This is really a very small sample of the things I read and run across on a daily basis. I hope I have gathered enough of a cross section here to give you all an idea of my psychosis! I changed it up a bit from the original handouts...If you got "Mobile multimedia: shaping the Infoverse" Please read it along with the following. I am sorry I couldn't upload "new theories of everything" but I got lazy and didn't want to cross any copyright boundaries. Be prepared to let me know your thoughts and if you have any ideas or see some of my connections in the following media and readings. See you all on Thursday and thanks for your participation!
http://www.immersence.com/publications/1998-JCobb.html
http://www.infoverse.org/ http://techgnosis.com/techgnosis/tgspirit.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11/persinger.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set= http://www.bwgen.com/ http://www.emotiv.com/ http://www.nrao.edu/whatisra/radiotel.shtml http://power-nap.mind-sync.com/?gclid=CNTnq9PzxY4CFRkEIwodEngECQ http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=434D7C62-E7F2-99DF-37CC9814533B90D7 http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/22050 http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn10816.html
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Digital Divine: Exploring spirituality in an expanding infoverse
Dani Ellen Day
Thesis Proposal
DMST 4850
Digital Divine: Exploring spirituality in an expanding infoverse
Conceptual Foundation
What is God, where can I find it, and why am I here? These are all questions that plague the minds and souls of humans throughout recorded history. I’m not talking about the dogmatic search for a church or the religious containment of belief and behavior. This is more about the collective tendency for humans to seek out and establish a relationship with a higher power or entity. Whether for salvation or enlightenment, the quest crosses geographical, racial, and economic boundaries and in the age of computers, Internet and mobile forms of digital media, the expansion of passageways to the divine has increased creating new ways to worship and made accessible a personal and individual digital connection with God no matter what religion encompasses the believer.
The term infoverse is both an idea of a universe of information as established by Argy Krikelis from Brunel University and new technology for liquid browsing developed by Carsten Waldeck from Darmstadt University for Media System Design. Conceptually, these two systems of thought, one spawned from the other, support the framework for my concept of Digital Divine.
Digital Divine is the term I use to define the search for god in the digital age. It is derived from the term digital divide meaning the gap between those with digital technologies and those without. In the context of my thesis, this gap is the same between humans and the divine and the closing of the divide is opening access to the divine. My understanding of what it is comes from an eclectic and somewhat eccentric collection of media and studies ranging from theological and philosophical scholarship to metaphysics, quantum theory and astrophysics. I find the electromagnetic spectrum and all it encompasses fascinating and find myself drawn toward the idea of manipulating visible and audible vibrations to enhance the spiritual experience. The possibilities of this as a reciprocal enterprise with a potential for commercial use and possible misuse is a small piece of the larger picture I would like to paint including a brief history of spirituality and practice, current trends for the digital connection to spirituality and future projections for where we may be heading both from the stand point of technology and the quest for connectedness to the greater whole.
Within the frame of historical reference I will examine various world practices and beliefs including the major monotheistic religions, Aristotle’s Metaphysics and how they relate to each other and translate into the idea of Digital Divine.
As I explore current trends and digital connectivity, I will look at the idea of divine experiences through mobile technologies including fun and games like City of Heroes and City of Villains, creation including mobile music, literature and other forms of digital art like video pod casts. I will also address the influx of commercial enterprises capitalizing on the desire for spiritual connection and anonymous worship via the Internet. I will also contemplate the closing of the digital divide due to mobile technologies making Internet contact more affordable to a broader audience and how this in turn creates spiritual connectedness. Example: Beliefnet.com’s daily horoscope via cell phone.
Under future projections I will look at brain function and states of consciousness in relation to spirituality, the possibilities of brainwave manipulation and the divine connection using current advancements in technologies like electroencephalography, radio telescopes, binaural beats, and other studies by institutions like Harvard University and The Monroe Institute.
In Jennifer Cobb’s CyberGrace: The Search for God in the Digital World, the link between god’s creation of us and our creation of machines like computers are one in the same and thus the connection between cyberspace and God are inherent.
