Understanding Media: Chapter 6 Media as Translators

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In this electric age we see ourselves being translated more and more into the form of informatoin, moving toward the technologoical extension of consciousness.  That is what is meant when we say that we daily know more and more abut man.  We mean that we can translate more and more of ourselves into other forms of expression that exceed ourselves. Man is a form of expression who is traditionally expected to repeat himself, and to echo the praise of his creator.  "Prayer," said George Herbert, "is reversed thunder."  Man has the power to reverberate the divine thunder, by verbal translation."

The first three sentences of the preceding passage could have been written about Facebook.  But I would not typically think of FB as a form of prayer.  People are using Facebook to at least facilitate prayer.  Other people are making fun of FB through prayer.  And then there is at least one Facebook prayer page, which as of this writing, was being attacked by members of this troll group.

In a broad definition of prayer, all of social media could be seen as part of the divine thunder (even the trolls taunting the Christians with posts about feces).  By some definitions, prayer could be something as simple as taking part in the world, God working through us (our actions?) or even an attitude.

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Under electric technology, the entire business of mann becomes learning and knowing.  In terms of what we still call an "economy" (the Greek word for a houshold), this means that all forms of employment become "paid learning," and all forms of wealth result from the movement of information.  The probelme of discovering occupations or employment may prove as difficult as wealth is easy.

This paragraph might describe the trouble now facing traditional news media:  Market collapse.  With the drop in production costs of media, more people are producing, providing a glut in advertising availabilities.  This drives down prices, the same way a bumper crop of blueberries drives down prices for farmers.

Yet at the same time the internet gives people a greater ability make some money by gathering information, and presenting it.   For example, Blogger.com users can "monetize" their blog.  If they can write in a way people find useful or enjoyable, anyone can earn a (very) few dollars by learning something interesting or helpful, and blogging about it.  Of course, people can also choose to contribute their information gathering for free, through efforts like Wikipedia, or open source projects.

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"We are now in a position to go beyond that, and to transfer the whole show to the memory of a computer."

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Having extended or translated our central nervous system into the electromagnetic technology, [through computer programs that can replicate the human senses] it is but a further stage to transfer our consciousness to the computer world as well.  Then, at least, we shall be able to program consciousness in such wise (ways?) that it cannot be numbed nor distracted by the Narcissus illusions of the entertainment world that beset mankind when he encounters himself extended in his own gimmickry.

Ummm.  This has not happened, and I don't think we are close to putting a human brain online.  A search of "human consciousness" at the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research turns up nothing.  Besides, there is no programming that can prevent a human consciousness from being distracted by this.