Brandon Phillips
@brandonluc01
In Theodor Nelson’s book titled Literary Machines, he focuses on the ongoing conversion of text of human ideas and information into computerized code and programs that are stored in mechanical functioning systems (the computer). He emphasizes the great potential computers have for dramatically increasing the accessibility humans have to information and ideas. In Vanevar Bush’s article “As We May Think” he puts great emphasis on the fact that humans will one day become reliant and machines and computers and not need to rely on their own intellect and hard work; that soon accessibility to all information could neutralize the human intellect.
The movie the Matrix is a great film that highlights the relationships humans have with computers. The relationship between humans and computers is identified in the plot of the movie The Matrix; being that humans need computers just as much as computers need humans. The plot of the movie is in a post-apocalyptic world machines harvest humans for energy and humans rely on the machines to create a false but secure reality that leaves them blind to the true apocalyptic world. In the dreaming scene in the movie a green raining code, composed of a variety of different characters, is shown to symbolize the visual, auditory, etc information of a virtual reality. The image from the matrix is an image of the green raining code but it makes the image/scene more visible for the viewer by highlighting the outlines of human bodies in a hallway. The purpose of dream scene and matrix image is that both show how visual information has been converted to computerized code like how Theodor Nelson claimed that soon all sorts of information will become.
The concern for the future is, will humans become entirely reliant on technology as Vanevar Bush predicts? And will computers one day have too much information that they will one day be able to have their own intellect and create their own ideas?