Tools That Change the Way We Think

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. 'It will be included in people's brains,' said Page. 'When you think about something and don't really know much about it, you will automatically get information.'

'That's true,' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what's going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page,' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you'll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer."

-From In the Plex by Steven Levy (p.67)


I've found that education is different for me than for generations of the past. Information comes easily, and without the effort that people of the past went through to learn. Learning is not just reading and writing now. It isn't basic math. Learning and thinking has become more critical. What do we want to learn? In today's world we have every resource available to us. Whether we use those resources for good, or for other more destructive purposes is entirely us to us. People can either go with the flow of information fed to them, or go beyond the relm of known facts to something worth knowing, that not everyone accepts as fact. Today, I have less of a problem challenging the facts given to me. I accept what I'm told, and don't go beyond the relms of convience. My thinking is something that hasn't gotten lazy. My ideas are still my own. I know what I think, I may not challenge it because of laziness, but I know what is right, I know what I should do still, I can thinik for myself, I have my good ideas. I may be lazier, but I know how to think for myself.

In Search of.....

After watching the "filter bubble" video, I have begun to wonder what I'm not seeing that I'd should, or that I need to. While redoing my "Shakespeare" search, I started to think... "Is this what everyone else is seeing?" So I used another, public, computer with Google. Then I used the same public computer with the Dogpile search engine. My results were very different. At home, my computer only showed me the author's biographical information, and quotes or plays that he had written. At the public computer, I was hit with fishing equipment, conspiarcy theories, and a few legitimate sources that were what I had seen before. The two were nothing alike.

Notes on "Hamlet"

Hamlet went from a whiny boy to a man with a purpose. He has evolved from a love sick, mourning, and composed prince to a man charged with dealing with the issues set before him. Hamlet changed my mind about the plot. His determination, and his willingness to act on his duty charged to him by the ghost of his father has turned the play from a story about a man waiting for his problems to be solved, to someone who has taken his fate into his own hands, Hamlet is no longer the submissive son. He is the vengeful prince, whose father was murdered. I see Hamlet becoming more bold than he currently is. All the characters have to express their intense emotions at some point, or end in sorrow, or worse...

Who Was Shakespeare?

First, from Google we find shakespeare.mit.edu, which takes us to a time line of important events in William Shakespeare's life. Born in 1564 at Stratford-upon-Avon, he married Anne Hathaway in 1582. His children Susana, Hamnet, and Judeth were born between 1583 and 1584. In 1596, Hamnet dies, then 1598 Shakespeare's first play is published. The next important point on the time line is Shakespeare's death in 1616.

Then, again from taking my search on Google further from "William Shakespeare" to "William Shakespeare's life" we find a more detailed summary of the life of Shakespeare. From http://www.enotes.com/, we find that William was the eldest son of John and Mary Arden. John was today's equivilant of the town's mayor, and his wife, Mary, was the daughter of local gentry. William was born in April of 1564, and attended the local grammar school until age 15. After leaving school, he worked for his father. William lived in Stratford-upon-Avon and it was there that he met his wife, Anne Hathaway, who was 8 years his senior. His daughter Susana was born 6 months later. William, then became an actor and writer for the theatre in London. When the plague closed the theatres William worked for, he began to write sonnets and narritave poetry. The Earl of Southampton has been recognized as Shakespeare's benifactor, although no real evidence exists. From this narritave of Shakespeare we learn that the sonnets that were written, were more likley signs of the time, instead of being expressions of a relationship as often thought. After becoming partner in the Globe Theatre, William Shakespeare became co-owner of another theatre. He worked until retiring to Stratford-upon-Avon where he died in 1616.

We are left to wonder much about the life of this man. Where the sonnets a reflection of feeling? How could a man write such passionate works of poetry, and it only be a sign of the time? Why did Shakespeare leave his rural life for London? What inspired him to write?

Students see Shakespeare in two ways. Hoplessly romantic (almost overly romantic) or dumb. Many students don't understand the simplicity of expression in Shakespeare's wordy lines. He expresses extreme emotion in legnthy, beautiful language, that many don't take the time to understand. They hear the words, without listening to the meaning behind the lines. Shakespeare leaves no emotion unturned as he goes to the depths of the human heart. Exploring and expressing what no man has before. My first real exposure to Shakespeare was a sonnet in the 7th grade that my literature class took apart to understand, and learn more about. I fell in love with the symbolism and the imagry used. It was like nothing I had experienced in my eight years of education. I had heard the name, but had never read the words. I understood then that it was beautiful. Now, I know that it is complex. There is more said in Shakespeare's word than is ever actually said. So much of Shakespeare is unwritten, and open to a person's own understanding. Shakespeare can mean something to everyone, but at the same time, every reader can come away with a message tailored for their mood, and state of mind at the time they read the work. I still struggle understanding what other people want me to see in the words on the page of anything written by Shakespeare. I read what the words on my page say to me. Not what the words on their page say to them.

To Facebook or Not To Facebook...

That is the question. Whether tis nobler to hide thy life from the world? Or monitor the heck out of your "digital foot print." There seem to only be extremes in the digital world. Either you let people see every inch of your life, and let it haunt you for the rest of your cyber life, or you take no part in a cyber existance. Facebook has changed the way people communicate. It has made it easier to locate long-lost friends, and has allowed people to stay in touch with one another in a way never before experienced. Facebook, also makes it easier for people to see things you may not want them, or anyone to see. You can not control what others say about you, or what people may post at any given time that you just don't want the world to know about.

After reading and discussing an aritcle about Facebook, I better understand the lack of privacy that I experience on Social Networking sites, and on the internet as a whole. Nothing is private, nothing stays between the people having the converstaion. The internet is a wonderful tool with much potential for good, but it also has the potential to wreak havoc on the users who trust too much in their privacy settings.

(Don't) Be Hamlet

Hamlet, is having trouble deciding whether life is worth living. He is coming to the conclusion himself that people only continue living because they fear what may come from "the undiscovered country." He understands the emotions that may cause a person to end the agony that he sees as life, but he fears death. Not only because it is a sin in the eyes of those arround him, but he fears the unknown. "For in that sleep of  death what dreams may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil must gives us pause."

In Hamlet's mind, there are two options: kill himself, and end his Earthly troubles, or fight the battles he needs to fight, to slove his problems. His dilema, is not only an physical one. He must decide for himeslf whether he is moraly prepared, and spiritualy ready to accept death, though he does not know what comes after.

Hamlet does, however, have responsibilities that outweigh even his self importance. His duty to his country, his duty to his father, and his duty to himself to be the person he has the potential to be. He must fufil his responsibilities, and learn to deal with the stresses that come with the life he leads. He must do his duty. No one will do it for him.

Hamlet is still young. He has much life ahead of him, and must try to get past himself to learn to deal with his own life. He will have struggles in the future. Life doesn't get easier. He needs to learn that his life is one of heartache and pain. He needs to tough it out.