March 11, 2008

Mariann Daniel
Electronic Word


I think the most interesting thing about the essay “Who Am We” is the differences between the expectations for computers from when they first came out to now. Before, as the author states, all that was expected of a computer was to be one huge calculator. Now, the author states, children especially expect a computer to be almost like a brain. The problem is that children see all the things a computer does and all the different programs and they assume that a computer can think—they believe a computer to have intelligence even if it does not half blood. This is untrue, it is the programmer who gives a computer its life and one that can take it away. In a sense the computer is still just a calculater with larger more complicated calculations. I think it is interesting to believe that the computer has intelligence when humans are the ones putting all the intelligence into it.

In the beginning of the essay the author stated that there are many of her on-line and then proceeded to list them all. Within her essay, an interviewed subject expressed this same type of belief, stating that he can be many different people at once and indulge each one of his different personality traits by having one corresponding life on-line. This is an interesting expression of what life is to people in this day and age. It also is interesting that people who have these lives on-line think that their real lives are too narrow. An interesting contrast to how some of the human population think of on-line gamers or people to spend too much time from there life on-line to begin with.

Yet as Nakamura’s essay states, “This utopian vision of cyberspace as a promoter of a radically democratic form of discourse should not be underestimated.” Identity is a key aspect to most gaming sites. As a member creating a new character, one must give a description about one’s self. This type of identification allows people to express the different aspects of their personalities. All in all, the on-line societies, even with no thought, are as real to some people as real life is to the rest of the human population.