#notmichaelburns

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Beginning this article, I found myself somewhat worried. The reason being what Plato says about writing. Plato says four things about writing that stand out to me. First, writing is inhuman, "a manufactured product." Second, writing destroys memory. Third, a written text is unresponsive, and going along with that is the fourth: written word cannot defend itself. As I write this blog post, I find myself worrying that my memory is being destroyed. Ong goes on to write that writing or script differs from oral speech because it does not come from the unconscious. Oral speech is natural, and it just flows from us without a problem, but when we write, we are constantly thinking about how to put our thoughts into words. For example, I wrote the previous sentence a few times. Each time I wrote the sentence, I was changing the words to make it seem like it has a flow, and I also paused many times to think. If I was speaking this blog, I would not have time to stop and think about how I want my sentences to sound. I would just say what I wanted to say. With all this in mind, I find it strange that I am still writing. Would it not be best if I were to just speak these words in class, and let my unconscious take over? As I am writing, I am trying to keep these things in mind, and I am trying to stop myself from thinking about what to write. I am trying to just let everything flow as if I were speaking this blog aloud. Should we stop writing? Are we really destroying out memory, and only causing problems by writing?

Wesch's video makes an interesting point with the quotes "the machine is using us" and "the machine is us." Do we really have any control over technology? Maybe at one point we did, but it would appear now that it is spiraling out of control. I am by no means implying that we are on our way to a war with robots/technology that are trying to take over the world. But I feel we do not have much control over what technology will become. We do have the power to advance technology now, but we are powerless in trying to slow it down. We always want something to be better or faster, and that calls for new technology. Many people cannot completely unplug from technology because they are so accustomed to it. We need technology to survive. A machine needs technology to survive too. So does this mean we are "becoming a machine?"