Project Goals
Establish a framework within contemporary study to define and justify the idea of Digital Divine.
Articulate the potentials of digital media as a spiritual outlet and/or conduit for greater understanding.
Refine my personal perception of spirituality in the context of digital media.
Determine the essence of a spiritual experience.
Create a digital audio/visual project to represent the theory behind my thesis.
Outline/Timeline
Contact the department of Neuroscience at DU about options for audio/visual output via biological interface by end of October 2007.
Contact advisor for guidance by mid October 2007
Organize source materials into past, present and future by end of October 2007
Ready rough draft of proposal by November 2007 for feedback.
Implement feedback and refine sources by December 2007
Select committee by January 2008
Thesis Proposal submitted by January 2008
Work on Thesis and project January thru April 2008
Refine and submit Thesis and project May 2008
Abstract
The search for God in the digital age is as liquid as the Infoverse. The proliferation of mobile media and digital connectivity is expanding our understanding and access to spiritual experience through mobile music, literature and anonymous worship. This expanded spirituality delivered in waves of digital media circumvents dogmatic constructs and induces a meditative transcendence into various states of consciousness. Through exploration of theory and established technology, I hope to focus my own understanding of spirituality and gain insights into the human desire for divine connection. Using established conceptual framework and audio/visual representation of this connection, I will corral the current ideas of spirituality and establish a foundation for the Digital Divine.
Thesis Proposal
DMST 4850
Digital Divine: Exploring spirituality in an expanding infoverse
Conceptual Foundation
What is God, where can I find it, and why am I here? These are all questions that plague the minds and souls of humans throughout recorded history. I’m not talking about the dogmatic search for a church or the religious containment of belief and behavior. This is more about the collective tendency for humans to seek out and establish a relationship with a higher power or entity. Whether for salvation or enlightenment, the quest crosses geographical, racial, and economic boundaries and in the age of computers, Internet and mobile forms of digital media, the expansion of passageways to the divine has increased creating new ways to worship and made accessible a personal and individual digital connection with God no matter what religion encompasses the believer.
The term infoverse is both an idea of a universe of information as established by Argy Krikelis from Brunel University and new technology for liquid browsing developed by Carsten Waldeck from Darmstadt University for Media System Design. Conceptually, these two systems of thought, one spawned from the other, support the framework for my concept of Digital Divine.
Digital Divine is the term I use to define the search for god in the digital age. It is derived from the term digital divide meaning the gap between those with digital technologies and those without. In the context of my thesis, this gap is the same between humans and the divine and the closing of the divide is opening access to the divine. My understanding of what it is comes from an eclectic and somewhat eccentric collection of media and studies ranging from theological and philosophical scholarship to metaphysics, quantum theory and astrophysics. I find the electromagnetic spectrum and all it encompasses fascinating and find myself drawn toward the idea of manipulating visible and audible vibrations to enhance the spiritual experience. The possibilities of this as a reciprocal enterprise with a potential for commercial use and possible misuse is a small piece of the larger picture I would like to paint including a brief history of spirituality and practice, current trends for the digital connection to spirituality and future projections for where we may be heading both from the stand point of technology and the quest for connectedness to the greater whole.
Within the frame of historical reference I will examine various world practices and beliefs including the major monotheistic religions, Aristotle’s Metaphysics and how they relate to each other and translate into the idea of Digital Divine.
As I explore current trends and digital connectivity, I will look at the idea of divine experiences through mobile technologies including fun and games like City of Heroes and City of Villains, creation including mobile music, literature and other forms of digital art like video pod casts. I will also address the influx of commercial enterprises capitalizing on the desire for spiritual connection and anonymous worship via the Internet. I will also contemplate the closing of the digital divide due to mobile technologies making Internet contact more affordable to a broader audience and how this in turn creates spiritual connectedness. Example: Beliefnet.com’s daily horoscope via cell phone.
Under future projections I will look at brain function and states of consciousness in relation to spirituality, the possibilities of brainwave manipulation and the divine connection using current advancements in technologies like electroencephalography, radio telescopes, binaural beats, and other studies by institutions like Harvard University and The Monroe Institute.
