Intro to The New Media Reader

Janet H. Murray’s introduction to The New Media Reader, depicts two contrasting perceptions of the relationship between the human consciousness and culture to the inability of the media to capture the complex structure of our thought. Borges and Bush were philosophers from different mediums, but they both articulated the need for more complex information structures.
This dichotomy between humanists and engineers on the topic of scientific progress and the path of growing information technology will be discussed throughout The New Media Reader. The humanists see the need for increased information as only adding to the confusion of life. That it is completely absurd to even think one can understand existence. The engineers on the other hand view life as an intricate maze in which new technology allows us to navigate. They have an insatiable need to progress human thought, to “make us not just smarter, but more creative”. These two trains of thought intersect throughout the novel, where “collaborations focused on new structures of learning in which exploration of the computer is motivated by a desire to foster the exploratory processes of the mind itself.”
Murray then goes in to giving a brief history of the development of the computer. Along with the progression in technology, she discusses the theory that coincides with it. Programmers like Weizenbaum would inadvertently create programs that surpassed our ability to comprehend its abilities. There is also the discussion of whether or not this new technology is a blessing or a curse, much like the age-old discussion of whether or not Prometheus’s gift of fire blessed or cursed mankind.
As the computer progressed and moved from a strictly number crunching machine to an accessible device with programs of all sorts, the humanitarians now had word processing programs and educational programs. This is where the contrasting worlds of the humanitarians and engineers overlap.