w1

The readings from week 1 reflect disappointment and overly high expectations for the simplistic vision of what was then an uncharted “cyberspace” and the adaption to technology in the imagination of the unconscious mind. Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” could arguably be deciphered as a critique on the detrimental environmental effect of e-waste, tying unemployment to automation, and how society’s obsession with technology has transformed into this codependency of aching paranoia. Arguably, Richard Brautigan’s poem deals with different forms of self-destruction in an advancing world of technology. Then there is Rick Webb’s “My Internet Mea Culpa” which highlights the contrast between the so-called internet world and an imagined utopia that Rick Webb was supposedly promised, assumingly a utopia disguised as the “future” but that is the power of marketing and consumerism, and we should’ve known there was an angle to the power of having internet access. Rick Webb may have expected a more sophisticated utilization of the internet globally instead a foreshadowing-like episode of the sketch comedy “Chappelle’s Show” called “The Internet & Moment In The Life Of Lil Jon” embodies the insanity of the internet in the form of a shopping mall by imagining if the internet were a physical place. The episode aired back in 2004. Even though Rick Webb weighs the advantages and the disadvantages of the power of the internet, imagining a “peaceful utopia” is highly unrealistic. For starters, define “peaceful utopia” and secondly don’t put all your faith into future generations as the generation to hopefully get it right, they may be the next generation of pawns unless they are raised to distinguish the differences between internet fantasy and reality. The internet has the ability to reconnect and connect people all over the world (for a monthly bill of course) but it was never intended to work on global warming or social justice, and there is the blatant contradiction, meaning the internet as space and as a commodity is dominated by white corporations.