Final-Part 2

2. If I had to point to a single thing that made the class entirely different than any I’ve taken, Plurk would win hands down. While it certainly wasn’t the only unique element, none of the others would have worked had it not been for Plurk. It facilitated most of the discussion in the class, pertinent or not, and created a space for people who normally wouldn’t have joined in to say their piece as well. I was dubious of the idea of a “live” class at first, but Plurk allowed ideas to be shared 24/7.
   Many of the texts we read deal with the idea of constant intellectual and personal contact as well. The classroom in Rib funk’s “After school Special” was a perfect example of teaching in this format; more or less self guided, independent, and through an avatar, the “grafix” from the story being the rough equivalent of our display names, the classroom being our friends list. The difference (aside from the obvious technological differences) lies in the fact that Plurk is always online, not just during class session. In a way, this is an even better teaching tool than the virtual classroom because the information discussed is freely given and taken. Even the most free form classroom settings have a teacher directing the course of conversation and presenting topic for discussion. On Plurk, there is no teacher at all, the conversations that arise being entirely without set direction or obligation. There is always the option not to join in on a discussion, or to start your own, an option that is not always presented in a traditional classroom.
   The Orphid-net in Postsingular is a more directly comparable system to Plurk. While reading the book, I noticed that communication vie the net was very similar to a Plurk thread. They often contained images or little clips of video, and people seemed to enter and leave at will. The Big Pig is to be a vague equivalent of the internet as a whole; massive amounts of information at your fingertips, much of it useless out of context. And it’s addictive. Perhaps that is why users of the Big Pig couldn’t remember what it was they saw while on the inside; the information could not be taken out of context.
 I wrote a blog post a while ago about the information explosion, and I think the idea of the Big Pig deals with that quite nicely. When does the pursuit of information overshadow the actual information sought? When kiqqies use the Pig, they cannot process the information gained there once they return. In other words, the Pig was producing information that was not translatable to humans and was only readable in a computer-mediated context. This is very similar to the idea of a wealth of information written by and for computers without human mediation. In a much simpler way, isn’t a youtube video just that? Without a computer, the video would be meaningless. The same goes for digital photos and text. In a way, Plurk is the Pig; we just haven’t had to be unplugged yet.
 The Diamond Age’s Drummers are another example of this idea, except that the information was actually stored in the individuals of the group. The basic idea is very similar, however, to the idea of the Pig. Each gives up their memory of the event for greater computing power. The shares some of the core concepts with the Nants as well, as the Drummers “dissolve” their consciousness to create a much more powerful computing machine. In the case of the Drummers, this is reversible, allowing the conscious mind to reassemble itself, allowing subconscious access to some of the information gained while inside the tubes. 
   All of this begs the question: what will the internet be like once technology is integrated seamlessly into the human body? I would venture to guess that the general format will be very similar to Plurk but on a much larger scale. Everything you do could be instantly uploaded and shared with your friends or the world at large. Conversations could be emphasized with clips of video or pictures. Music could be added, metanovel-like, to everyday life. We are looking now at preview of what the world will look like in the near future.