Reflection on Wikiegoism

iWeb is a web development program, produced by Apple, that comes with the Macintosh iLife program. That one sentence probably took longer to craft than the rest of my entire wiki, and rightfully so, it is the introduction. W hat strikes me as more amazing, is that I did not technically write it, someone else did and I edited it. When I began work on my wiki, there was already an article written, and I underestimated the amount of time that I would have to put into it. However, "just" proof-reading and revising became about as engrossing as I thought writing it from scratch would be. The pertinet information was all there, but I would either catch grammatical errors like run-on sentences or redundancies, or I would simply decided to reword it to reflect my own personal style. In my vanity, I would think that I took a literary disaster and turned it into a masterpiece but, when I would reread it, my version was just as bad. Now, I have reached a point at which I am satisfied. Yet, I can not help wondering what the next writer will do. Obviously there will be updates to iWeb that need to be added to the wiki, but my ego wants to believe that he or she will be so impressed with my work that my successor will not dare touch my masterpiece. Somehow, I do not think that will happen. If there is one thing that I learned from my constant revisions, it is that another look and another set of eyes can always improve a situation, even if it is nominally good. We need a variety of perspectives to make a complete message, and technology like wikis and blogs are ideal for that. The wiki literally allows each reader to adjust the last, and in all likelyhood, improve its accuracy and detail. The blog lets me convey my thoughts in a formal pattern, and invite feedback so that I can modify my message and learn from others. I hope that I/we can do this in all other things as well.

Technology Fatigue, OneStep Forward, Two Steps Back

If technology allows us to extend ourselves, does it also allow us to overextend ourselves? My experience this week led me to think so. Trying to balance between school and work, I tend to use an old-fashioned technology to support myself. That's right, I'm talking about coffee! Every Saturday I work till 3 A.M. and drink coffee to stay awake; on Sunday I tend to sleep late as a result, and stay up late to make up for lost study time. Because of a Geology test, I kept myself up late each night this week to study, and by Thursday evening, I basically crashed. I wonder if this is not a symptom of our society's embrace of technology.

The internet allows us to connect globally, and our personal computers allow us to store and access exponentially higher levels of information beyond our physiological capabilities. Theoretically, the availability of all this information should facilitate intellectuals to examine a diverse range of ideas. Certainly diversity of thought would not foment any kind of consensus, but I initially thought that some streamlining of the discussion would take place. Yet, if you look at the website, www.realclearpolitics.com, you see that the opposite is true. Instead of reigning in the wackiness, we seem to have an even larger expansion of Mickey Mouse journalism. Half the magazines portray the Republican Party as racist, mysoginistic, servants of the ultra-wealthy and the other half argue that the Democratic Party is group of pot-smoking, sex-crazed socialists. A bit of a tangent I will admit, but my point is that the technological advances of journalism and politics have not really brought any maturity to the discussion.

I also wonder if this applies to our current dilemma in South Asia. I wonder, if our country had not mastered its global military reach, maybe we would have been forced to find less fossil fuel-exhausting methods of generating electricity and transportation. Technological advancement has also enhanced the power of international terrorism. I mean seriously, why else would the Pashtun tribesman of Afghanistan matter to us (or us to them)? In the context of two wars, it seems that our advancements have facilitated destruction more than growth.

Sadly, my fatigue has reduced me to yet another "Negative Nancy." I blame technology.