Archive: The Gnovis Blog
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Can Internet Become an Addiction?
A couple weeks ago I read a terrifying news story reading “A South Korean couple who were addicted to the internet let their three-month-old baby starve to death while raising a virtual daughter online, police said.” It was difficult to believe what I read, however on retrospect I realized that a shift on how I look at Internet addiction can make this story believable (alsCategory: The Gnovis Blog
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SXSW
In the summer of 1987, downtown Austin, Texas hosted the first South by Southwest music festival celebrated indie music with nearly 700 registrants. Since then, it has blown up. The event’s website writes, “The South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Power in Numbers: The Semiotic Meaning of the Pentagon
Flying out of Reagan National Airport over spring break for Austin, TX, my plane flew over the Pentagon. Peering out of my window from above, I looked down at a building that embodies power and military might. I began to immediately think of my research with CCT student Katerina Matsa and CCT professor Mima Dedaic.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Are We Becoming Our Own Puppetmasters?
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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In Defense of the Past, to Benefit the Future
I am currently doing my doctoral research in information science, more specifically in the area around ubiquitous and pervasive technologies and learning. As I have worked through this process I realize I keep coming back to an Atlantic Monthly article, written in 1945, by Vannaver Bush that I first read almost ten years ago. In the article Bush is discussing innovative concepts; including hypertext, social user tagging, digital photography, and even early notions of ubiquitous technology-mediated interaction. More on this later, now let me turn to the impetus for this blog post.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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A State Run Internet: Developing an Authoritarian Internet Ontology of Control
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Inherit the Wind: The Smithsonian's New Hall of Human Origins
One of the largest questions we ponder as humans is “where do we come from?” This idea is explored across disciplines; from the sciences to philosophy to literature and of course, theology. Last fall, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History announced that it is dedicating a new hall to the story of human evolution, the Hall of Human Origins, covering the origin of human beings and how all living things adapt to the natural world. The Hall’s web site describes it,
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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When Texans Attack: Inadvertently Rejecting Part of George W. Bush's Legacy
It is no secret that the federal government is unpopular currently. Very unpopular. In fact, the federal government is usually unpopular. People are cranky and Congress’ approval rating, according to recent polls , is in the mid teens. As one politician I used to work for would joke to his audiences, Congress’ approval is so bad only staffers and blood relatives support it. Jokes aside, unpopularity with Washington, D.C.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Are Online News Editors Devalued Despots?
Unlike traditional print media where a newspaper’s agenda can be inferred from a number of visual cues, online news is consumed in a virtual vacuum. Traditional methods of measuring journalistic objectivity and accuracy are of little use on the internet, where the source of the news is not only ambiguous, but often unidentifiable.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
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Does Google Make Us Smarter?
We often read articles informing us about new research on human brain, with some spectacular results. This is relatively a new trend. The invent of fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) technology in 1990s revolutionized brain research, making it possible to explore the dynamics of human brain without use of invasive methods. At the beginning of this revolution fMRI was available only in few laboratories. Then, it became more and more prevalent. Now, there is a fMRI imaging facility in almost every research university.
Category: The Gnovis Blog
