The END of the Line

-1994 Philip E. Agre. American professor of information studies. Agre's 1994 essay "Surveillance and Capture" addressed directions privacy and surveillance could head in as a result of the "information age". Agre has been an advocate for internet privacy since the beginning, defending us from the far-seeing eye of the ever-looming "Big Brother."

-1994 Espen J. Aarseth (1965-present). Important figure in the field of "video game studies." His essay "Nonlinearity and Literary Theory," is about the field of literary theory and criticism in the hyper/cybertext age. He was one of the first to address nonlinear text as a new form of literature, whith its own brand of theory and criticism.

-1994 Critical Art Ensemble--organization consisting of five members with various new media expertise (video, animation, graphic and web design, etc.) whose is focus the exploration of the intersections between art, critical theory, technology, and political activism. "Nomadic Power and Cultural Resistance" discusses their theories about how the internet has made traditional activism impossible and most new technologies only benefit "the man" anyway, so the only place to "stick it to him" is in cyberspace.

-1994 "The World-Wide Web", this article written by "Berners-Lee et al" describes and defines every aspect of the modern www phenomenon. The essay also compares alternate proposed versions of the web which didn't make it to the one that did. In the end the web didn't have to be amazing, just good enough to send email.



Reaction:

Surveillance--I understand the privacy concerns and how big brother-like the web must have seemed in the beginning. This is especially relevant now with the patriot act and that big long list of possible terrorists which has prevented tons of normal people from flying. I'm honestly surprised that the government is that organized. On the one hand, I don't care if people are watching me, but on the other hand--who are they, and why are they doing it? I throw out tons of tracking cookies every time I scan my computer, but it didn't stop someone in Madrid from emptying my bank account last September. I got the money back, but my questions have not been answered.

Espen Aarseth--who is this guy? I bet he made up that name, anyone who studies video games and their profundity as "just games, meant to be played" needs a name like that. I don't understand why he went off on this cyber lit theory tangent though.

CAE--Words like "cyberhippies" are so funny to me! I think this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard of. "Cyber sit-ins?" are you kidding? Maybe I'm still stuck in a print mentality.

WWW--I've heard my grandpa talk about how flawed the internet was for years; he's probably the only person over 60 I've ever known who's better at figuring out technology than my 10-year-old cousins. I remember when it first became public and there were all these ads on the radio encouraging people to "get connected" and "join the information superhighway." Now we can't do anything without it.