is very interesting how work has evolved from something only for the slaves, to a coveted position in life that ensures (or we hope that it will ensure) stability for our lives and our families.

The Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 displayed the extravagance found in all corners of the globe to some twenty-eight million visitors in six months time. Each country in attendance aimed to amaze visitors, displaying attributes of their culture, both old and new. The World’s Fair is a time for global connection and an opportunity to display technological advancement; the Chicago Fair came with an undertone of competition which served as a precursor to the nationalism and resulting disputes of the 20th Century. The display of innovation and competitive nature of the Fair was considered the first event of the 20th Century, and paved the road for exponential technological growth and innovation for the following century.

The ability to harness nature for energy generation and production was on full display at the World’s Fair. From the vast array of lights lining the White City to the Midway displays, countries were itching to show their innovative abilities and “one-up” the next. The Fair was the first time that countries could display their dominance over others in a collective environment; intimidation was full throttle as the 19th Century came to a close. Most notable was the Krupp firearm building built by Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. The building consisted of artillery cannons, guns, and military materials that were far beyond their time. The intimidation factor of this German display was evident, it was as if Germany intended to send their subordinates a message of power and progress. The Germans had made great strides in military technology; harnessing energy and nature to increase production and develop new technologies.

America had their own swagger about them, however. The massive city was theorized, and constructed in just under three years, a seemingly unmanageable feat proved feasible by the Americans. The sheer size, beauty, and extravagance provided a mirage of productivity in America; it seemed that Germany was not the only world player that would enter the new century with high hopes of innovation. The egos of Germany, America, and many other countries whom were present at the fair would largely create environment of competition, achievement, and advancement in the 20th Century. As a result of their abilities to increase power through mobilizing man power and harnessing more efficient usages of nature, new world leaders emerged and proved to be a pinnacle piece of 20th Century global affairs.

Journal 2

The summer before my senior year, I was able to take a trip down to Nicaragua as a part of a youth mission trip with my church. During the eight days that I spent in the country we learned about its history, lived in small, dirt-floored cottages, and helped the Natives perform their stereotypical chores. One day, we helped them clear some land for farming. The plot was covered with weeds, overgrown with tangled grasses, and dotted with small trees. Our leader, a Nicaraguan native, brought out a wagon full of machetes and then proceeded to demonstrate how to squat low to the ground, sweep the machete, and properly excavate the plot from the weeds and grasses. We all clamored to grab one, excited to help in whatever way that we could. I gripped the handle of my own machete, trying to mimic the same motion that I had just seen. The machete flew through the air and collided with the ground, leaving a huge divot, not the perfect fresh line that the leader had. I looked around and all the fellow students had seemed to have had the same amount of success and I had. I heard a “whoosh” behind me and realized that some of the native women of the village had joined our work. They tore through the land, perfectly manipulating the machetes, and working at a pace at least ten times that of our group.
Although, at the time, despite my incompetence, I truly believed that I was helping the natives, I have come to realize that maybe I was just helping myself. Reflecting on my experience now, the idea of the “White Man’s burden,” the theory of European imperialism where the “white man” felt as though their conquering of native lands and the introduction of new forms of government and technology was truly helping the native people, came to mind. I came to realize that this sort of need for those of high privilege to try and help and affect the lives of native people or those of lower privilege still permeates today. I was brought to Nicaragua to “help” the natives, when in truth, they do not and did not really need my help.
When I began to read A Connecticut Yankee in King’s Authur’s Court, I began to wonder whether Hank Morgan imposes his own rules, regulations, and introduces the citizens to new technology not only out of his own arrogance but comes from his own sort of “White man’s burden.” Hank Morgan truly believes that his system is helping the people, believes that his superior intelligence will makes their day to day lives better. His superior intelligence gives him privilege that he may yield.

Emma Irwin

IP Journal Reflection

This past week, during my two hour and twenty-two-minute-long classes I feel as though we’ve already covered so many interesting topics that have been relevant to many important parts of my life. A couple of the conversations that struck my eye were the conversations about social media, and how we incorporated Sigmund Freud’s view and Hank Morgan’s view. Every Sunday night when I’m home, and throughout my childhood I have been having dinner with my cousins. During all the dinners it’s required that all cellphones are put in a basket where we can’t reach them, and over time I have truly begun to notice the difference between my Sunday night dinners and my dinners with my friends and my family at other occasions. As well as putting my phone away, it’s become really important to my parents that I’m educated on what social media is “doing” to our generation and other generations exposed to this technology starting at such young ages, and that’s why the discussions we we had in class regarding the technological advances and the social media advances struck a chord with me.

My conversations with my parents and with my extended family regarding social media and it’s impact also ties into the discussions we had about the optimistic and pessimistic views of these changes. It goes along with how we discussed different generations having different perspectives on the newer generations and the technology, and why the different generations have these opposite views. Personally, I think it’s natural for there to be opposing views on the subject, it’s completely changed the lifestyles of different generations and more specifically, it’s the parents who are raising their kids in generations completely different from their own. It seems natural for them to feel negatively towards something that is so drastically different from what they are used to- especially since it does appear to be having some negative effects. If parents struggle to grasp their child’s perspectives because they are too busy checking Instagram and many other apps. All in all, the discussions in class have really caught my interest because they are so relevant to my life and tie in to so many conversations I have regarding the same subjects.

In some ways, the human brain is parallel to a computer. In the past decade, technology has evolved from mechanic typewriters to complex software. In Robert Epstein’s, “The Empty Brain” article, he compares newborns to technology, in which he proposes that newborns are equipped with powerful learning mechanisms that allow them to change and learn at rapid paces to interact with the world and its surroundings effectively. Even though humans are not born with technological components such as software or applications, humans have similar processing information. Computers and humans are metaphorically similar because computers process information with encoded binary code called bits and bytes, and humans process information with brain neurons and signals.

I thought it was so interesting in Gary Marcus’ “Face it, your brain is a computer,” article, he related the idea of emotions to a computer. He states that even though computers lack emotion, the amygdala’s neural systems modulate emotions by transmitting signals and integrating information in the brain similarly to how computers transform binary code into outputs. I thought Marcus’ analogy was funny as he states, “airplanes may not fly like birds but they are subject to the same forces of lift and drag.” Because even though computers and the human brain may differ in size and anatomy, the overall objective is the same: both process and compute information in systematic ways.

I really enjoyed the readings over break. They were very straight forward and interesting to read. The readings reminded me of my foundation seminar that I took when I was a first year. My foundation seminar class was about science fiction, and I actually wrote my final paper about how technology is metaphorically “alive.” Overall, I’m excited to learn more about this course. Thank you