English 207

I wrote my final paper on the concept that cyberspace is moving from a space of freedom to a space of control. Much of the talk about this stems from outside sources trying to change our way of life. If terrorsits did not commit bombings and other threats than many monitering systems would not be necessary. The frustration comes from the fact that we do need monitoring but we also need to have our freedoms protected. The dichotomy of this presents a real problem when people many individuals have many ideas about this issue. I definetly would not want someone tracking or having the ability to track my every move. Some laws they have about monitoring the public sphere needs to remain unknown to us because those who we are trying to capture would know exactly how to elude securitiy systems we have in place. It is definetly one of the toughest decisions ever made in our nations history and more tough issues related to this will develop without a doubt. A close look a the Patriot Act and its statutes shows that it is exremely invasive. We are fighting against cockroaches that need to be exterminated or they will kill us. We need systems that make our chance of discovering them high. I do not have any answers but I do know that we need to do something to find a medium because the situation does not offer pure freedom or pure control. We are just going to have to do the best we can and live with the current fact that monitoring occurs for the benefit of our safety.

I am absolutely more aware of cyberspace and the intricacies that are part of this realm. For example, yesterday all students received an e-mail about a virus hidden within e-mail attachments. Before my involvement in the class I would have disreagarded this message and deleted it, now I read them and learn. It states that the internet is experiencing widespread attacks of rapidly mutating computer viruses transmitted by attachments to e-mail messages. Many of the viruses masquerade as messages from trusted friends or official sources. The viruses can look for email addresses in files on infected computers and sebd e-mail appearing to come from those addresses. These are some of the basic ways in which the virus works. The university has given a very descriptive message about what from the virus may come in so the students can delete these messages. It is terrible that CC has to block .zip and .exe. e-mail attachments. I know that these are integral ways that students and staff communicate here at the University.

I am absolutely more aware of cyberspace and the intricacies that are part of this realm. For example, yesterday all students received an e-mail about a virus hidden within e-mail attachments. Before my involvement in the class I would have disreagarded this message and deleted it, now I read them and learn. It states that the internet is experiencing widespread attacks of rapidly mutating computer viruses transmitted by attachments to e-mail messages. Many of the viruses masquerade as messages from trusted friends or official sources. The viruses can look for email addresses in files on infected computers and sebd e-mail appearing to come from those addresses. These are some of the basic ways in which the virus works. The university has given a very descriptive message about what from the virus may come in so the students can delete these messages. It is terrible that CC has to block .zip and .exe. e-mail attachments. I know that these are integral ways that students and staff communicate here at the University.

Almost every evening I watch various news channels to update myself on happennings of the day, the technological advances, the misfortunes of many, adaptations of economic indexes, and the way by which we as humans transmit information. Increasingly I find that conflicts and issues regarding the internet as a medium are being discussed on local and national news channels. And rightfully so with the prolific expansion and technological advancement of computers and the internet. Before I took this class I understood to some degree the importance of the plethora of issues facing us, but not nearly as much as I do now. One area that I never reflected on were the border issues in a frontierless cyberspace. I see more clearly now the threats and legalities that The United States and many other countries face when considering the internet and our national security. I never realized the difficulty of decoding encrypted messages and the rampant use by those who wish to hurt us, using these channels to communicate, direct and execute plots to undermine our way of life. The issue is beyond my understanding and control in finding resolution. This class however has made me more aware of current and future issues we face as a nation and individually and for this I am thankful.

Since I do play online games, I find that emotions that are induced by this medium are truly different than that other media. The reason for this is simple. When playing a game, the person is in control of the hero giving commands. This control gives us power so when we fail with our heros we also fail within ourselves. This is why we react with anger, laughter, frustration, self defeat and a slew of other emotions. It is however different from a movie because movies invoke feelings of sadness that often make the audience cry. This rarely happens with video games and I think the reason is because with a movie we have no control over the situation where video games, we have control, which I think lessens depressive emotions and we have a better sense of accountability.

The images assigned for class today led to pretty subjective discussion about digital art. The images we looked at showed a woman performing oral sex on inanimate objects. Is this pornography? I think yes because my distinction between pornography lies in publisizing it versus guarding it within the confines of private life. Someone might ask then if an action movie with a sexual scene makes it pornographic. The theme would still be action because that is the main emphasis, so one could state that the film is action with a pornographic scene. This is my subective definition of art: Art is an outer expression of an inner conviction, which means intent of the individual is very important and also the degree of this conviction. It was suggested that images of this same woman brushing her teeth could be considered art but I think these are not displays of inner convictions. Intercourse in the U.S. is usually highly private among couples or groups and to publisize sex takes a boldness, an inner conviction that needs to be publicaly expressed.
Like we discussed, to define art is highly suggestive, but I do think that digital imagery can be considered art. If an individual takes time and involves a process to make a point, then I would say without hesistation that it is art, but someone just posting a picture taking just a few moments to obtain the photo is not considered art. Art to be needs to have some thoughtful insights to the why and what of what is being givin to the audience.

Continuing on with hyper text....Some in class posed the question whether or not creating hypertext based narratives would change the way that we read things and if literature as a whole would suffer because an author would not have to develop characters and plot as much. I disagree to any that state this to be true. As an English major, I feel safe in saying the whole point of rhetoric is to unable the author to get a point across no matter what the subject fictional or non-fictional. I think narratives with hypertext and links will allow the reader to choose but the reader is only able to choose the links offered which allows the author great power to guide the reader to the point or points being made. I think this type of writing will faciltate more creativety not less. Much more thought will have to be put into the construction of a narrative because all options provided will have to travel coherently meaning as you travel through options of hypertext. I think a gifted author would find it fascinating to explore and present different situations while providing the same or similar points!

Hypertext...........Is this going to change the way people write and read with the new advances in technology? I think so. One thing that was not mentioned in class today was the nostalgic feeling and atmosphere we can create by opening a newspaper in the morning with a cup of coffee or taking a great novel to the park to enjoy the sunshine. These are things that I feel cannot be replicated or replaced by hypertext and technologies. I think the convenience can be replicated with new technologies by downloading novels onto note pads or PDA's, but looking at a computer screen is not pleasing to the eye. I cannot imagine staring at a little electronic device to read something of interest over an extended period of time. Professor Shaviro today showed how he creates links to the articles we read in class and at the same time prints them out because he prefers to read the hard copy. I think the majority prefers this because it gives us the freedom to mark on the text and take physical notes. The question was raised if the type of medium has any impact on the content. My thought would be to say no because if you took the New York Times as a physical newspaper and then went online to the official website you would virtually find the same articles and the same information. One thing that you made find is that cyberspace has more space to store information where a newspaper has limited physical constraints in regards to the amount of information it can hold. Anyways, there is still a lot to be discussed concerning this topic that I will address again tomorrow.