Chapter 1: What is the "Machine"?

 Over years the word "Machine" has created very different feelings for those who read or hear it. To those striving to create the best technology on the market, the machine is something they yearn to concur and make their own. In the Governments ears, this brings eagerness to see what they can profit from and earn even more money and power than before. For those struggling to survive on whatever meager wages and benefit's they can from the government, this creates a feeling of fear and suppression. Commonly referred to as "The Machine", its not hard to see why its synonymous with fear for those without power, and lust for those with power, but I argue that the "Machine" is now a terminology that we all have experienced with a mix of joy, fear, and eagerness. In todays world, technology is everywhere and can be accessed in almost any setting. Though not everyone can afford a Mac Pro laptop or the latest Apple phone, we see technology used in grocery stores or when you're checking into a medical appointment. It houses our data in what we call the internet, and allows us to access our money anywhere at any time. 

Technology is very much a part of our lives, and yet we still experience a certain emotion when considering what this "Machine" is. Michael Wesch created a Youtube video titled "The Machine is Us/ing Us" where it delves into the wonders that the internet has brought us. The world wide web in the video is portrayed as the "Machine" and shows how the internet has allowed us to share more information, more knowledge and availability to world than we have ever had before. He talks about how the "Machine" learns from how we interact with it, and improves itself through our behaviors. In the same sense, we learn from the "Machine" as it grants us access to information with a simple click of a search engine. This is contrasted by a video created by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson called "Epic 2014", where it creates a fictional (but realistic) world where large corporations begin to slowly take over all the shared information and access on the internet. In this sense, the "Machine" is actually the corporations beginning to monopolize information and knowledge from us, and changing it to fit what they want us to know. 

These are two very contrasting videos that give a different feeling of what the "Machine" is, and yet they are both true. In one sense, the "Machine" could be beneficial as long as we still hold power and freedom within its domain, but it can quickly become a nightmare for those with no power or control. Its hard to say how the world will end up in the future, but I can say with certainty that as long as we learn how to use the "Machine" to our benefit, we can learn to become just as powerful. In todays world, we should use the "Machine" to become something great, to create something amazing, and innovate something that can change the world for the better.