Ursula K. Le Guin questions our assumptions of what technology is and can be. She writes this essay in response to critics opinions that her science fiction stories are 'soft' because they don't involve what we normally think of as hi-tech. In response, she argues that technology is very present within her sf writing, but our perceptions of what technology is has become skewed due to the complex innovations that are present today. These make us forget the complexities of a simple tool like a fork and knife. Technology is practically anything humans use to aid us in some way. Classifying something as hi-tech feels as though the human is seperate from that thing, however the human has everything to do with it.
J.R. Carpenter emphasizes the artistic value of websites coded by hand rather than by software. She relates it to printed matter. Unlike printed matter however, the web is always in the making, never finished. Carpenter's writing is beautiful. Her description of dated web design from the 90's and its likeness to the peeling of old wallpaper paints a visual picture of peeking into the past. The TILDE.CLUB websites are a great example of the endless layers.
Laurel Schwulst describes the website in metaphors and expresses the presence of individualism on the web removed from social media corporations. Her metaphors reinforce the idea that a website can be anything in terms of its content or lack thereof. This relieves pressure off of the author(me) and clears up space for more fun and experimentation. Moving forward, I want to break my preconceived notion of what a website should be, and instead explore the freedom that being both the author and architect brings.
Taeyoon Choi describes computation and its history, reminding us that the first computers to exist were humans! Throughout his journey of building a computer, Taeyoon learns a lot about both computers and humans. His comparison of the appearance of the internal hardware of a computer to city planning makes complete sense, a lot of parts of a thing ultimately contributing to the functioning of the whole. He relates the patterns in computation to those in abstract painting and architecture. The differences of comuptation and city planning, as Taeyoon describes, is that cities are unpredictable where as computation isn't, but prompts us to ask what sort of computers do we want to use and what sort of cities do we want to live in?
Something I almost immediately took note of while reading through this website was the difficulty I had in concentrating on the writing due to the multiple tabs, random sounds, and the dropdown list on the right all meant to signify updates. Copley recreated the experience of existing online by illustrating how hard it is to concentate on one thing when our screens are flooded with distractions.