Sam Polak: Response to "Cut, Copy and Paste" and "Counting Electric Sheep"

I thought these two articles were a great introduction to the course. Coming into “Understanding New Media”, I was expecting to learn about different types of technological media, how to employ them, and their importance. While this still very well may be true, I was surprised to find how philosophical, abstract, and universal the topics I have read about so far have seemed to be. 

The first article, “Counting Electric Sheep: Understanding Information in the Context of Media Ecology,” is much more of an informative read than the other, but is a necessary beginning to the course. The most important point I took away from this article is just how complex and theoretical the concept of “information” is. I have never seen it as so intangible, but as Dr. Strate points out, “it cannot exist independently of any medium... devoid of situational context of physical environment” (Strate 443). I also found it interesting that Dr. Strate establishes that there is a difference between information, knowledge, and wisdom. As I’m sure many others have done, I have never really thought to separate the three -- they always seemed rather interchangeable to me. Now I see how different these terms really are; wisdom relying on relationships, knowledge relying on content, and information appearing “instantaneously, dematerialized and decontextualized” (Strate 467). It’s amazing how these “synonyms” are truly not synonymous at all when you really look deeply into them. 

In the second article (which I found more interesting of the two), “Cut, Copy, and Paste,” Dr. Strate not only discusses how far back the simple act of “cutting, copying, and pasting” date back, but more importantly focuses on the universality and timelessness of these functions. More than just seeing them as modern-day computer tools, Dr. Strate demonstrates that these actions are almost just a part of human nature. I have never thought about cutting, copying, and pasting in any other way but with writing, but the article points out that it is used in “the beginnings of arithmetic functions” and the “technology of language” (Strate 50). Further, I believe this action of “cut, copy, paste” is embedded in our basic human behavior. We are programmed to take something we see (cut), duplicate or emulate it (copy), and utilize it in our own lives (paste). Whether it be using an idea that will help us survive or imitating the way someone behaves in a social setting so that we belong, I believe that these functions are apart of our everyday life, and as Dr. Strate proves, is something that has been around for thousands of years, not just a modern product of technology.