Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
week five: F
Self check-outs are no rare encounter these days. They used to be confined to expensive grocery stores, but even CVS has adopted the technology. Conceptually, they make sense. You avoid the long lines and feelings of boiling impatience. No longer is there the urge to snatch the milk from the slow-handed cashier and scan it yourself. The machines are not the most user friendly ones I've met, but it's really more of the flashing lights and bleep bleep noises that attract me rather than the level of convenience. Not once has anything I've scanned been picked up on the first try. So, they're a little slow on the uptake, but this is not my issue. One assumes that their conception was based upon the idea of convenience, but in truth, might they have been developed by a group of evangelical engineers looking to sharpen our ethical consciousness? At first it was just out of frustration that I'd throw the hummus in the bag because it wouldn't fucking scan, but that was just the machine's fault. I wasn't stealing. Now, however, the urge to pretend-scan the tomatoes is sometimes overpowering. These things are everywhere, and, at least in my experience, are hardly ever more convenient than just waiting it out like the old days. So, are stores adopting these machines with hidden agendas for them to function as moral confrontation devices? I think about it all the time when I am slyly (but probably not so much) dropping the cheapest item sans-scan onto the other side. Sadly, that is the code that I have developed. I think about it, but with Abbie Hoffman echoing through my dishonorable brain I hardly ever feel bad about it. Take that, sneaky principled establishment! No, I wish I was doing it with conviction but honestly it's just lack of impulse control. Now that I've admitted to it, I'm likely to be detected. I'm knocking on wood.
week five: D
trying to bring things together
this clip is sort of the inspiration for another project in another class.
writing something about trust in technology, perception and technology and what not via the "CSI effect"
my original imaginary project is sort of dying, or at least going nowhere fast besides the back burner. I want to introduce this to my imaginary project and see where that goes
week five: C
"What would you do?" Emmanuel asked
"I'd buy myself a cabin on the beach, I'd put some glue in my navel, and I'd stick a flag in there. Then I'd wait to see which way the wind was blowing."
A Happy Death, Albert Camus
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