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April 22, 2008
Doctorow (82-206)
"You friend here tells me your systems have been offline for more than a month. It sure would've been better if you'd come in to see me when it started up." (p. 124) Doctorow
Instead of being concerned with how much information we can access from our hand, the characters of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom access them via their brains. It may seem unnatural, but all technology does at first. Are they more human or more machine?
Posted by Kayla Sawyer at April 22, 2008 12:47 PM
Comments
Ohmygod that answers my question of last week. I understand the concept now. That is a crazy idea
Posted by: Rachel Prichard at April 24, 2008 4:20 PM
Strange that using a laptop to access information is very abnormal to the characters in "Down and Out." But that's the way technology is heading. It used to be that we had to sit down at a computer and message; now we have phones that do that. Microchips wouldn't surprise me, although when and if they happen, there will be a whole lot of ethical issues that arise. I wonder what the next step is...
Posted by: Daniella Choynowski at April 27, 2008 2:47 PM
There are basically no physical assets to this book due to the theme of technology.
Posted by: Jeremy Barrick at April 28, 2008 11:19 PM
Nanotechnology is common in sci-fi--take a look at Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age (one of my favorite books EVER, hurrah for the coming TV miniseries).
I think we're headed towards the fusion of man and machine, which will definitely raise some questions about ethics. One of the most prominent (in Doctorow's novel, in Stephenson's, and in plenty of others) asks how you can define humanity. How much machinery and digital technology can you add to the human body before it's no longer human?
Posted by: ChrisU at April 29, 2008 9:35 AM
If computers and artifical tech. transfer into all carbon based material, then the fusion of man and technology will not seemed as far fetched. Also, theres organizations that are attempting to create a new technology that will people to literally download new material into their brains (similiar to The Matrix). If computers become carbon, instead of plastic, and we composed of carbon, then....who knows
Posted by: DavidCristello at April 29, 2008 1:45 PM