Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Immortality! Take it!

http://www.entertonement.com/clips/qhyznmcfzf--Immortality-Take-itBrad-Pitt-Troy-Achilles-

I have posted the web address to a sound clip that is from the movie Troy with Brad Pitt as Achilles. In this very short sound bite, the conquering Greeks are approaching the beach of Troy. We all know that this goes down as the most famous war in the Greek mythology.
The reason I am posting this is because in one of the definitions of 'immortality' it is posed as enduring fame. We all know the mythological progression but I would like to emphasize that Achilles went to the city of Troy in seek of fame and subsequently immortality despite his certain death. I think this is a phenomenal representation of human will.
I thought of this as an excellent concluding blog post because we as a group may not have found immortality by posting pieces of our lives on the internet, but we most definitely created the POSSIBILITY of one day becoming famous in the eyes of our our species. Therefore, Project Immortal holds potential for absolute success. If only we were better at making ourselves famous forever....

Monday, November 22, 2010

Imagine this

A computer system that has the capability to completely synthesize a human brain; this would mean a completely post-human being. After physical death, a machine will be operated by the brain of the deceased human. All thought processes, learning methods, and acquired information would be in full progression and operation. The question begs: are we in fact trying to accomplish this in an inefficient sense? Using what we are able to, we record and exchange our cognitive processes. Would we not use artificial intelligence to achieve immortality despite the fact that we will have no awareness or control over the processes that are taking place?

Here is a link to the Science Daily Artificial Intelligence web page. In articles such as these, we are able to realistically examine the availability and progression of such technologies. We can also get a sufficient idea of our willingness to use and exploit such technology.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/computers_math/artificial_intelligence/

This leads me to what we discussed in one of our group meeting for this project. Since the introduction of fast advancing technological systems, our culture has placed a higher focus on the less humanistic forms of leaving a piece of our legacy behind. This draws a closer connection to our beloved technology. A week away from our children our loved ones is all of a sudden much easier than a day without our cell phones or internet connection. The idea of conceiving and raising children becomes more of a burden as technology eases the effort of every day tasks.

Just a concluding idea

Well this project is practically done for me and well I feel so confused and exhausted. My mind is weak from all the thinking and realizations I have come to figure throughout all of this work. But one idea I wanted to leave is what happens in the future? By this I mean that if our posts don't get read now or if no one reads them then why should we believe that anyone will read them later? Is this like those time capsules that we did as freshman upon entering this university? I mean I thought my target audience would be my own peers, but I guess they were all too busy to listen. I understand due to finals and projects such as this one. Time begins to play against us. So who is our audience? Are they the college students of 2030? Who do you think we are talking to?
I think our posts will be seen one day but not until the very late 2000's. It does make me feel sad to know that my own peers won't look when these 20 hours were spent attempting to speak to them. Oh well life goes on. 

Technology that saves us from technology....

When it comes to the attempt to immortalize our selves using technology we are able to start with pen to paper. Our handwriting, ideas, and thought patterns are represented with symbols and material. While striving to immortalize ourselves we are more so placing a higher dependency and personal value on technology.

http://criticalcommons.org/Members/CTCS505/clips/Windows%20Phone.mp4/view

We recognize the problems that technology has presented and with this, we look for a source of technology that can save us from the burdens of technology.

Above I have posted a link to a commercial that I have been seeing all over TV. I think it unintentionally poses an extremely evident theme within augmented reality that I have just summarized.

This applies greatly to the desire to immortalize ourselves. Now our personal hand held devices are means for taking and posting pictures to Facebook and blogging on Twitter. We text and exchange personal information. We have been striving to make the concept of immortality arise from the tips of our fingers. It is difficult for us to see this with the current application of our technology, but when we are able to look at a broader direction we can see the underlying motive that we have been describing in this project.

Immortalizing Ourselves

(I'm really bad about posting my blog posts here, so I decided to post here and THEN post on my blog. Every other post is at http://kayrote.wordpress.com/)

It's easy to think that we haven't immortalized ourselves, or at least not enough. I'm pretty sure that, at the time I'm writing this, the only views on my blog are myself and the occasional Google bot. But, I think it's worth noting that even though people haven't read us now, they will in the future.

