let's retrofit the internet

Why do I have to sit here in front of a laptop screen to get the information I want? The internet having so many different purposes (infrastructural, educational, social, artistic, etc.) It's a shame I have to use the same device for everything. The act of using this laptop further increases the divide between my reality and the virtual world, when, ideally, they don't need to be so markedly separated. The huge variety of uses of the internet all get funneled through this one screen...the 'personal computer'.

I also get the feeling that I am no longer the master of my information intake. I feel like half of my life just flies at me through this hole in my reality...the laptop screen. Perhaps the sheer volume of content variation is overwhelming when confined to one source of consumption.

That is why I envision a much more comfortable internet (for me). I sit in my room, there is a medium size cathode ray tv. I turn it on and there is tumblr/dump.fm/image-sharing. Face it, those methods of content consumption are pretty close to tv already. I feel like I wouldn't have this overwhelming sense of personal agency to what I do on the internet if the uses were split more.

I'm kind of thinking to myself, we could be living that retro-futuristic life...we have it all here, but instead of treating the internet like the infrastructure it is, it is sloppily thrown at us from one screen. I know smart-phones and tablets are going this direction but I don't want one, they are missing the point for me a little bit.

(fyi I go through phases where I have to lock my computers away in attempt to restructure my life around IRL activity)

thoughts?

Would be happy to lend a hand setting up a geocities page for this - icq me at bobdob47@compuserve.net kthnx

thats what ipads are for

  On 11/29/2012 at 4:50 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

Would be happy to lend a hand setting up a geocities page for this - icq me at bobdob47@compuserve.net kthnx

alright i'll have my secretary send you over a 3 1/2 inch with a hypercard write up of what I'm goin for

OKI try my darnedest to resist the temptation to copy that floppy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up863eQKGUI

enjoy the open ended internet while we have it, before long its gonna be tighter than a chickens bum hole. this is the golden age of the web.

  On 11/29/2012 at 5:16 AM, RadarJammer said:

enjoy the open ended internet while we have it, before long its gonna be tighter than a chickens bum hole. this is the golden age of the web.

i really, really, REALLY hope this isn't the case

but who am I kidding. It is encouraging to see how SOPA went down. But in China, there is hella censorship. and in NK, virtually no internet. So maybe we won't have it so bad those things considered

a cigar box that prints out william gibson's tweets

here is a nice little example: http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2012/03/08/cigar-box-thermal-printer-that-prints-william-gibsons-tweets-greatdismal/

fucking lol^

  On 11/29/2012 at 5:16 AM, RadarJammer said:

enjoy the open ended internet while we have it, before long its gonna be tighter than a chickens bum hole. this is the golden age of the web.

the internet will never die. DEEPNET MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!

I think some of the coming changes might suit you salvatorin as long as you dont mind wearing AR glasses or lenses. You said "I go through phases where I have to lock my computers away in attempt to restructure my life around IRL activity" and that's obviously because computing and IRL activity are seperate at the moment, especially if you dont have a smartphone.

the invention of the virtual age is the teleport

it takes the potential hyperspace of links between sites and converts it to physical space, of links between physical spaces

it will happen, it has to happen

I like your idea, Salv. I imagine a basic TV set connected to a single and endless stream of differing images. It would only need an on/off button and a pause.

I'd get involved.

  On 11/29/2012 at 5:14 AM, Bob Dobalina said:

OKI try my darnedest to resist the temptation to copy that floppy

 

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Weird. Never knew about this until today. I just finished a mission in Borderlands 2 called Don't Copy That Floppy. Now I know what the reference is.