In Jennifer Cobb’s CyberGrace: The Search for God in the Digital World, the link between god’s creation of us and our creation of machines like computers are one in the same and thus the connection between cyberspace and God are inherent.
"Living a life informed by the sacred amid a technological world poses our
greatest spiritual challenge. As we begin to actively engage this challenge, we
often come to believe that we must make a choice — spirit or machines. But as
computers such as Deep Blue have shown us, distinctions such as this are
becoming increasingly difficult to make. Nature has spawned us. We have spawned
machines. Any line drawn between these realms quickly becomes arbitrary, a
realization that seems to generate a great deal of confusion and fear. But this
does not have to be the case. As we reach into the future in search of the
age-old spiritual values of truth, beauty, goodness, and love, cyberspace can be
a powerful ally. Through the medium of computation, our spiritual experience can
be extended in profound ways. We can choose to embrace our cohabitation with
computers as a moment of vast evolutionary potential, guided by sacred
experience and ethical reflection."
Project Goals
Establish a framework within contemporary study to define and justify the idea of Digital Divine.
Articulate the potentials of digital media as a spiritual outlet and/or conduit for greater understanding.
Refine my personal perception of spirituality in the context of digital media.
Determine the essence of a spiritual experience.
Create a digital audio/visual project to represent the theory behind my thesis.
Outline/Timeline
Contact the department of Neuroscience at DU about options for audio/visual output via biological interface by end of October 2007.
Contact advisor for guidance by mid October 2007
Organize source materials into past, present and future by end of October 2007
Ready rough draft of proposal by November 2007 for feedback.
Implement feedback and refine sources by December 2007
Select committee by January 2008
Thesis Proposal submitted by January 2008
Work on Thesis and project January thru April 2008
Refine and submit Thesis and project May 2008
Abstract
The search for God in the digital age is as liquid as the Infoverse. The proliferation of mobile media and digital connectivity is expanding our understanding and access to spiritual experience through mobile music, literature and anonymous worship. This expanded spirituality delivered in waves of digital media circumvents dogmatic constructs and induces a meditative transcendence into various states of consciousness. Through exploration of theory and established technology, I hope to focus my own understanding of spirituality and gain insights into the human desire for divine connection. Using established conceptual framework and audio/visual representation of this connection, I will corral the current ideas of spirituality and establish a foundation for the Digital Divine.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
share my insanity...
Many of Erik Davis' thoughts cross boundries intersecting the thoughts and ideas expressed by each of us as we explore our own concepts and interpretations of reality...In other words...This is cool Sh!* man...
http://www.techgnosis.com/index.php
http://www.techgnosis.com/index.php
Personal, Portable, Pedestrian - a review
History repeats itself again as the trend shifts from function to fashion. In Personal, Portable, Pedestrian, a compilation of essays edited by Mizuko Ito, Daisuke Okabe, and Misa Matsuda, the never ending saga of youth taking technology by the reins and changing its function from business to pleasure is reiterated over and over again. From chapter to chapter the same thoughts resonate. It all started as a business tool hijacked by the youth of a nation then developed into a new social and political morality. This is no different than any other form of communication tools from the past. It’s just another reason to write a paper! The pocket protector came first as the pen was handed down to the public! Is it really about this specific technology or is it about the exponential rate of growth in general that humans have made over the past couple hundred years? It’s not even about the rate of growth in Japan vs. any other developed country, the technology may be different (USA PC vs. Japan Keitai) but the outcome is the same. Kids in the USA are to Internet via PC and Web Phone as kids in Japan are to Internet via pager and Keitai.
As far back as recorded history, man has tried to limit the use of tools to a specifically trained group of individuals. Blacksmiths used fire and steel, sculptors used hammer and chisel and writers and painters used pens, brushes and a specific cannon established by the ruling powers. The Renaissance brought the idea of creative use to new heights as science and art were encouraged at least amongst the elite. Now, every kindergartner in public school in the USA gets a 64 pack of crayons, a block of clay, and access to the Internet.To be creative has been particularly encouraged in the more developed countries as a way to be competitive in the global economy, so, how can we be surprised that the youth would use a tool in a way not necessarily intended? I’ve used a butter knife to hang a door!