II remember a couple years ago I had an interview for a big internship. Aside from being my first interview, it was also done by a panel of 4 different department heads. I was nervous as hell, but I'd done pretty well preparing and only two questions caught me off guard:
1.) What would you describe as the difference between a mission statement and a vision statement. (I'm applying for a minimum wage internship, not your CEO position!)
2.) Do you like paintball?

I knew I had no shot with the first question, and told the panel that I would happily entertain them with something I thought of on the spot, but truthfully I didn't (still don't) know. The second question was really weird, though. I didn't understand why they'd ask me that, but I responded along the lines of "Never tried it, but it looks like fun", they smiled, and we moved on. As I was driving home, I asked my parents why I'd be asked about paintball. Turns out that when one searches for "Kyle Rota" in a search engine, they get a bunch of football articles, the usual twitter/facebook/LinkedIn/etc profiles, and a lot of profane, entertaining, but unprofessional posts on a paintball forum.

Turns out, there is a similarly aged Kyle Rota in Arizona who has quite a mouth on him. Which also explains the question about how long I'd lived in Washington, my best guess is that someone on the panel had searched my name and was trying to figure out whether we were the same person or different, and then which posts belonged to who. My point? Well, assuming there is one, it would be that we've probably immortalized ourselves sufficiently in this project - it may just be a few years before anyone else notices.

Solitary Confinement

I just watched a show on Netflicks all about solitary confinement and the adverse effects it has on the psyche. It got me to think about this project and how social networking allows for this new form of confinement. I would imagine that since the internet has become so widely used, individuals spend less time interacting in real life. I know that if I am feeling lonely I do not always call a friend or try to arrange plans, sometimes I will just send a text and communicate solely through technology to meet that psychological need for companionship.

The internet is a tool that we use more and more frequently to feel socially connected. It is ironic because it lessens the amount of time we spend interacting with others physically but increase overall interactions and the possibilities for interactions. I was talking to my friend on Skype last night and I would not have had a chance to see her again for a really long time if it were not for the technological advances and the availability of software.

My roommate was home but I choose to sit alone in my room for two hours talking to my friend from a distance rather than talking to my friend who was actually here in real life. Was that a meaningful decision on my part? The internet is great because it allows for accessible communication in real time which makes maintaining long distance relationships much easier. I spent the summer in the Dominican Republic and it was such an encouragement to receive e-mails from friends and family and to spend time on Skype catching up with them. But it also hindered some of my relationships in the Dominican. Many of the other interns would spend hours talking to their family at home and by doing so they neglected the potential for new relationships right in front of them.

Technology represents yet another area of our lives where balance must be found. Balancing real life interactions and virtual interactions is now a key component to a healthy lifestyle. How do you deal with this balance? Do you find yourself texting when you could be engaging with someone who is physically present? Have you noticed this getting in the way of your actual, person to person interactions?

How to immortalize yourself

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-08/immortalize-yourself-vinyl

Well here is an interesting link I just found and well I thought it was rather disturbing but neat at the same time. Other than that I really have nothing else to say about it, but I was wondering what your guy's thoughts were on the article?

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Motives?

Lately Ive been thinking about what we've been doing, what our project is. Immortalizing ourselves us each doing it our own separate way is nothing new, but I feel like us consciously doing so may be. Is there a different mindset that we have now that we are blogging, facebooking, plurking, etc with a different motive? I've also been thinking about the idea of immortalization through these mediums, more specifically, our reasons behind this need. Are we afraid of being forgotten, do we hope that perhaps something we communicate to the world might be profound or touch someones life? At least for me my motives are much more selfish. Although I commonly plurk and facebook things that i feel others will enjoy or "get" something from I mainly use these networks for my own enlightenment t. I especially use plurk to learn new new ideals and philosophies. Speaking of different realities I notice that i often post "mainstream" and/or superficial concepts,phrases, thoughts on facebook and keep my more of my opinions,philosophies, and abstract thoughts to plurk.With my communities of friends on both I feel like I am interacting with separate audiences, separate groups of people and I post accordingly.I often look at my old posts in both networks dating months, even years ago and see how much I've changed and grown and I can honestly say that Ive seen maturity, these are timelines of our lives, they travel and grow with us. Although I feel most don't see these social networks as forever making their mark in this world, that's exactly what it is, an idea I hadn't given much thought into. So now what? being completely aware of this can I use,consult these networks the same prior to this realization? Can you? I feel like I want things to remain the same, to keep growing, I hope that these two combined networks can be a small representation of who I am.

