Sunday, February 6, 2011

Postman on Youtube

When Postman talks about Marvin Minsky and his prediction that "humans will become merely pets of their computers" I could not help but to make a connection to when he writes "our own tribe is undergoing a vast and trembling shift from the magic of writing to the magic of electronics. His statement in the video expresses fear of this transformation mainly by using the word "pet" and being owned by computers. This fear that he creates with the word is the same type of fear he tries to create when he rights "trembling shift" and "magic of electronics". By giving the computers and electronics characteristics of ownership and witchcraft, he effectively creates fear in the listener/watcher to get his point across.
The second parallel I noticed was in the video when Postman discusses humans and adaptation to mental and social situations and in his writing when he wrote about how the run for presidency has adapted into more of a good looks contest. In both of these adaptations he has a negative attitude about a humans capacity to tolerate adaptation such as when he talked about women adapting to abusive husbands, and when he goes on to say that bald people, and all other people with sub par looks are excluded from the presidency. Postman seems to like to put negative spins on situations by blowing them out of proportion.

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