Fluent Essays

Write a 300 words reflection on 3 articles, make sure that the essay demonstrates familiarity with the readings and apprehensible and clear writing optionalreadingdourish_bell.pdf smithsonian_article.pdf storyboarding_reading.pdf Unformatted Attachment Preview Pers Ubiquit Comput (2014) 18:769–778 DOI 10.1007/s00779-013-0678-7 ORIGINAL ARTICLE ‘‘Resistance is futile’’: reading science fiction alongside ubiquitous computing Paul Dourish • Genevieve Bell Received: 9 February 2008 / Accepted: 28 May 2008 / Published online: 15 May 2013 Ó Springer-Verlag London 2013 Abstract Design-oriented research is an act of collective imagining—a way in which we work together to bring about a future that lies slightly out of our grasp. In this paper, we examine the collective imagining of ubiquitous computing by bringing it into alignment with a related phenomenon, science fiction, in particular as imagined by a series of television shows that form part of the cultural backdrop for many members of the research community. A comparative reading of these fictional narratives highlights a series of themes that are also implicit in the research literature. We argue both that these themes are important considerations in the shaping of technological design and that an attention to the tropes of popular culture holds methodological value for ubiquitous computing. 1 Introduction Mark Weiser’s paper outlining the ubiquitous computing research agenda was entitled ‘‘The Computer for the twenty-first century.’’ In so labeling his vision a decade before the end of the twentieth century, Weiser initiated a concern with futurism and futuristic vision that continues to characterize ubicomp research and writings [3]. Designoriented research is, of course, inherently directed toward the future and is predicated upon envisionments of alternative futures enabled by technological progress. But, we would argue, the kinds of future visions invoked by P. Dourish (&) University of California, Irvine, CA, USA e-mail: jpd@ics.uci.edu G. Bell Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, CA, USA e-mail: genevieve.bell@intel.com ubicomp research are of a very particular sort. Rather than simply envisioning improvements in the performance of particular algorithms or computational tools, pervasive computing research argues for a wholesale reconfiguration of the relationship between people and their everyday lives, based on responsive environments and embedded computation: a form of collective imagining. What is particularly interesting—and highly specific— about this vision is that it is one that is already familiar to us, albeit in the very different fictive frame of science fiction novels, films, and television productions. Penley [17] explores the extent to which the research and engineering activities of NASA are frequently and quite explicitly founded upon the visions of exploration and expansion embodied by the Star Trek television series, and these visions—whether of portable communicators for easy communication, digital pads replacing paper, or virtual environments in which we can be immersed—have been explicitly invoked in contemporary research in human– computer interaction and ubiquitous computing. Arguably, a range of contemporary technologies—from PDAs to cell phones—have adopted their forms and functions from science fiction. As in the famous case of British science fiction, author Arthur C. Clarke’s speculative ‘‘invention’’ of the communication satellite, science fiction does not merely anticipate but actively shapes technological futures through its effect on the collective imagination. At the same time, science fiction in popular culture provides a context in which new technological developments are understood. Science fiction visions appear as prototypes for future technological environments—the visualizations of photo enhancement and search technology in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film Blade Runner for instance presages contemporary digital image manipulation technologies by nearly two decades. Inversely, previously futuristic 123 770 technologies are presented as mature by highlighting the fact that they are ‘‘not science fiction any more’’ [21]. Of course, this can also lead to a range of different frustrations in the present when newly realized technologies do not meet expectations long established by television (and other science fiction media); voice recognition does not distinguish between accents; video-conferencing is not picture perfect; and most sensing technology is hardly seamless. Scholarly analysis of science fiction and related literary endeavors proceeds not least from the position that visions of the future are particularly revealing about the present [20, 23]. An account of ‘‘how we shall live’’ is inherently grounded in assumptions about the problems and opportunities of the time at which it is written. This is true, of course, of all forms of fiction, whether they paint images of past, present, or future, but we are interested here particularly in science fiction, conventionally construed, precisely because of the way in which science and technology play a central role and are open to question. By ‘‘science fiction,’’ then, we have in mind a genre that is explicitly future-oriented and in which technology and its role feature as a recurring leitmotif. Thacker [25] defines science fiction as ‘‘a contemporary mode in which the techniques of extrapolation and speculation are utilized in a narrative form, to construct nearfuture, far-future, or fantastic worlds in which science, technology, and society intersect.’’ (p. 156). We find this a particularly useful definition, for two reasons. The first is the explicit attention drawn to extrapolation and speculation as the twin bases for the production of science fiction, and which we would argue applies also to the ways in which design-oriented research is typically carried out, with an explicit focus not only on the extrapolation of current technological opportunities, but also the imaginative and speculative figuring of a world in which new technologies can be applied. The second is the acknowledgment of the ways in which science fiction, while naively characterized as concerned primarily with science and technology, in fact operates at the nexus of science and society. Again, we would argue that much the same is true in design-oriented research, where techno-centric discourse (Weiser’s ‘‘dramatic computer’’) tends to obscure the central role of sociological and cultural considerations. Even for those who are not immersed in the genre, science fiction shapes popular imaginings of the future. From early radio plays (‘‘War of Worlds’’, etc.) and film (e.g.: A Trip to the Moon [Le voyage dans la lune 1902], King Kong [1933], Flash Gordon [1936]—just to name a few), to a wide range of television programming, science fiction has been part of the popular cultural imaginings of many nations. Whether utopian or dystopian, these visions of the future shape our collective understandings of the relationship between science and progress and between 123 Pers Ubiquit Comput (2014) 18:769–778 people and technology, and as such have a profound, albeit little documented, impact on ubiquitous computing and its discursive practices. As children of the British Empire, the authors grew up on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) science fiction television shows; as long time residents of the United States, we have been immersed in American science fiction imagery and imaginings; and as researchers sitting at significant sites of new information, entertainment, and communication technology production and critique, Intel’s Interaction and Experience Research laboratory and the University of California Irvine, we are always already implicated in such future visions. In this paper, we utilize the lens of popular American and British science fiction television shows to examine a range of issues relevant to contemporary in ubiquitous computing. This is not an attempt to be comprehensive by any means; rather, we will use a specific and selective collection of television series to raise questions about people, technology, and progress. It is our contention that a closer reading of these indexical shows can inform conversations and discussion within the ubicomp discursive frame. To that end, we have consciously chosen programs that embody quite different assumptions about technology and society, as well as having different sites and modes of creation, representing a range of particular geopolitical moments and regimes. We have also chosen to focus on television shows, rather than other media. We have two reasons for this. First, as television shows tend to play out over multiple seasons, they have a regular and reoccurring presence in daily life, and they offer a larger body of material for analysis. Second, given the role of television in contemporary popular culture, television shows have arguably a larger impact, often in circulation on various television stations (especially American cable) well beyond their moments of broadcast. We have selected a set of shows particularly to draw attention to the ways that their contrasting visions offers us some critical perspective on the assumptions about technology and the future that are the basis for ubicomp imaginings. We briefly introduce them below and then explore a series of relevant themes, before illustrating what kinds of relevance these hold for ubiquitous computing. 