But does all this matter? We have been conditioned to read what we see on the internet at face value, but social networks such as facebook and plurk add a level of accountability as there is a name and face associated to whats being posted.

Curious

I was wondering how everyone else's attempts at immortalizing themselves are going? I am curious to know because as I begin reflecting on my own project I am seeing many of the shortcomings. I am not really immortalizing myself. The character I play on Second Life is not an accurate reflection of who I am in real life. In real life I am a student, a nanny, a friend, a daughter and so many other things. On Second Life I am a girl named Flora Crannock who can hardly move without running into someone else or making herself look a fool (in real life I do not encounter nearly as many problems with physical movement).

Second Life is an interesting augmented reality but I am seeing how it does not provide a very solid platform for immortalization. Second Life is nothing like real life. I cannot fly in real life nor am I able to transport to distant and imaginary lands (however tempting that may be as I look out into the snowy abyss).


Is anyone else encountering this conflict? I feel I am the most real when I am at my house cooking a meal with close friends and laughing over a few beers, so much more real than I am when I am trying to navigate a new and confusing virtual landscape! Since we are all using technology in some fashion I would imagine that we are all encountering some similar problems, looking forward to discussing the problems you have run across.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Just an idea

Hey guys. Hopefully you have had time to play in the snow and have some fun. I know I did. Alright so here is a quote from Albert Einstein that really bothers me: Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  ~Albert Einstein
So I spoke in our presentation about a possibility of how our limited views are only breeding grounds for a faulty reality. At the time I only half believed myself and well I felt that I was going slightly crazy. But just recently I had a very thorough dream that my girlfriend and I missed the dining hall food and so we traveled to Sammish and got some McDonald's. When I asked her if this had happened she said I was losing my mind. So I feel like it happened. The dream was so real that it could not have been fake, but when I actually think back to it I know that we had no car and for that matter no money so there was no way we could have gone anywhere. I don't spend money without having it. So I guess what I am asking is what do you think of this quote?
Personally I do believe reality is only a pure illusion, but how do you explain a bruise from falling or things like that.Optical Media showed us how technology in film used various tricks to make people believe in truths that were false. Like the train coming out of the TV thing. So is there really a reality or are we just living in a fake world?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Over Thinking

I feel like doing this project is making me over-think and just totally overanalyze day to day events.

I posted a picture from Halloween on Flickr and went to describe it. It started out as just a picture of an event in my life. Then as I wrote it got completely picked apart, I started discussing Halloween itself, the escaping of reality that comes with it, the teenage love for the event and why we are all so obsessed with augmenting our reality for the Halloween weekend. Not just with costumes and acting out a character but with drugs/alcohol and everything else that goes along with the celebration its like on Halloween we can totally get away from reality and make our own.

That’s not my point though, It could have just been a picture with a caption “Haley on Halloween” but with this flickr account I feel like I examine every little thing and every image to its core. I follow up on it and my mind just goes rampant with analysis. It’s an interesting effect, blogging makes me think about life more, the meanings of events and I find that pretty cool.

Immortalizing myself during Economics 301.
Good times

Here are the links to the rest of my posting

Alright so here are the links to the rest of my writings. No one really posted on any of them so maybe you guys could say a few words? Thanks for the help and well I gave it my best try, but I think that immortalizing myself in this realm was pointless in the end.
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=501144260476
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=10150090625695477
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=10150090741045477
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=10150091323430477
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=10150092819025477
http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=1095331226&notes_tab=app_2347471856#!/note.php?note_id=10150093487665477

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Life gets in the way of "Life"

Ok so I’ve got a bunch of pictures for my flickr but haven’t posted many!

Have any of you guys had living actual physical life get in the way of immortalizing yourself on the internet?

Also, I find myself viewing day to day events, and my life in general in a different way since this project. It hasn’t completely altered my world view or anything, but when I’m thinking about the project I look at my life with the question “what would others want to see?”, it’s almost like I’m cutting out the dull, or if I do have a dull day I focus on the little things that I could bring out as an experience to share.

Maybe I should just have a posting… “Well today was pretty damn average”. See how that goes over.

So it’s real, it’s just the best reality I can find among all the normal boring reality I’ve got to contend with!

But hey, I’m immortalizing myself, do I want to go down in history as average, or real anyway?

Flickr is like a collage, no one is going to put a picture of something boring in a collage like, here are a bunch of colorful wild pictures, and here is a picture of me doing homework at my desk. Not exciting.

