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Happy New Year, and welcome to the future.
Let’s start the year off as I mean it to continue… by me asking you to put your collective brains together to create one large, fleshy supercomputer.
That didn’t sound as icky in my head.
I’m embarking on a project this year, looking at the ways in which people relate, emotionally, to technology… and I wondered if you could help. In return, I want to get you involved, so that in October, when I have to show the results of my research, I can give you all some credit.
I know, not much of a prize.
Anyway, the first thing I need might take a little effort. I’m trying to find the first people to find love through the internet. You see, I’m fascinated that something military in origin could have been usurped by basic human desires. I figure this is a six degrees thing, like Kevin Bacon, but without the poor track record (resolution number one… stop kicking Bacon when he’s obviously down). So, do you know a couple that met through the internet, do you know someone who does? I’m presuming this must have happened in the early 90s.
Similarly, any information you can give me to help me track down any of those digital love pioneers, websites etc., will also be useful.
The second thing is that throughout the year I’m going to be collecting photographs of people with their favourite piece of technology. All I need is a photograph of the two of you, with both of your names attached. I’m being presumptuous and guessing that you give your technology names, but we covered this last year when I asked about it.
Again, get involved and you’ll get credit and a shout out in the final project, not as contributors, but as collaborators.
Finally, if anyone has any ideas on how to explore the relationship between people and technolgy… is there something you’ve noticed that you think I haven’t? Do you have any thoughts on the subject? Let me know.
I know some people who found love online, but I am sure they weren’t the first, since this was in the late 2000s.
So I’ll just give you a picture of me and my favorite piece of technology:
http://www.erikahammerschmidt.com/erikaandtitanic.jpg
Yes, I call my iPod “Titanic” because I can sync it. I’m sure everyone else has made that joke too.
Erika Hammerschmidt´s last blog ..Abby and Norma #609
maybe something round here: http://secondnature.rmit.edu.au/index.php/2ndnature/issue/current/showToc
and possibly here: http://www.tamaleaver.net/
and: The design of everyday life. shove, watson, hand and ingram. berg. 2007
digital love… thats a tricky one!
Sean´s last blog ..Oranges: articulations / overview.
I just realized I had named my current mp3 player when I first got it but Windows Media Player kept deleting it so I’ve forgotten what it was. I’ll remember it, it was something from a Pink Floyd song, because my first mp3 player was named Gerrold after the mouse in Bike. (And when I returned that one to the store because it was faulty I named the new one Gerrold II.)
Wait, was it Eugene? I want to say it was Eugene.
The Great Joe Bivins´s last blog ..COMIC: Joe Bivins: Man Genius – "Feliz NaviDEATH: Shadows of Noel"
Two of my cousins met their spouses online, and yet another of their cousins also met their spouse through World of Warcraft.
Me…I just get ignored and laughed at.
I’m lovable, dammit!
I form bonds with my computers, seriously. This one I’m writing on has been with me for 12 years and I’ve pretty much shared everything with it, and it’s helped me create some amazing things over the years. It’s also allowed to me to make an ass of myself more than once, but that’s what good friends do…I think. I’m not sure. I play games with my computer. My computer is my friend.
*Together In Electric Dreams begins to play somewhere*
Lynda´s last blog ..Here We Go Again….
or the song fiction (dreams in digital) by Orgy!
ambroziak´s last blog ..Collage Craft Graffiti
I scoffed and chortled at the thought of my cousin meeting a guy on the net in 2000 … and now they are happily married with a beautiful baby boy. I eat my cynical, decade-old words every day!
My wife called her computer “Withnail” after the movie and I present a little post I wrote last year on a technolove documentary: http://franzy-writing.blogspot.com/2008/12/mountin-womin.html
Merry Xmarse!
franzy´s last blog ..Pleasing Yasmina Part 5
SBS certainly has some weird documentaries.
I’ve seen one similar, but it was about couples that were into beastiality.
Hey Adam, is this really meant to be a family site?
Ben´s last blog ..Beach Walker
so… im stumped on what to say is my favorite piece of technology. I could not live without my computer, but then again computers annoy me. I really like my playstation 3, but it gets more use playing movies, and i’ll abandon it like an unwanted baby as soon as a new one comes out. My sewing machine? meh i’d like a better one at some point. Maybe it doesnt matter that i’ll discard what i like. I have 7 more months until i move from my current apartment to travel cross country to live in florida, and until that happens maybe my favorite pieces of tech will be my dirty refrigerator and my ancient stove. They keep me fed and happy.
Can’t help ya out on the love and online part. As for the second part, does a car count?
sitting pugs´s last blog ..Orange Bowl 2010: Iowa zestfully cleans Georgia Tech
I met my first girlfriend online, and we were ‘together’ for about a year and a half, from 1998-2000, but never met in person. As to the second part, my tech has personalities, but no names… I’m not a name type of guy, and it takes me meeting people 3-4 times for there to be even a remote chance I’ll remember names, so why would I give one to my computer or car?
Thats going to be an awesome study. Good Luck with it!
relationships with technology………. I don’t feel compelled to call my computer my friend, nor my TV, the object I would be really sad if it broke down would be my Kirby hoover, I have had it longer than I’ve been married, before I had children….it’s hoovered crap in three different houses, it took me 18 months to pay for it and it remains as faithful to me as an old slightly eccentric aunt, every now and then I even polish it…………………..sad, but true!! Oh yes, it’s called “Kirby” – original?
Sorreee…….. the only people I know who have got together via the internet, are people that have left their wifes/husbands to run off with someone else…………… guessing this wasn’t what you wanted!!!
the object I would be really sad if it broke down would be my Kirby hoover
The vacuum! I take it for granted.
sitting pugs´s last blog ..Put a little Love in Your Heart
Hmm… Interesting question.
I’m not sure they were the first, but back in 1994, Mark Cooper from England became engaged to Teresa Burtick of Pennsylvania. Attracted quite a bit of media attention at the time, appearing in and on media in several countries. Had a quick Google of their names, but just two articles appeared:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14219217.600-passionate-illusions.html (there’s a single sentence in this New Scientist article mentioning the “celebrated” story)
http://www.teachsam.de/pro/pro_lebensf/pro_ehe/pro_ehe_1.htm (although this is in German, you can see that Mark and Teresa ended up in the same news article as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver, Gerard Depardieu and Bill Clinton.)
Just so you know, she and I broke up in July 1994.
Mark Cooper
Astragali´s last blog ..Paper or Plastic? for 20100303