2 Don’t panic: five indexical shows Science fiction, it seems, has always had a place in American and British television programming. In February 1938, a 35-min segment of RUR (Rossum’s Universal Robots), a Czech play by Karel Čapek, was broadcast on BBC television—it was the first piece of television science fiction ever to be produced. Other shows quickly followed, with adaptations of Orwell and Wells, and the Quatermass Pers Ubiquit Comput (2014) 18:769–778 Experiment in the 1950s and Dr Who commencing in the early 1960s. American television too had a fascination with science fiction. Captain Video and his Video Rangers, a children’s program which ran from 1949 to 1955, attracted a view audience of more than 3.5 million which was a familiar story line with a heroic quasi-military figure battling for law order with equipped with ‘‘scientific secrets and secret weapons’’ [27]. Other networks followed suit, creating a ‘‘space opera’’ fad with such programs as Space Patrol (ABC, 1950–55), Buck Rogers (1950–51), Johnny Jupiter (DuMont and ABC, 1953–54), Rocky Jones, Space Ranger! (syndicated, 1954–55), and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet (all four networks at different times, 1950–55) [27]. Many of these early shows on British and American television concern themselves with future societies, space travel, aliens, and an array of new technologies. However, for the purposes of this paper, we want to focus on television shows produced in a 25-year window, between 1963 and 1989—the ones that arguable played a role in shaping both the current science fiction offerings (as in, for example, the genealogy from Star Trek and Blake 7 to Babylon 5, Andromeda, Firefly) and also the current generation of researchers of which we are a part.1 Here, we are interested in just five shows: Dr Who, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, Blake’s 7, and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. We selected these shows because they represent a significant breadth of science fiction television, spanning a quarter century, two distinct cultural traditions (British and American), three broadcasting corporations (BBC, NBC, CBS), a range of political eras and regimes (notably Thatcher’s Britain and Reagan’s Cold War America), a host of production and postproduction technologies (film, video, digital, stereo surround sound), and which draw on very disparate story arcs, narratives, and styles (Westerns, Robin Hood, Ulysses, drama, comedy). We also selected these shows because they have had an enduring influence and impact on both British and American (and by proxy many other) discourses around science and technology and also ultimately society and culture. 2.1 Doctor Who (1963–1989)2 One of the world’s longest running television shows, Dr Who, was first broadcast on BBC1 in 1963 in an early 1 The 1980s also represent the period in which personal computing became a reality and in which Mark Weiser began ubicomp research at PARC. 2 The show was relaunched in 2005, and new episodes are produced in Britain and shown around the world. While many of our comments are relevant to both shows, it is the original in which we are especially interested, again because its of intersection with the emergence of the ubiquitous computing vision. 771 saturday evening slot [18]. Originally conceived as an educational adventure serial for children teaching them about history and science, the adventures of ‘‘the Doctor’’ a renegade ‘‘Time Lord’’ (or time traveler) and his companions quickly became a favorite amongst British and later worldwide TV viewers of all ages [10]. One of the show’s most significant visual markets, aside for the sonic screw driver and collection of neurotic twitches on the part of the various incarnations of the Doctor, was that of the TARDIS—or Time and Relative Dimension in Space. This technology was reported to be able to its occupants to any point in time or space and always much larger than its exterior; it was capable of blending seamlessly into its environment. However, the Doctor’s TARDIS is less than fully functional—a running sight gag in this show and a feature of much British science fiction— and its chameleon circuitry is broken, causing it to appear always as a 1950s-style, London police box. This particular police box TARDIS was always slightly erratic, and many a series began with a misfiring of the time and space circuitry, and an unexpected and ill-timed arrival somewhere unexpected. 2.2 Star Trek (1966–1969) Perhaps the prototypical television science fiction series, Star Trek, comprised just 80 episodes over three seasons between 1966 and 1969 on NBC, but subsequently gave rise to several more series, ten feature films, and a plethora of popular culture references. Famously envisioned by creator Gene Roddenberry as ‘‘a Wagon Train to the stars,’’ referring to a popular continuing serial set in the American West, the explorations of the USS Enterprise blended colonial frontierism, military expansion, and scientific exploration. The enterprise, fasterthan-light and well-armed, carried a multi-ethnic and mixed-gender crew on voyages ‘‘where no Man has gone before,’’ although the plot frequently revolved around diplomatic tensions between the Earth-based Federation and other galactic ‘‘superpowers’’—reflecting the show’s Cold War heritage. Star Trek and the shows it has given rise to share an affinity for technology which has entered the popular consciousness in a variety of ways. ‘‘Beam me up, Scotty’’ and ‘‘Lock on phasers’’ are expressions one might hear everyday; the physical form of the original communicator is mirrored by contemporary clamshell phone designs and those of the early PDAs [5]. While technology may certainly run amok in the Star Trek universe, it is, in the right hands, a powerful force for good; it is the combination of technology and knows how that allows the crew to prevail. 