3/12 Class Reflection

Last week's class was spent breaking up into two groups and recording our thoughts/takeaways from Ellen Wagner's presentation. Our group had technical difficulties multiple times, with the result that the soundbytes of Alex and myself were chopped from the group file. We ended up making our own at home and are working on our shared file at the time of this writing. During, we got to hear from our peers on virtual worlds - which is right along the lines of my holodeck obsession. Viewing learning as a human enterprise, if and when we get to the technologically advanced stage of having a holodeck, the lines between reality and virtuality (I just coined that!) will be blurred ala Matrix. Now, after msging with Alex, I think I've been too negative about the potentiality of all that. Holodecks will lead to a new stage of human existence, virtually(!) unfettered by limits. If you read the writings of popular futurists, you might become overwhelmed. But it can also really be heartening to see what humanity may create.