The The Machine is Us/ing Us is a video uploaded in 2007 by Kansas State professor Michael Wesch. The video presents an overview of the internet & Web 2.0 but perhaps the most interesting part of the entire video is the ending. Wesch puts the recent advances of technology into perspective, raising important thoughts that are just as relevant as ever.
Despite reaching over 11 million views the Cultural Anthropology professor did not intend to make such a popular video that the blogosphere would quickly take by storm. In fact Wesch originally created the video for his Digital Ethnography class and sent it only to his colleagues to gather feedback. From there it spread and the video was being mentioned in blogs & used as a discussion piece in courses.
With the SOPA & PIPA controversy at barely two-weeks old it breathes a new life into the videos declarations of rethinking; copyright, authorship, identity, ethics, governance, privacy, and ourselves. The truth is that we can never fully be done addressing these issues, because just like technology itself they will continue to evolve as time goes on. I believe this cause for reevaluation is healthy. It has been easy to become indifferent to certain issues such as copyrights that have manipulated by companies such as Disney, despite their ironic recent misstep.
Through all of this it has become clear that those who do not understand
the internettechnologychange are naturally fearful of it.-Colin Musselman (me)
The internet & Web 2.0 has had it’s fair share of criticism; from the MPAA & RIAA lobbying against ‘online piracy’ to the fear of over-personalization. Even the title of the ‘Machine is Us/ing Us’ implies a negative & fearful expectation for the audience. But the constant bashing of personalization & cautions of ‘the computer learning too much’ is something I do not agree with. In fact, I feel that this is something that we should very well embrace. Yes, the computer does learn from us. This is great. What is the worst thing that has happened to someone from this? Receiving ads that are relevant to your latest google search?
Also the idea of ‘us’ being the machine is something that can be easily construed into a straight-to-DVD horror story. Human computation is in my opinion one of the greatest and sophisticated concepts today. Just ask Luis von Ahn, a Professor at Carnige Mellon who has taken the human computation concept to the next level. First by integrating it into his invention of captchas (those funny looking human-checks) by helping digitize books & his latest project Duolingo having users translate the web while simultaneously learning a new language. For more in-depth info you can watch this TEDxTalk of his I was able to see in person.
The most important part of all of this is the emphasis on discussion and I believe this is what Wesch was getting at. His video seemed to not have the message to be timid/afraid about the future of technology but instead be aware of it. Instead of reacting to the evolution of technology with caution we should discuss it, test it, push it to its limits, see what happens, learn from it, and continue to do great things that change the world.