As I read the book, I made notations in the margin of my thoughts and ideas sparked by the text only to find the same thing I wrote in the margins in the next essay or two to three essays into the book. It only solidified ideas I had based on being a parent with teenagers with cell phones and not on any scholarly information. We all know women talk more than men! It is engrained from the time we are young that men should be strong and that means silent.
There is something I did not read about in this book…has anyone considered the impact this has on the male psyche as they continue to grow in numbers of people using Keitai or other forms of communication? From a psychological standpoint this seems to be of greater importance than whether or not you decorate your phone with stickers or text during dinner.
As a mother and observant human, I see men and boys in particular opening up more to their friends and family based on their ability to speak without being seen. Its almost like the old adage “children should be seen and not heard" has reversed itself with the onset of mass personal communication. The anonymity that one gets in conversing via text message somehow allows for a more liberal view of boys and men being allowed to express themselves in a more traditionally feminine manner…i.e. “ I feel___.”
Most patriarchal societies have at least an unspoken rule about male communication and that is where much of the gender issues were addressed in this book. The fact that the mobile communication was based on business and business was for so long a man’s world crosses many geographic boundaries. The idea that only housewives and children would use this tool in an “inappropriate” manner just points out this inherent problem in many societies to determine communication and feelings as inappropriate.
As I see it, the focus should be less on the proliferation of the technology (we know its growing exponentially) and less on how it’s being used (everyone wants a companion or a date) and should look more deeply into the paradigm shift based on gender and social infrastructures. I think this book uses the words social and culture to frame a very quantitative perspective of phenomena using numbers rather than as a qualifying term to discern actual temporal changes in psychosocial dynamics.
As far back as recorded history, man has tried to limit the use of tools to a specifically trained group of individuals. Blacksmiths used fire and steel, sculptors used hammer and chisel and writers and painters used pens, brushes and a specific cannon established by the ruling powers. The Renaissance brought the idea of creative use to new heights as science and art were encouraged at least amongst the elite. Now, every kindergartner in public school in the USA gets a 64 pack of crayons, a block of clay, and access to the Internet.To be creative has been particularly encouraged in the more developed countries as a way to be competitive in the global economy, so, how can we be surprised that the youth would use a tool in a way not necessarily intended? I’ve used a butter knife to hang a door!
As I read the book, I made notations in the margin of my thoughts and ideas sparked by the text only to find the same thing I wrote in the margins in the next essay or two to three essays into the book. It only solidified ideas I had based on being a parent with teenagers with cell phones and not on any scholarly information. We all know women talk more than men! It is engrained from the time we are young that men should be strong and that means silent.
There is something I did not read about in this book…has anyone considered the impact this has on the male psyche as they continue to grow in numbers of people using Keitai or other forms of communication? From a psychological standpoint this seems to be of greater importance than whether or not you decorate your phone with stickers or text during dinner.
As a mother and observant human, I see men and boys in particular opening up more to their friends and family based on their ability to speak without being seen. Its almost like the old adage “children should be seen and not heard" has reversed itself with the onset of mass personal communication. The anonymity that one gets in conversing via text message somehow allows for a more liberal view of boys and men being allowed to express themselves in a more traditionally feminine manner…i.e. “ I feel___.”
Most patriarchal societies have at least an unspoken rule about male communication and that is where much of the gender issues were addressed in this book. The fact that the mobile communication was based on business and business was for so long a man’s world crosses many geographic boundaries. The idea that only housewives and children would use this tool in an “inappropriate” manner just points out this inherent problem in many societies to determine communication and feelings as inappropriate.
As I see it, the focus should be less on the proliferation of the technology (we know its growing exponentially) and less on how it’s being used (everyone wants a companion or a date) and should look more deeply into the paradigm shift based on gender and social infrastructures. I think this book uses the words social and culture to frame a very quantitative perspective of phenomena using numbers rather than as a qualifying term to discern actual temporal changes in psychosocial dynamics.
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