Tuesday 19 June 2012

A Pretentious First Post

You know what? This is pretty hard. I've wanted to share my inner thoughts and all of that for a while, but I've built up this whole blogging thing for so long, how do I start? I think for so long.about such things like the content I am going to write about or how I am going to make it. Eventually, other parts of my life begin to occupy me until the cycle starts over, but I mean, whats the point? Take a leap of faith. Just say yes, as a famous band once sung. And as a famous brand once said:

"Just do it."


Inspirational words.


So this is it. I mention my varied interests in my 'About Me' section. It's pretty exciting. At least I think so. I personally think it all spurs from an inner bug somewhere in my brain that has bugged (pun intended) me my whole life. I'm still trying to work out what that is, but I think I am on to something.


Preservation. 


We all have ancestors who have done amazing things, but how much do we actually know about them as people?


It's a pretty dark thought, but I feel privledged to be in a generation where years from now, my descendants could know me as if I was still alive, rather than seeing the odd photo or left over memorabilia. Websites such as Facebook, especially with the new timeline feature details a persons life from birth to inevitable death, whereas websites like Twitter outline a persons every thought. Obviously, privacy settings for these online memory banks would have to be considered, but the fact that all of the information is right there, waiting to be read and analysed is pretty amazing. It's scary how much people can learn about someone from the internet nowadays, so one can only imagine the possibilities for the future. I mean, what's next? 


 
Artificial intelligence. Not that it's just been introduced or something. It's always improving. Funnily enough, a bot was actually programmed to respond as if it was John Lennon based on various interviews and facts about the singer. With the amount of information about every other person in the world getting larger and larger, similar projects could be produced for families to allow them to communicate with lost loved ones. Unethical? Maybe. But who knows? My great, great, great grand children may be able to speak to a robotic me based on my tweets, hopefully censoring drunken photographic evidence of a radical lifestyle.

- I told myself at the beginning of this that I wouldn't speak about robots. 


As I said, I'm fascinated by the fact that future generations are able to relive a persons life through a website.  Older generations were not given this privledge, and I feel like most people today don't really appreicate it, at least compared to older generations who could do only so much to communicate with their descendants. Don't get me wrong; means of preservation have always been around. Where would we be without Ludwig van Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' ('The Pianist' definitely would have been missing something), or how would we know what Henry VIII looked like? You can even relive the holocaust through Anne Frank's diary

You're still reading? Thank you. This was supposed to be an introduction; a simple hello. What I'm trying to say is, people who use social networking websites don't realise that they are doing the same thing as an artist, a composer, or a writer from the past would do. They are allowing future generations to relive past generations from a more personal level. We live in the moment, and we preserve our lives unintentionally

As John F. Kennedy once said, "We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last." I suppose that is kind of relevant.

And from my experience with the internet, cats are always a hit. Meet Fluffle; she is my muse, my flame.