8.26.15 Reading Responses

Exploring Arduino Chapter 1
I think that the book is very helpful. I like the structure of it and I like that the author has so many resources. I even followed him on twitter. The first chapter was a review of what we learned in class as to how to run a program through arduino.

August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains

When Technology is meant to make our lives better it can not improve our lives if we are dead. Brings up question about whether technology can actually make life easier, or better, or if it exists just because we think we need it to live our lives most efficiently. But by creating this product to improve our lives we are actually diminishing our lives. wut? And what is the purpose of all this technology when we are no longer there?

The Videos
I'm glad that I know what a breadboard does. When I opened it in class I was perplexed by how it worked. Electricity is actually kind of (not really) simple. I think what will be hard is trying to take its simplicity and making it do complicated things. I'm wondering if we will need all the tools that were shown in the video.

8/25 - Blink and There Will Come Soft Rains

Blink:

Reading Response:


In this post-apocalyptic short story, the technology that humanity has come to rely so heavily upon is the only remnants that prove humanity was ever there. Just as in the short poem that the house reads to it's long-dead occupant, nature goes on without notice that humans were there. In the case of the house, the technology continues to perform it's function even though the occupants were killed in an apocalyptic nuclear blast. It makes one think about rapidly-evolving technology and our growing integration of new technology into our daily life. In this futuristic story, it is so ingrained that the technology runs the entire day from making breakfast, to entertaining both the adults and children, to greeting them when they leave and come home (even if they aren't there). A product of its time, it has the feeling of a 50's utopian vision of the future, and echoes with Cold War fears of nuclear destruction.