123 772 2.3 Blake’s 7 (1978–1981) Created by Terry Nation, who had achieved earlier successes as a writer for Dr Who, Blake’s 7 ran for four seasons from 1978 to 1981 [22]. Set in an unidentifiable future time—the third century of the second calendar— and evoking the Robin Hood narrative structure, it told the story of a small band of adventurers, mercenaries, and political dissidents ‘‘resisting’’ the Federation—a totalitarian regime with the Earth as its imperial center. The show’s low budget props and its reliance on Surrey quarries and abandoned factories were the subject of mockery, but the biting dialog and the bleak view of humanity struck a cord in Thatcher’s Britain, and the show was a surprising hit. The show featured several very different computational devices: ZEN, ORAC, and SLAVE. ZEN and later SLAVE are the onboard ship computers for the Liberator and Scorpio, respectively. They have very different personalities and physical manifestations but share an ability to receive and understand verbal commands and control complex machinery. In addition to these onboard computation devices, early portable computing is also represented, in the form of ORAC, a deeply disdainful super computer, with abilities to communicate with all other known computers as well as with many living forms. Represented as a Perspex box filled with Christmas lights, ORAC not only listened and spoke, and indeed frequently opined, but briefly was able to communicate via telepathy. 2.4 Planet of the Apes (1968) Originally, a 1968 movie based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des Singes [4], Planet of the Apes, like Star Trek, launched a franchise which included four film sequels (plus one remake), and two television series on CBS. Three astronauts crash-land on a planet and find it populated by intelligent, civilized apes and mute, primitive humans. The apes live in a highly organized and advanced society in which their roles are divided according to their species: orangutans as politicians, gorillas as a military, and chimpanzees as scientists. The arrival of the (seemingly) solesurviving astronaut, a human who can speak, causes great division amongst the apes. Subsequent movies explore the historical antecedents of the relationship between humans and apes put forth by the first film. Although based on an inversion of humans and apes, the setting for Planet of the Apes is broadly postapocalyptic, with the consequence that neither group is technologically advanced. While the humans seem to persist in a state of stone-age tool-wielding, the apes have a science and an advanced civilization but without a highly developed technology (for reasons that become clear as the series 123 Pers Ubiquit Comput (2014) 18:769–778 progresses). Where the technology is not well developed, the social order is highly elaborated. 2.5 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981) Based on a radio comedy show, the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy played on BBC2 for one short, six-episode season in January and February of 1981. Based on the writings of Douglas Adams [1, 2], the show is a tale of a future that seemed remarkably approachable, albeit rife with bureaucracy run amok and a fascination with everyday objects (like the towel). The viewers follow the adventures of Arthur Dent, a displaced Englishman in a bathrobe whose home planet has just been destroyed to make way for a hyper-space bypass, and Ford Perfect, a stringer for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, who comes from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuese. The TV show, while subject to the usual underfunding of BBC science fiction, had a wonderful array of gadgetry and computational technology, from the Hitchhiker’s Guide book itself, to robots, sensing doors and furniture, the Babel Fish, and the Nutri-Matic Dispenser. The ultimate electronic book and ultra-mobile PC wrapped up into one; the Guide also came with the helpful instructions ‘‘DON’T PANIC’’ in big pink letters on its cover. With the notable exception of the Babel Fish, which arose as a product of evolution and functions as a natural language translator when stuck in one’s ear, and the Guide Book itself, the bulk of other technology in the TV show was seen to be produced by a larger multi-planetary industrial complex—the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation. Sirius specialized in, among other things, robots with GPP (Genuine People Personalities), resulting in a show populated by preternaturally perky computers, prescient elevators, sighing doors, and at least one paranoid android. All of this technology respond ... Purchase answer to see full attachment