Bio Mapping and Mobile Landscapes

Today we read an online article discussing “Bio Mapping.” This involves the user to record their emotional arousal coming from their environment. It could be used to see how different environments affect people. I thought this idea was truly interesting. Could we possibly relate this to places and non-places. It would seem that a non-place would be much less stimulating than a place. For instance, I’m much less emotionally involved on the bus than I am say, at a concert. This article also made me think of another article I’d read concerning video games. A new company uses “biofeedback” to interpret brain waves of users. The users concentration is evident in the game. For example, only those people who showed much concentration, would be able to sink a put in a golf game. I find it amazing that our technology has progressed to the stage where we can pick up our own thoughts. Some day will we be able to install chips, which allow us to send thoughts to each other. Maybe we’ll even be able to move objects with our minds.

We also read an article titled “Mobile Landscape.” This article discussed being able to track all of the cell phones used in a city. Then, we’d be able to graphically represent every cell phone, and see the city as an almost pulsating life form. This idea is a bit scary to me. I don’t much like the idea that someone can know exactly where I am or what I’m doing at any time. It seems that as our technology becomes more advanced we give up more of our freedom. Today, we may be giving up our location because of our cell phones, and perhaps tomorrow, we’ll be giving up our thoughts.

Slime Mold

For this week, we read the first part of Emergence by Steven Johnson. In the book’s intro it discusses an experiment involving slime mold going through a maze and finding food at the end of it. I’d never heard of anything like this from an organism this simple, and found it pretty amazing. It’s actually sort of always impressed me how other animals can do this as well. It’s funny that many of these animals could find food better in a maze than a human most likely could. It seems different organisms have different strengths.

The book also discussed how the slime mold had “coordinated group” behavior. This made me think of how humans can behave in the same way many times. We behave one certain way by ourselves, and may act in a completely different manner when we’re around others. I’ve discussed the “sheep effect” before when talking about people following others across the street. While you may not cross the street before the light turns, for some reason, you’re more likely to cross it if someone else does it first. I also thought about how laughter seems to be part of a group behavior. It seems to be contagious some times. Many times I’ve watched a movie or TV show by myself and not laughed nearly as much as if I’m watching it with a group of laughing friends. It’s interesting how such a small, seemingly unimportant organisms, can be models for us, and teach us so much.

Lost in Translation

I’ve seen the film Lost in Translation once before, and remember I wasn’t too impressed. I had the complete opposite opinion after watching most of it in class last Thursday. First off, the movie is hilarious. Bill Murray is definitely one of my favorite actors. He’s the kind of guy that can make you laugh merely by standing in one place. He has a very comical way about him. I thought the way the film plays with different kinds of communication is also very humorous and interesting. The scene where Bob is doing the commercial is one of these. The director seems to say a paragraph of information to Bob, but the translator then says only a few words. While this was very comical, it also made me wonder if there was any truth to this. Is Japanese really much more long-winded than English, or was the translator merely summarizing the directors instructions? Another interesting form of communication occurred between Bob and his wife. I liked how she would write him letters. It would seem calling would be a much more personal and time-efficient form of communication, yet she chooses written words. It’s also funny when she sends him carpet samples. I wouldn’t think this would be important enough to send overseas. The use of “I love you” also intrigued me in this movie. Multiple times, people say it to Charlotte and she doesn’t give a response. Then, Bob says it to his wife, yet doesn’t get a response. Perhaps this says something about the whimsical nature of being young, and the conversely realizing that what you have could slip away at any time when you’re older. This is definitely a humorous film, which also has many interesting ideas about communication.

Non-Places

We talked in class how a non-place can be a place where people come to obtain something but don’t actually want to be in that place. For my non-place, I chose Starbucks coffee on State Street. The atmosphere is casual and has fairly low-key lighting with many bright lights pointed at the walls to illuminate the many paintings. Smooth jazz can be heard coming through the speakers along with the greetings, queries, and thanks of the people working there. Person after person enters the business and go up to the counter, first contemplating their coffee choice, then ordering. Most of them leave, but others stick around and chat with friends. I felt as if I had no identity in this place, sinking into a large comfy chair. There was a great deal of hustle and bustle, yet I felt as if everything was merely moving around me. Everywhere there seemed to be tiny, fairly useless, coffee trinkets, even though no one seemed interested in them. Large ventilation pipes are strewn across the ceiling, some ending abruptly in the middle of the room. The smell of coffee beans floated through the air, and the whole calming aura of the place made me want to sink into the chair and fall asleep. There seemed to be constant movement in this place. As soon as a group left, another seemed to come in and sit down. As soon as a group sat down, another group merely bought their caffeinated goods and left. The bulk of customers seemed to be female. Do women drink more commercial beverages than men? This truly is a rather interesting place. It seems to be a large meeting place, while still being a place for seclusion. Whatever a person’s reason for a visit, this non-place is good for getting your desired beverage and blending into the crowd.