Module 3 "A Rhyme of History"

According to Dr. Thornburg (n/d) “Rhymes of History” refers to when we connect today’s technology with past and its impact on society.” Once example is the use of electronic book readers to download and read books. “Electronic book readers are revolutionizing the reading experience” (Morse, 2010). What it rekindles from the past and is a recurring theme of history is reading and the popularity of books. Now, with e-books we have the portability convenience to have a lot of them in a single and affordable device. The first versions of e-books were designed as specialty devices with a limited scope of subject matter, such as technical manuals, manufacturing procedures and meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. Today, the choice of e-books is widening at an equal pace of the sizes and types of devices for viewing. Some e-readers are the Kindle, Sony Reader or the iPad.

Kevin Kelly describes what life might be like in the next 5,000 days of the Web through “one machine” composed of three unique components:

(1) Embodiment is where humans are the extended senses of this machine, rekindling all previous forms of how humans communicate;

(2) Restructuring links data and all things, rekindling how everyone and everything in our environment affect each other in some way;

(3) Codependency has everyone relying on everyone else, because we become the web, rekindling the need for socialization.

Kelly's concepts are examples for all new technologies of the rhymes of history in which they continue to reorganize and go through the same process again because we need satisfy our necessities. First everything needs to be restructured to work as it is supposed to work. Then, if we don’t need the technology, this does not continue its development.

References:

Kelly, K. (2007). Kevin Kelly on the next 5,000 days of the web. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html

Morse, S. (2010). How to Choose electronic book readers. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/how_5608539_choose-electronic-book-readers.html

Thornburg, D. (nd) Rhymes of History. [Video Podcast]. Laureate Education, Inc.

Today’s Top Electronic Readers & Market Leaders. Retrieved from http://www.electronic-reader.com/.