6/24 Response I

What about digital technology makes it a unique tool or medium in human history?

Digital technology is the latest evolution in storytelling and artistic expression. With the use of digital technology we, as humans, are able to create art and stories never before seen, and even retell classic stories through new and abstract mediums. What’s more is that, through the use of hardware and software, humans have been given the ability to create interactive new worlds for everyone to enjoy.

Humans have always been sharing stories with one another, it’s something that’s evolved as we developed language. Eventually, stories became more than information to pass on, but an artistic expression for those who are telling the stories. The method of passing on these stories evolved from cave paintings to tablets and scrolls, to eventually books. Now, with the advent of computers and digital tools, humans are able to tell these stories through mediums like movies, games, graphic novels, and a variety of methods across the internet. In chapter 1.3 of our text, there are examples of coding languages and their usage. These coding languages together can create games, websites, tools, graphics, and anything else a digital artist can think of to express their creative process.

In the first chapter of the book Program or be Programmed the author opens the first chapter talking about time, and how codes and computers run on their own disjointed version of time. Because of this humans have begun to evolve around that time, and have developed an asynchronous approach to classic methods of communication. Firstly through the advent of e-mail not replacing letters or traditional mail, rather it took the place of phone calls between people, giving them the opportunity to reply on their own time. The invention of the VCR and DVR replaces the need to rush to catch a television program. Eventually these new practices evolved even further to text messaging and streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu.

In the short period of time, these technologies have been alive, humanity and humans have already evolved and adjusted their lives around these new systems with relative ease. Digital technology, while relatively new, has taken the world by storm in ways inventions of the past had no chance of comparing to.