Rambings of Machines of Love and Grace

So Adam Curtis chose to title his recent two BBC documentaries 'Machines of Loving Grace' not a surprise of course, computers are having a bigger effect on the world than the birth of the wheel!

I am a massive fan of Adam Curtis and his documentaries didn’t disappoint, although some may say that his theme was rather stretched at times anyway that’s another story.

Back to the point, Machines of Loving Grace seems a perfect name when put into context of Neda Iran. Last year we reported our heartfelt sense of dismay at her death, she was shot at a protest orchestrated and perpetuated by social media. Of course without the ‘machines’ and their networks there is little chance we would have known. Adam Curtis views twitter as a  "self aggrandising, smug pressure group" I think from a social perspective he may be right. However, we cannot deny its role in both the documentation and creation of uprisings across the world.

Is it a good thing? There is a philosophy that once information becomes so freely available, flowing through the world like the blood in the veins of an animal it (the world) becomes a self-regulating system, living breathing and not exhausting itself. This is because everyone and everything becomes more equal, nobody can hide their wealth or their atrocities, someone will always be there to documents them and show the world.

The people who are against such a free flowing system are the people who stand on the same side of the fence as the Chinese government and people against Julian Assange.

Anyway back to the reason I chose to write about the worild of social media, I found this article about a suitcase being developed by the US government that allows its holder to set up a temporary network to access the web in countries at war. Its aim is to allow its user to record and upload footage to social media platforms. Many countries have shut down their networks in times of unrest to stop rogue guerrilla reporters getting their story out, this will allow teams of people on the ground to continue to communicate any atrocity in real time.

 

Of course it also has a more sinister side in that it could be used to create phony anti government propaganda on social media platforms, which in-turn lead to uprisings and unrest through gatherings. This is of course something the USA has already been accused of.

All the same interesting to say how the 'Machines' are becoming the root of both good and evil in the world, how it all plays out remains to be seen. Until then I will keep the twitter alive and kicking, it is very good for our business you see.

 Thanks for reading my ramblings.

 Take a look at the below video of social media in our times, its not half bad.