The future and other thoughts

To be honest, I have no clue that the future holds for digital humanities. But when you think about it, that is pretty exciting. 10 or 20 years ago not many people could have predicted all the things we have now. Some of the coolest things that technology will have to offer us in the future are the things that none of us can even imagine yet. That being said, digital humanities as it is now is a very interesting and ever-changing field. It is challenging the traditional way we view not only literature, but all different forms of media and art. I think that we are living in a pretty amazing time period in terms of they way technology is progressing, and I'm looking forward to see where all of this takes us in the future.

Final project: Ryan's tour of Johnstown!

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Final project ideas

Honestly, I am not entirely sure what I am going to do for my final project. I have some vague ideas. It will most likely involve creating a video with music, random images, and text. But I'm not really sure yet.

Second Life

Second Life is an interesting idea, and it is something that I feel has potential to be interesting, but I feel as though it is a novelty that quickly lost its appeal. While running around with a bunch of people in a digital environment doing weird crap is amusing for a little bit, it didn't take long to become frustrating. It felt like a video game, but with no clear objectives. At least in most video games, you have missions and things to accomplish to advance in the game; Second Life just allows you to wandering randomly with no agenda what so ever. At least in Grand Theft Auto you can kill and destroy stuff in your wandering. Overall, Second Life is an interesting concept that entertains you briefly, but that's about it.

Where are they now?

Social Media

I feel that social media is actually a very important part of Digital Humanties. The internet has created many new ways for people to get stories and ideas out there, and social media provides everybody with an internet connection an easy way to have there voice heard. Now, this doesn't meant that every blog or tweet or what have you is going to be some sort of earth shattering work of genious; as with any form of media there will be a large amount pointless garbage to wade through; but the potential of social media is virtually limitless. You can keep in touch with friends, you can voice you thoughts and opinions, you can even have a major impact on society, as evidenced by the use of social media in the occupy wall street movement and various other major protests and political events of the past few years. As relatively new form of communcation, social media is something that should not be underestimated.

eXistenZ

For a movie that is 14 years old, it is startling how much of eXistenZ now seems like it could be reality. Video games have evolved over the past 2 decades into a very immersive experience; it seems very feasable that one day we could have video games that could essentially become a virtual replacement for everyday life. In today's society we already have people who's main focus in life is video games. As games become more sophisticated and life like, the temptation to live in a fantasy world increases.

The ablilty to discern fantasty from reality is another major them of the film, and it is also relevant to gaming today. Violence in video games, and weither or not it contributes to violence in the real world, is still a major talking point in today's society. With the increase in violent shootings, video games are again under attack. But there is a deeper issue here, and that is the ability to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. The film deals with this heavily, and by the end of the movie you still have no idea if what is going on is real, or part of the game.

I feel like we are not very far from having video games similar to eXistenZ. While I feel it is unlikely that there will ever be video games that actually plug into your body, there is already a subculture of video game fanatics that would seemingly be more than happy replace there regular lives with a virtual one. For now we can only ponder the ramifications that such a game would have on modern society.