Reflection

From the readings with Brenda Laurel, she talks about how theatre is incorporated into computers. I found this concept interesting as she said that with " human-computer activity, the stage is a virtual world." I like how she uses this metaphor. She also said that it is populated by both user and computer-generated agents. When I think of this I compare how there are actors on the stage with how there are different users interacting on the internet. On the internet, however people are often creating their own narrativity over a scripted performance as they interact and do what they please. I think of it more as improvisation. She also said there are technical agents that work backstage which create the "technical magic." When she referred to technical magic she meant that there are a lot of different types of hardware and software that wereecreated by engineers and developers who help to run the backbone of the system. It is like how the stage crew run the technicalities of the show.

With the readings from Borges, I found it interesting on how he would talk about language and how it can be applied to hypertext and the web in "The Garden of Forking Paths." In the Garden of Forking Paths it relates how hypertext is explained in Borges' ideas about the book Ts'ui Pen. Borges used this to start explaining about the universe and it branches into reality. The introduction mentions that some of his ideas of hypertext are explained from his ideas about Ts'ui Pen and that the web is an invention that includes hypertext. I found it interesting how it would relate Borges' ideas with the web.

From Roy Ascott, he seems like he thinks that the human nervous system is like a communication system. He talked about how cybernetics involved the study of systems and how they interact and produce themselves. He also mentioned how a lot of it is a study of interaction with humans and technology. With Deleuze and Guttarri, they had a whole concept about a rhizome and how it is a good symbol for the internet. It is an interesting concept since the internet has nodes which are cables running through as if they were the structure of a root. I like this metaphor and think that there are other rhizomes to compare with too.

I'm think that maybe a good symbol for history and time is an hourglass. The sand passes through mark an indication of time passing and history repeats itself just how the sand is reused and tipped over again.