Science fiction

I have looked at different online Encyclopedias, Encyclopædia Britannica (http://www.britannica.com/ ), Wikipedia: the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/) and Infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com). Encyclopædia Britannica is one of the most trusted sources of information and you have to pay for it, not so fun if you just need it for a short period of time. But on the other hand it is more accurate then free Encyclopedias, because not everyone can edit the article’s, it is done by special paid staff. And I believe that it is more trustworthy than say Wiki. Even if Wiki claims that the writers are supposed to be Natural in there edits some times it might pas there checks. However I do think Wiki is a fast way of finding information, but I would not use the information that I find in Wiki as a school project; I would I would look for other sources to use. Furthermore Wiki admits that: “newer articles may still contain significant misinformation”. I found that wikis explanation differs from the other Encyclopedias when I search for “Science Fiction” I the three different Encyclopedias.

Wiki explains that “Science Fiction” is: speculations based on current science or technology. Buy this is not what I learned in my first Literature class. My view of “Science Fiction” is more accurate to what Encyclopædia Britannica and Infoplease describes: form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. And Infoplease ads that it is also: comments on political and social concerns.

When I read on I discovered that I found a more precise explanation in Britannica. In Wiki it say that “Science Fiction” is difficult define; I think that this is written because today the term might change. The statement reflects upon the cultural moment that we have now, is the world “Science Fiction” changing its meaning? Or do not the people that wrote that article know what “Science Fiction” is?

Another thing that I thought Britannica was better in, was to explain relative books, “Science Fiction” books that was written by famous authors. While in Wiki they brought up a lot of subgenres and explanation of them. And in my case I am mot interested in the subgenres, I am interested in the word “Science Fiction” and its meaning a Britannica was the one that fulfilled my expatiations.

My conclusion is that Britannica had more of the information that I was looking for and it is more reliable when it comes to using the information for academic purpose. But Wiki gives me a cultural insight on what the word means to people. Because we “the non researcher and professors” might not have the same view of a word as the researcher and professors have. And we are the majority of the population so through Wiki we can put our definition on a word that means something to us. Words are explained in another language that we might understand easier that Britannica, which is more theoretical based.

Wiki is more modern way of finding information and Britannica is the old fashion way.

Wiki as a social an intellectual experience

People can sign up to be a part of Wikis network of volunteers that controls what people ads to the Encyclopedia. They are in a social network that makes sure that the new edits made in Wiki are not damaging the pervious text and that people follow Wikis rules.

The ones that participate in Wikipedia’s development in not only a part of wikis social network they also get an intellectual experience. Because they have to make sure that their facts are supported by out standing sources.

Work Cited

http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9066289/science-fiction

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0844066.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_fiction

Digital Art

Implementation:

This is an interesting and different way to combined literature and art, a different way to get the message out to the public, but what about the cities roles. You can not just wake around and post stickers everywhere it won’t be appreciated you are not allowed (at least in Sweden) to destroy privet property. Not an art form that I would support.

I love Bees

Is an Alternate reality game, this game combined in-game and out-of-game experience. You could get a cal or email from an Artificial Intelligence character. It is up to the players to figure out the real story and what have happened to Dana’s weblog. This game was designed to campaign Halo2.

“New Media Art” The Dumpster

This creation is using text from different blogs, one dot represents one peas of blog text. And you can press the moving dots to create your story. I found this art piece interesting, because it was fun to create my own “story”. I did not have control over the text that was presented to me but in the same time I chose which dots I wanted to read about.

http://artport.whitney.org/commissions/thedumpster/dumpster.shtml

Tea Blog

This software art is based on the creators love for tea. Every time she had a cup of tea or any kind of hot drink she wrote down the time and her thoughts that she had at that moment. You can view the work in several different ways, random or linear. This art work is interesting because I as a viewer I just get her thoughts I do not know if she is going to make it happen or if it is just dreams. I have to guess a lot of things in order to create a story.

http://www.teablog.net/

Wikipedia

Internet art, Digital art and New Media art is similar. It is a New Media Art (it represents all digital arts) form that uses the internet and computers to create an art form. The art can contain movies, animations, and hypertext. Internet art use Video as an medium white Digital art use photos and manipulates them to something more extraordinary.

essay

I am going to write my essay about The Matrix and compare it to the “reality”, what can we learn from a movie like The Matrix? To prove my claims I am going to bring up other science fiction books that I have read.

The Matrix vs. Snow crash

The movie the Matrix and the book Snow Crash have several similarities. The virtual worlds have a great impact on the characters real life; they are both constructed after a principle that is explained in the Matrix “the body can not live without the mind”. If your mind dies (your avatars mind) you will die. However in the Matrix you can also die if you get hurt on the rest of your body in the virtual world, but in Snow crash you are just logged of from the virtual world for a couple of days if someone kills your avatars thought a body injury, not the mind.

Mr. Smith vs. L. Bob Rife

They both manipulate other people’s minds; Mr. Smith does it in the virtual world while Mr. Rife does it in real life. But the principle is the same; they take over your mind and controls it. Mr. Rife does use the virtual world to control the hacker; because they are smarter than the regular person and thru out the history one hacker manage to get free from the mind control. So he invented Snow crash and by speeding it he controls the hackers thought fear of the drug which keeps them occupied with the drug instead of seeing what he is planning.

What is reality?

Virtual worlds… something new and exciting for a lot of people, except for me. I have tried to spend time in Second life and I do not see any point in it. Sure you make friend there and can express yourself in another way than in reality. But does it change my “Reality”, how does the virtual world affect my real life? Some people do have problems seeing the difference between games and reality. So what about virtual world and reality, can we lose touch with the life that really matters. Will second Life and other virtual worlds take over our concepts of reality?

I can agree that it is nice to escape from the reality some times; I do that daily through TV and books. But second Life is something different, it is more real than watching TV or reading a book. As the technique progress can we, in the future still separate virtual worlds from our real life? For some people a virtual world can be a positive experience, you can get away from your nemesis, but in that same time you can find them there. And it is just a matter of time before hatred, racism and harassment converts in to the virtual worlds. Lets face it, the companies are already in Second Life and maybe one day FBI will haunt terrorists in this world too, maybe they already do.

I read an article in Aftonbladet, a reporter had tried Second Life and said that it is all about sex in second Life. I have not experience that myself, but if it is true where do we draw the line? If it would have been real life people would have reacted. Is everything allowed in the new virtual worlds, or can we stop it before it gets out of hand?

Sure not every thing is negative with the virtual worlds, so far and everything that I have read about Second Life is positive. But I think that we have to face the facts that everything has a backside, so what is Second Life’s?

Call me negative but one day we will all have to face the backside of virtual worlds, just take the Internet as an example. Everything was great from the beginning until people started misusing it.

Flickr

Flickr is a society site that I might have an interest in joining. Because I enjoy taking photos and then edit those in Photo shop. As I have mentioned earlier in my Blog I do not spend so much time in front of the computer, so when it comes to editing photos I mostly do that when I an going to use them for something. But if I join a society like Flickr it might feed my photo interest, because Flickr offers ideas and feedback. I can get inspired from other Flickr members and learn how they use their camera. And I can also get feed back from people that view my Photos and from their negative or positive comment I might learn something new. Flickr also offers a private sharing option, which means that I can share my more Private photos with my friends. This option would be very use full for me since all my childhood friends are spread out all over Sweden.

So maybe I should try Flickr.