#!/usr/local/bin/php
Computers and CultureComputers and
Culture Computers
form a very important part of my life.
After all, I am devoting four years
of my life and my higher education
to them. To me they are an expression
of how my mind works, and allow me to
develop ideas into reality. I enjoy
using computers to learn about how they
work. This is not a new concept,
and as meaningful as it is to me,
it does not represent the greatest
achievement of the computer.
Computers have been the outlet of
scientifically minded people for the last
30+ years. What has allowed computers
to change the world forever is "The
human touch". Today's computer can
be used by the general public to create
and share in a way never before
possible, and it is this facet of the
computer that has transformed it
from a monolithic calculating device to a
true cultural icon.
Perhaps to fully appreciate the
significance of this fact a brief
look at the computer's meteoric
rise to power is in order.
Computers
started out as sinister looking government machines that
cost millions. They were no more
powerful than today's calculator, but were
the size
of small apartments. Throughout the 60's and 70's, they permeated
the commercial world, but were still
out of reach to the common person.
The 80's brought with it a raft
of consumer computers at a reasonable price.
The micro'
craze of the 80's paved the way for the world we know today, but
these computers were still the domain
of 'hackers and geeks' in most peoples
eyes. Believe it or not, the media
had an important role in the making of the
computer revolution. Films like
'wargames' and 'tron',
fascinated the world
while exposing them to the wonders
of computers. As the 90's rolled in so
did the internet hype train, "Hackers
the motion picture", and the iMac.
The rest, as they say, "is history".
So
what does the computer have to offer the person of today?
I feel that there are three main
driving forces in effect, the first is the
use of the computer as a creation
medium. Today most commercial music and
video is edited on computers, photos
can be edited to show almost anything:
no longer can you believe what you
see! However, in my opinion the greatest
achievement is the creation of whole
new art forms. Synthesizers are used to
create much of today's music, and
far from sounding banal and repetitious, this
ability expands our horizons infinitely,
no longer being bound to the physical
limitations of traditional instruments.
While computer graphics were
originally used to make accurate
diagrammatic style drawings, their new
found abilities have had a profound
effect on the world that many people may
not even be aware of. Stunning
3D scenes can be created to be used as still
images or as clips in films, often
possessing an uncanny organic feel to them.
Indeed entire movies have been created
as such. It is fast becoming impossible
to distinguish these images from
reality! One less known about type of
computer graphic is the fractal.
The fractal is not a new concept, but until
the arrival of the computer, mathematicians
had no way to realise it's
stunning complexity. Fractals are
images created from mathematical equations
based on imaginary numbers. These
equations could be the key to life itself!
Fractals have been found to model
accurately many naturally occurring
phenomena, from weather patterns
to coastlines to living
plants.
Aside from all this they are also
incredibly beautiful and infinitely
complex. They must be seen to be
believed!
The
second main driving force is the use of computers as a distribution
medium. Perhaps the most (im)famous
use of the internet is the dissemination
of music in MP3 format. What this
means basically is that artists can now cram
an entire musical performance into
a file that can be shared and enjoyed by
countless others around the world.
To a musician, the thought of being able to
distribute their work to millions
of people for the price of a phone call, is
incredible. The other aspect to
this is that it tends to make the record
companies redundant. They can no
longer dictate what we as a society listen
to and purchase. They no longer
have a stranglehold on the artists either.
This situation has led to frantic
implementation of some pretty hairy laws
regarding the use of digital distribution
media. In my opinion they have
already lost the MP3 battle, but
the war still
rages with regards to
"DVD" and "DivX;-)" , which deal
with video distribution.
However, there is far more at work
on the internet than the distribution of
multimedia. The web, one service
of the internet designed for information
sharing, was originally designed
to share scientific information. The ability
to share ideas on such a large scale
and to update them continuously makes
the web the most important breakthrough
since the Gutenberg press. Revolution can
happen in days instead of years,
and the fact that the web is not controlled
by any one government makes it a
voice of freedom.
It is the great equaliser, allowing
all information to be accessed without
bias. For example, if person X has
an organisation One-Man-Show, it is as easy
to access his website www.oms.org,
as it is to access the website of
Super-Global-Corporation www.sgc.com
.
In my opinion, all these features
may make the internet responsible for major
cultural change, and may even accelerate
our evolution.
The
third driving force builds on the ideas of the previous paragraph.
What I'm referring to is the formation
of the online community.
The previous paragraph dealt with
a one to many model: one artist to the
world, one company to the world.
As the internet, and the web especially,
developed over the years, its users
began to interact more creatively with
each other, and the idea of "cyberspace"
became more tangible each day.
This new space has a new community,
one that transcends physical and
geographical boundaries. Online
services allow "netizens" to collaborate and
interact with each other. Entirely
new sub-cultures were born:
Hackers
(Ok, this is not a new culture, but it has been transformed by the 'net)
