CGL 2012

1 My Question: In the first chapter KK reflects his uncertainty about the nature of technology and his own conflicted relationship to it, leading to an illuminated new world view, a newly coined word „the technium“ (to designate the greater, global, massively interconnected system of technology vibrating around us) and a proper task: to understand technology´s behaviour in order to decide how to respond. 

Kelly explains why for him technology is the seventh kingdom of life: technology never dies - even the oldest tools are newly manufactured for tourists or the markets or restored/recreated by hobbyists. Technology is memorized by culture and thus can not go extinct (only be rare) as biological species.

Inventions of early sapiens made it possible to spread to niches far beyond the range possible with genetic evolution; then the evolvement of the brain started and thus - over the chiliads - made us more dependent of technology. Kelly concludes in technology becoming a verb and a force - not a thing anymore.

In the 1st chapter of „What Technology Wants“ Kelly asks himself of the essence of technology - by the way he himself can not be considered as a tech geek - and invents the term TECHNICUM to describe the whole system of certain technologies. Moreover he stats, that autonomy of technology is often self-evident. 

In the first chapter of "What technology wants" Kevin Kelly describes his ambigous relationship towards technology which is determined through the fascination and the concern about the role of technology in people's life.

Unit Operations/Introduction: In the introduction Bogost describes the four parts of the book as well as his approach to bring together critical theory, informatics and videogames, as they are all highly specialized fields; to make a future of tangible collaboration (between the fields) possible.

Persuaive Games/Purposes of Persuasion: Bogost demands a recognization of the persuasive and expressive power of procedurality, as its processes do influence us and seed changes in our attitudes, who can result in cultural change over time and therewith change our world.

Persuaive Games/Exercise: Bogost works himself through the history of exergames, starting from DDR to Yourself! Fitness, concluding that families, who are encouraged by "the American Dream", are caught in a downward spiral between more work and less movement.

Persuasive Games/Values and Aspirations: Bogost points out, that for him there is a great difference between being schooled and educated, whereas educated means to become an expert of human improvement, how to think independently and how to express oneself.

Persuasive Games/Procedural Literacy: In Procedural Literacy Bogost explains, that video games teach biased perspectives through procedural rhetorics, which can be read through direct engagement.