Uh oh, I’m sort of doing a virtual collage, I hope Tony doesn’t read this post :/ haha

Second Life

So as you all know, I have been using the game Second Life as my immortal platform. It has left me with a few awkward experiences and yet very little understanding of how the game works. One of the first times I played I made a friend named Seth, he immediately asked me to go to an adult only area...I tried to go but since my account settings were not set for that level of interaction I was unable to.

If I had gone would it mean that I had engaged in actual sexual behavior?
If your girlfriend had virtual sex would you be upset, feel betrayed?
Would sex with Seth have meant anything?

I have thought about this and I think it is a lot like porn except it engages the user on a higher level. If I had regularly had sexual encounters (virtually) with this Seth guy then I think it would be considered actual sex. But if I had done it just once for the experience, having no emotional connection, I would not consider it an actual sexual experience. It would be equivalent to watching porn online, in my opinion.
Ideas...?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Well lets try this

Okay guys here is a link to my first piece for the project on facebook. I have done this before and the link never worked so let me know if it doesn't and then I can try something else. Alright well my fingers are crossed hoping: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/note.php?note_id=499807755476

Monday, November 8, 2010

Technology, providing equal opputunity?

The poem, “Virtue Is the Best Helmet” brings up some interesting issues concerning the motives behind the virtual world. But then my friend the lactation consultant brings up the quadriplegic who gave birth (two times no less) (motorcycle wreck) just to make her body do one thing the meat could remember. Is a life without feeling, without true human interactions without the “burdens” of this meat cage really what we’re striving for, is it really what we want, do we have a choice? With this in mind, the concept behind the film Gamer is a very frightening one. It would be as though one would obtain the best of both worlds being able to leave the realm of their own immediate personal reality while intruding into someone else’s. Not controlling an avatar, spites and objects on a screen but anonymously controlling humans. The game “Society” in the film draws inspiration from virtual worlds such as Second Life and the like but more specifically from Playstation Home http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r46PGzPfDvs&feature=related, this is also no coincidence but a message, a satire of sorts. Although slight, branches of this are apparent today as people join social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Plurk, not as themselves but as their identities in a certain virtual world http://www.plurk.com/SableSunset , http://www.plurk.com/LaLaFooFoo , http://fashionliability.com/. Being more comfortable with ones virtual self in every aspect of life, whether it is professional, recreational, or social is now a viable option.

“Virtue Is the Best Helmet” taps into the mind and thoughts of one trying to lose themselves in a separate realm in the 21st century. Perillo speaks of a sort of fusion between reality and the augmented reality, aware of the advantages and flaws of each, not willing to delve into either one completely. Being aware of the individual(s)/ business behind the craft also helps with this, can one really be comfortable with submitting their all into a world that can be manipulated so easily so quickly? Pray the server doesn’t crash, pray against the curse of carpal tunnel syndrome. It seems as though that is where we are now, seemingly not content with the physical world, the “real” world. Although we look to the virtual world to satisfy the itch, perhaps we are still unwilling to completely submit to this virtual reality.

Escaping our “meat cages”, leaving the material world behind is a concept that is not new to us although it sounds absurd and impossible to some. Virtual reality and augmented realities share many of the same characteristics of a state of nirvana or heaven and this is no coincidence. There are no “real” problems and those that come up always have a solution, everything is black and white, there are the just and the unjust, right and wrong, there is no such thing as grey area. In the virtual arena everyone is the same, at least they start out on a level playing field and progress from there, everyone lives forever, and no one grows old.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Hey

Hey guys, It's Kwesi,hope you guys like the blog.The link to my plurk site is :http://www.plurk.com/kaskade. Feel free to create an account and add me. I find plurk pretty interesting as there are a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that are brought up as opposed to the superficial bullshit that seems to plague twitter. If you want more info just let me know! EDIT: I just embedded a widget that shows my plurks into the blog on the right, hopefully this will help.

Friday, November 5, 2010

It works.

Hey guys,
Hope you all have a great weekend! Kwesi made us our sweet immortal blog, it looks awesome!
Let's all aim for 3 posts a week, and if it is possible to post your version of project immortal on here that'd be awesome (like links to Collin's youtube videos, or to Alex's facebook). That way we can watch ourselves grow in our immortality.

I have to admit it, for the first time in a while I am actually excited about a school project. Hope you all are too!