Screen vs Life

Adapting computer game technologies for educational purposes is a practice is from a novel concept. Some recent developments, like the mod for Minecraft, MinecraftEdu , appear to have the potential to win kids over (children are very good at knowing when they are being tricked into learning). A conversation with fellow educators at THATCamp Melbourne yesterday highlighted a significant problem with current business models for funding these experiments in a university context. One colleague expressed a desire to find an existing program and tool that would allow her archaeology students to learn archaeology through a virtual experience, specifically a type of program modelled on RPGs. This colleague also indicated that she once worked with a Professor in the USA, who developed a prototype along these lines, and knew that the achievement of such a project was well beyond the type of budget that she could generate, as well as beyond her expertise. The fact of the matter is...

Net neutrality is a particularly hot topic at the moment, and most proponents of net neutrality incorrectly reproduce the myth that this regulatory intervention will vouchsafe equal internet access for all. In this video internet philosopher Stefan Molyneux untangles the political web that has lead to broad support for net neutrality.  The key insight to take away from this is that any type of government regulation of economic activity functions to strengthen monopolies, because it is enacted on behalf of, and to benefit powerful lobby groups. Likewise, net neutrality represents an increase in governmental regulation of the internet, with significant implications for the quality of services available to consumers, for the privacy of internet users, and for businesses who are economically vulnerable when governments change the rules of trade via amendments to law and policy. An important video which has informed a shift in my own position on the topic.

Transcendence (2014) is the directorial debut of Wally Pfister, better known for his work as the cinematographer who filmed Christopher Nolan's works since Memento. Transcendence is the  story of a leading Artificial Intelligence  (AI)  researcher, Dr Will Caster (Johnny Depp) who strives to create AI capable of the full range of human emotions. Following his mortal wounding by neo-ludite terrorists, Will, with the help of his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and his colleague Max (Paul Bettany), Will’s consciousness is digitalised and uploaded to the web. In a Frankensteinien turn, Max immediately rejects the creation as monstrous distortion of Will’s former self, and eventually joins the terrorist cell that deposed him of his corporeality. Evelyn is henceforth moved to protect the digital remnant of her husband, and literally goes underground in New Mexico. Here, with Will’s ability to generate financial resources, Evelyn oversees the construction of an expansive faci...

I love science fiction cinema. It is, by far and away, the genre from which I derive the most joy. I love the exhilarating action sequences, the awe inspiring special effects, the darkened city streets slick with rain, I love the thrill of new technological imaginings, and I love the neo-noir aesthetic that colours these futuristic worlds a darker shade of dystopia (available in limited palettes of blue, green or charcoal). What I love most however, are the skilfully crafted hypothetical futures, which prompt us to ponder human nature and ethics in the here and now. So it is with great joy that I am experiencing the current resurgence of the genre. When the latest blue-tinted trailer explodes onto the screen my skin erupts in a rash of goose pimples, my heart kicks up a beat, and I dare to hope that this is in fact, the next Blade Runner, Terminator 2, Dark City or Matrix . And while many of blockbusters do fail to deliver ( Prometheus, Looper, Elysium and After Earth among the...

As a university tutor, I read a lot of scholarship critiquing traditional and digital media from a Marxist perspective. Most striking is the somewhat baffling reiteration that “personal responsibility” is a bad thing. Let me elaborate via particularly pertinent example. In 2009 the scholars Laurie Oullette and James Hay published a paper proposing that reality television programs are a symptom of our neo-liberal context. They argue that the narratives of programs such as The Biggest Loser and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy effectively instruct people on how to modify their conduct and assume personal responsibility for their health, their finances and general welfare. The “problem” identified by Oullette and Hay is that these responsibilities were once, under pre-1980 Keynesian economic regimes, assumed by the State (presumably ensuring universal access to key services). According to their reckoning, the ascension of neoliberal economics has led to the shrinking of governments ...

I am not a feminist. The policing of gender is a key cause of violence against individuals. It seems to me that if policing gender is a cause of violence, then it cannot also be the solution.

Gender stereotypes and tropes present the contemporary Western world with a very particular type of conundrum. As feminists have pointed out for decades, the dominant ways in which women are represented in popular culture have a tendency of naturalising certain behaviours, roles and identities as ideally feminine, and demonising others as a deviation from propriety and decorum. For instance, before the second wave of feminism washed through the streets of Western civilisation, good women were represented as serving husbands, tending children and repressing sexual desire. Our ability to resist, abolish and transcend these modes of categorisation, is however, fundamentally limited by the fact that such categories have a certain social currency that cannot be easily done away with. For instance, stereotypes and tropes have a symbolic utility, they allow for easy communication of meaning between individuals based in existing and recognisable conventions. Many roles and trope...