Chapter 3 of "Hamlet on the Holodeck"

This chapter added onto the content of the other section of Hamlet on the Holodeck we have read as it talked about digital environments. It pointed out key aspects of these digital environments, especially how they have developed. I personally really liked how the chapter was structured in giving a historical context to digital environments all the way back to when cinema was introduced in Paris. Its similar to the perspective of the presentation given by the guest speaker in class where our knowledge of advertising was put into a historical context that made us think about how everything has come to be.

I was taken back particularly by the Eliza example, which made me immediately think of Siri. Siri is a feature on the Apple iPhone which you can speak with and be given answers similar to the features of Eliza that relate to key words or that is connected to a search engine. Granted Siri itself is not a digital environment, but hearing the goose-bump story of Eliza made me realize how much we are heading down a road in our world that will contain a more advanced version of Eliza. Siri is more of a guide and does not have as much of a therapeutic tone as Eliza did, but still carries the same issue of having communications with technology. This kind of technology, may in the future become a digital environment we use everyday.

We were discussing in my global communications class about possessions that people value or hold as most important. One of the top items was a car, and we talked about a incredibly chilling thought that cars are turning into PC's, even with voice commands to make them "hands free". There's no argument that hands free technology in cars are safer, but they are a digital environment in themselves. The topic being brought up in class made me think of the reading. We can communicate in talking with the technology in our hands or in our vehicles. This ties back to Eliza in thinking how much do we need to rely on those conversations? Technology as the chapter points out, does not have human qualities or complexities. By bringing these technologies closer to ourselves and our everyday life, are we losing some of our value for face to face interaction. Inserting ourselves in these digital environments, whether they are video games or chatting with Siri for answers, can be handled in a helpful way but could also be handled in one that takes away from human aspects of conversation. As we have seen, digital environments can be ways to share stories and content but in the chilling case presented here they can replace face to face interaction or become seen as more convenient.