Questions for "The Song of the Alphabet in Cyberspace."

All answers by: James Wrona

1) What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabet visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?

- In the pre-literate acoustic world, information lacked biases and was one directional able to be accessed from anywhere and everywhere. In the alphabet visual world, everything has a meaning along with a purpose promoting abstract thought. It is dictated by much higher and more structured thought. The media of television becomes a part of the acoustic world because it plays to our five senses because it is "musical, mythic and immersive while lacking a defined perspective."

2) Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?

- Because the alphabet is so complex and abstract in thought, naturally, it will have segregating tendencies. At first, very few people were able to understand the alphabet or create thoughts using the alphabet. The printing press reversed those segregating tendencies by making printed material and text much more available to everyone so now everyone is able to access the alphabet and use it to gain knowledge and thought processes.

3) How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?

- Alphabetic communication in online communication makes cyberspace acoustic because it covers every aspect of every form of communication that we are aware of. The alphabet places language into different forms that are able to simulate all of our senses. The online acoustic world is different from the the television, radio, or print acoustic world because they are closed, acoustic spaces.

4) Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years.

- The two selection criteria are that "We want media to extend our communication beyond biological boundaries and we want media to recapture elements of that biological communication even though we have exceeded it in our extensions." Based off of these selection criteria, in 20 years our online communication will have grown exponentially because we will never settle. So, technology will continue to grow and change and the technology that is not able to change with the times fast enough will become irrelevant.