Metaphor Blog Entry #1

The technology I have chosen to talk about is the iPhone 4. While the commercial (shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHngLJ0RlNg&feature=channel) admits that this is only the fourth installment in a line of products, it also claims that the “iPhone 4 is so much more than just another new product. This will have a lasting impact on the way that we connect with each other” and that “this is going to change everything, all over again […] it’s going to change the way that we communicate forever.” Not only does the iPhone 4 work as a phone, but it combines every media type a person might need. It shows movies, takes pictures, does email, records and edits film, plays games, facilitates texting, functions as a book reader, and plays music.

           

            While texting and camera features are common, the thing that sets the iPhone 4 apart is its ability to meet or exceed our natural ability to communicate. The resolution is so high, claims the ad, that while using the book reader function, “it looks to your eye like you’re holding a printed page in your hand.” Video conferencing allows you to look into your children’s eyes and see how they are really doing, video editing helps create memories the way they were meant to be, and the phone will automatically and intelligently create folders for your information. To top it off, all of this life shaping software is housed in a cutting edge case of newly developed and custom engineered materials.

What makes this reality-replacing and supplementing device accessible is that “the iPhone, for the user, it is simplicity, it is easy to use; behind it, it is intense technology.” Basically, the software is advanced so that the wetware does not have to be. But the phone is still centered around the user. “The quality of the materials, the manufacturing precision, the advanced technology, ultimately all of this becomes relevant when you just hold it in your hand.” The iPhone 4 is, after all, just an extension of your body and your natural ability to communicate – even if it extends beyond what you could do on your own. You cannot upgrade yourself (yet), but you can upgrade the way you connect with other people.

            Levy would certainly see some themes found in the iPhone that fall in line with his work. One of these themes would be his emphasis on interconnectivity in the cyber age. In “The Social Movement of Cyberspace” he states that “for cyberculture, being connected is always preferable to being isolated. Connectivity is good in itself” (p. 107). The iPhone ad assumes this; at no point does the advertisement try to convince the viewer why we should want to connect with each other, just that the iPhone will allow us to be better connected than ever before. Earlier in the same work, Levy talks about how technology is becoming more and more integrated, and how software “will sooner or later adhere to a small number of international standards” (p. 93). The iPhone takes the same principle a step further: other people with iPhones can use specific features, and this universally useful device could eventually become the medium through which you experience all media and communication. Why buy a book reader or a music player when this one product encompasses everything you could possibly need? The iPhone 4 is your portal to the cyberworld.

            We need to communicate within the cyber realm, claims the ad, and the more advanced your device is to aid in this communication the better. The iPhone 4 is just a tool, but the spirit of the video is quick to remind us that our lives and relationships as humans are dependent on tools – and this phone is as essential as a pair of shoes. The manufactures at Apple act as though we already use smart phones and are welcoming us into the future where the way we communicate will be changed forever.

An introduction to duality in cyberspace

Wertheim, Margaret. The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace: a History of Space from Dante to the Internet. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999. Print.

I would like to start these blog posts (and future paper) with a discussion on dualism and how it functions in our conception of cybercultures and cyberspace.

Margaret Wertheim, in her book “The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace,” discusses how cyberspace exists as a conceptual space. Drawing from chapter six, she argues that the cyberspace realm, as conceptualized in William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” and found in the modern internet, is an actual realm, though it is one contained purely in the mind. She draws parallels between this and the spatial dualism of the Middle Ages, where “Christians believed in a physical space described by science […] and a nonphysical space that existed ‘outside’ the material domain” (p. 227). To carry this further, she goes on to say “cyberspace has become a new realm for the mind” (p. 230).

She briefly mentions Freud and the concept of the mind itself as being its own space or landscape before quickly transitioning to the topic of MUDs. MUDs, or multiuser domains, act as playgrounds for role-playing and social interaction. Because changing personas is so easy in this environment (i.e. the famous case of Joan/Alex mentioned later in the chapter) MUDs allow for the exploration of the psyche in open and direct ways that Freud could only dream of. While Wertheim never directly makes this argument, it would not be a big leap to claim, based on this, that the emotionally honest world created by the mind online is more representative of a person’s true self than the construct shown to people in the physical world – that the masks shown in the nonphysical realm better reflect a person’s nature than the masks shown in “real” life. As Wertheim quotes from Turkle’s “Life on the Screen,” one MUDer claims that “this is more real than my real life” (p. 240).

While she treats cyberspace as a real, even if contained within the mind, she draws a distinction between that world and “reality.” This is done chiefly though listing limitations found in reality and not in cyberspace. These limitations include the permanence of death in reality, the inability to easily change identities, etc. Because of the distinction, one reality must remain primary (the physical) while the imagined world of cyberspace is not able to exist independent of this physical space.

Overall I would recommend this reading to someone interested in the basics of the dualism argument regarding cyberspace. The chapter not only talks about the real-world internet but draws parallels between our cyberspace and the cyberspace conceived of in fiction. For those interested in an introduction to the philosophical aspects of cyberspace (Wertheim mentions Descartes a few times in reference to dualism) this reading is a great place to start. However, while this is a good place to start a conversation, go into this knowing that the reading lacks a certain amount of depth on some topics that is found in other articles and is itself only a chapter from a larger work.

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