8 Matching Annotations
  1. Apr 2021
    1. Robots and bots—humanlike machines and web-based software applications that runautomated tasks—are becoming in some cases interactive and seemingly personable.

      In computing, a daemon is 'a background process that handles requests for services such as print spooling and file transfers, and is dormant when not required.' This is what the subconscious mind does 24/7. Humans are made of organic systems (bots) that work together to support the physical.

    2. The internet and digital media facilitate the perception and experience of proximity andpresence in ways that transcend the physical

      This transcends the perspective of the physical but everything we experience through digital media is also physical through it's emotional impact within the human neurosystem which, subsequently stimulates reaction and neuroplasticity.

    3. Symbols, therefore, are critical to helping people to express and experience the reality oftheir digital worlds.

      Semiotic archetypes are important to human consciousness and psychology. Many video games are strewn with repurposed symbolism.

    4. . But William Gibson’s viewof cyberspace as the universe “behind all the computer screens” was, and still is, critical tohelping us envision, understand, and define the environment and the experience ofbecoming involved in computer use.

      Check out "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson for an interesting presentation of 'cyberspace' and the digitization of human consciousness.

    5. Cyber has since come to suggest something computerized or modern,of the computer era.

      We can add 'cyberpsychology' which can be defined as being 'a developing field that encompasses all psychological phenomena associated with or affected by emerging technology.'

    6. The use of the term virtual ismisleading, though, for it implies that something is almost, but not quite, real.

      The Internet says, "1 : being such in essence or effect though not formally recognized or admitted a virtual dictator. 2 : being on or simulated on a computer or computer network print or virtual books a virtual keyboard : such as. a : occurring or existing primarily online virtual shopping." So the term applies as is, considering that these activities are facilitated by digital technology.

    7. Groups persist even inthe dearth or absence of physicality and even as members come and go

      This is exceptionally evident during this pandemic!

    8. A society is made up of the thoughts, ideas, information, norms, values, beliefs, andmorals of all of its members. It is a veritable “soup” of mental ingredients, plus thematerial products created by its members, such as art, books, buildings, and clothing.Collectively, we call these mental and material products the culture of a society. People’slives shape, and are shaped by, these products in a process so penetrating and constant thatthose groups of people who share cultural products are often themselves called a culture.And yet a society, and a culture, is even more than all of this. Something special, almostindefinable, happens when human beings get together. A group “effervesces” andproduces an energy, a force, a “vibe,” all its own. It is not only mental and moral, it isalive with energy and emotion (Durkheim, 1912/1965)

      This paragraph describes a process of 'enculturation', which "is the process by which people learn the dynamics of their surrounding culture and acquire values and norms appropriate or necessary to that culture and its worldviews." This promotes a cultural neuroplasticity that, once embrained is the "vibe" that is described.