Hughes Chapters 4 – 6 week 6
Hughes states in chapter 4 on page 107 he is talking about Bill Gates and some things Gates said in particular how education and the workplace will be transformed beyond believe because of technology. Boy, how things are changing! The school systems are trying to keep up with the Jones’s per se, but because of the lack of funding it is hard to.
When I talk about technology in the school I always think about my attempt to get a Smart Board in my classroom. I’m a speech therapist, so naturally I was last on the list to be considered for one when all the teachers in the building got theirs. Well, after 2 years of asking for one, they finally came from central office to put it in my room. I was so excited to get started and share all this new and fun technology with my kids, but I soon realized that there was one kink in my sudden burst of enthusiasm. Though they got me a Smart Board, they didn’t have the money to buy me a projector for it, so I would have to wait on that. Well, needless to say that was about 3 years ago and there is still no projector in the room. You just gotta love the school system and their thinking!
I enjoyed reading in chapter 5 about the idea of technology and art. My daughter has always loved to dabble in art, but was always to critical of herself thinking it just wasn’t good enough. I always tell her art is different to all that behold it nothing is not good enough. Now with technology she has discovered a new avenue to express herself, and post her creations on tumbler (another social site I’m just not to familiar with) In the book it talks about how architects, machinist, and artists all work together to improve industrial design. I can see why they would all work together, because they all could take away knowledge from the other that improves their specific discipline. Today technology helps all three of these disciplines, I feel, move into areas they might not of ever felt possible. For example, in architecture, with computer programs they can calculate what type of material they might need to build something to withstand an earthquake, to what degree might they be able to bend steel or some other material to get the desired look of a building they want. Artists now can get their work noticed over the internet in minutes to millions of people all over the world.
"Artists now can get their work noticed over the internet in minutes to millions of people all over the world."
ReplyDeleteYeah. As a novelist, I can tell you this is true, but the emphasis needs to be on "can" and that shouldn't be construed as "will" :)
I've been downloading some fiction (electronic) from our public library system. One thing I've noticed is that it seems as though the ability for anyone to publish anything has become much easier. So, amazingly bad pulp fiction is everywhere in e-format. However, I picked up a box of paperbacks from the 1960's the other day, and also found some amazingly horrible books. Maybe the percentage of bad fiction is increasing, or maybe it's just harder to wade through it online?
ReplyDeleteThe issue is something called "Sturgeon's Law" (sometimes "Sturgeon's Revelation") named for a famous science fiction author named Theodore Sturgeon who once said that ninety percent of everything is crap.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is this.
Sturgeon's Law is unilateral, that is, you get to pick which 10% you like and toss the rest. You don't get to pick the 10% that *I* might like because I get to do that for myself.
So far so good.
For several decades the publishing companies have been deciding which 10% they like. Those are the books they publish. Note that Sturgeon's Law still applies. Of the much reduced volume of published works (about two million books in the decade ending 2009), 90% of them are still unreadable. Of course, you and I might not pick the same 10% of "good" reads out of the pile, but it's a much reduced pile to begin with because the publishers already culled the stuff they didn't like. Sturgeon's Law would suggest that at least some of what they tossed out, I would have liked. (Just based on Pareto Analysis, I think that's a valid assumption.)
Today, I don't need a publisher to put a book together and sell it on Amazon. Neither do you. Anybody with an idea--good or bad--can publish the book. In 2010, that was a nice round one million titles published outside the mainstream press -- which published about 300,000 titles on its own.
The only thing that's changed here is the volume of work. Ninety percent of it is still crap--one in ten--but it's one in ten of 1.3 million titles instead of 1 in 10 of 300,000. So instead of 270,000 bad books, there are 1.18 million of the. Of course the other side of the equation is still true--instead of only 30,000 good books, there are 130,000.
Some want to argue that the books that have been put through the mainstream press -- vetted by an agent, edited by a professional, given cover art from a graphic designer, sold in a glossy catalog, and purchased from a bookstore shelf--are inherently better.
What's important to remember is that Sturgeon developed his law as a response to criticism of the science fiction genre in 1958. People were picking the worst examples as 'typical' instead of looking at the best examples as what it might be.
The same can be said of the current media landscape in any media, any genre. Ninety percent of it is crap. What makes it different today is that I get to see stuff that somebody else hasn't already discarded. I get to make up my own mind on the larger pool of media. I get to read stories that no publisher will buy because they don't believe it will sell. I get to listen to music that music producers won't touch for the same reasons. Sure some of it is dreadful, but some of it is brilliant.
And some of the stuff that I find most brilliant, others will find to be crap.
I'm okay with that.
I haven't found the gems of literature yet, but I have found some really decent 'indie' bands. I'm going to keep looking. Our e-library system has a flaw. It is relatively easy (although I have to go through Amazon.com) to check out a book but not that simple to return it. So, many of the books have 15+ readers queued up to check them out. There is also a 21 day borrowing period. This means potentially over 300 days before the book is available, if the borrowers aren't returning it in a timely fashion. Just bugs to be worked out of a very new technology. Still beats driving 40 miles to the library...
ReplyDeletemy favorite bands are indie bands - I guess that's because I listen to what my daughter listens too, but they are great bands. I think what makes them so great is that they really love what they are doing, they continue to trudge on even though they know they aren't being played on the radio and such. The internet has given us this great joy - it is such a medium for artist to express themselves it still amazes me what I find and what can be down with this little box sitting on my lap.
ReplyDelete