Sunday 28 September 2014

Post 8: Something about Cloud Computing

Around this time last year, I'd rocked up to Uni once to print out an assignment that I'd spent the whole previous night working on only to realize upon arriving at Uni that I'd stupidly forgotten to attach the actual essay to the e-mail that I'd sent to myself. Since then, I've been a big user of Dropbox, a cloud-storage service that prevents future, similar fuck-ups from occurring. These days, I chuck most of my Uni readings, assignments etc into the Dropbox, allowing me to access them from any computer, my tablet, or even my smartphone.

But I do see the drawbacks. The recent string of celebrity photo hacks demonstrates this. This is why I don't upload private files to Dropbox, or anything with private info. I prefer to back that stuff up onto hard drives, because if they're not connected to my computer, they're pretty much inaccessible unless you're with me in person.

Like Andrejevic pretty much implied in his surveillance reading. We all have the potential to be stalkers. So going by that logic, what's to stop the people behind Dropbox going through your files every now and then and taking note at what you got? Social media websites already pass on your information to advertisers to help with data mining and Google logs your searches. Furthermore, the TPPA is meant to introduce more restrictive copyright laws that are meant to curb the circulation of copyrighted material, so I'd imagine websites like Dropbox would be more vigilant in order to comply with those agreement.

But hey, cloud computing's still pretty handy. As long as you're careful and don't put anything you wouldn't mind others noticing, then I don't really see many other problems with it. It's definitely prevented me from forgetting my assignments since I've started using it.

Thursday 18 September 2014

Post 7: What timing...

Quite convenient how we tackle surveillance the week after Monday's Moment of Truth revelations about metadata collection in NZ. It's a shame we couldn't discuss surveillance on Monday before the election rather than after it, as the two readings basically outline two of the main reasons I'm infuriated at the NZ media's reporting of Greenwald and Snowden's presentations.

The basic gist that I got from Andrejevic is that deep down, everyone's a stalker. Evidence for that is the fact that the very term "stalk" becomes far less severe if it follows the word "Facebook". And I think I established my personal opinion during the dystopia seminar that the only thing preventing utopia is the fact that we're all assholes deep down. Given those two qualities, it wouldn't be surprising to imagine an NSA/GCSB agent peeking at some unlucky Kiwi's e-mails or texts if something picqued his curiosity. With the sort of data he'd have access to, the whole world can be his own "Big Brother". On paper, a system of mass surveillance sounds like a great way to keep crime in check, but its potential for abuse is just too great (because humans are assholes).

Now the second article about ways paranoia is understood is also incredibly relevant to this week. A while ago, John Key tried to justify the GCSB bill by pulling the terrorism card. I mean sure, that probably works in America where terrorist rhetoric gets thrown around like the f-word in a Quentin Tarantino movie, but here? Sure, if NZ had actually been attacked in the past, or had seen some definitive proof of terrorist activity, that could've seemed plausible, but we've had no such luck. When he released those documents for "Project CORTEX", they seemed to use the same rhetoric of "protection", as the operation appeared to be concerned with protecting NZers from malware (basically making CORTEX a glorified anti-virus program and thus irrelevant as proof that SPEARGUN is bullshit), thus making it appear that the GCSB bill was again about protecting NZers.

The part that's really pissing me off though is the fact that there are actually people buying this crap. It's visible in the comments to the news reports (though internet commenters have never been the most intelligent lot) and I've also heard friends try to justify it.

Hopefully this weekend's election shows that Kiwis are smart enough to see through the smoke screen.

Anyway, enough with the politics, I will leave with this (it's still slightly relevant):

Saturday 13 September 2014

Post 6: Fuck Furbies are creepy



That clip's from "Terry's Friend Dates a Robot", an episode of Batman Beyond where one of the supporting characters decides to construct himself a robot girlfriend in order to look popular. I thought it would be somewhat relevant to at least the second reading on Furbies and other creepy robots.

In the Clark reading, where he discusses how the brain's understanding of the body is affected by body image, I couldn't help but notice a vibe of technological determinism. Linking back to Ihde's idea of embodiment relations in week 4, technology can act as an extension of the body, and thus affects the way the body experiences the world. When I played ice hockey for example, I remember my coach saying that our sticks should be an extension of our arms, so that we get a better feel for the puck. Similarly, he also argues that language also affects one's understanding of the world. Nusselder describes Lacan's belief that language is a form of technology as well, thus further reinforcing the technological determinism idea of the chapter.

The second reading brought me back to my book review on Interface Fantasy. When Turkle discusses the Furbies, I realized that the skin of the Furby acts as an interface, interfacing children with the robot beneath the soft toy. It acts like the computer screen in Nusselder's book, interfacing the real with the virtual and giving form to the mechanical processes beneath, allowing children to see them as "friends" rather than pre-programmed machines. Without that skin, the furbies would look downright horrifying (though I'll confess that I've always thought those bastards were kinda creepy). When the Furby's true robotic nature is revealed to the child, the child will likely realize that it wasn't a real pet all along, shattering the illusion that the interface helped provide. In this way, it can be linked once again to Lacan, to "tuche", or chance encounters with the real behind fantasy which shatter one's ideal perception of the world.

I will leave y'all with this Furby skeleton, and show just how important the interface is.

It's like some sort of Terminator