Blog 5

According to Manovich, this “something else”—software—is the core to the function of today’s society. Search engines, mapping applications, blog tools, instant messaging, and many more functions that build software are used daily across the world. Manovich’s biggest concern, however, is defining the transformation between computers being invisible and currently being a “new engine” of culture. From the reading, I understood that this transformation was and is due to the confidence and reliance we have with software. He states, “The school and the hospital, the military base and the scientific laboratory, the airport and the city—all social, economic, and cultural systems of modern society—run on software”. Therefore, today we rely heavily on software to help function our day-to-day activities. Whether its software running the local grocery store or software used within banks, these are all crucial to our fast-paced society today. Being familiar with the historical aspect of software—where it came from and the cause rather than the effect—is a little unnecessary in my opinion. It’s safe to say that our busy lifestyle wouldn’t survive without the software/technology that we have today. Whether or not we’re familiar with older versions or what was put into the software to receive our desired effects is irrelevant; this is why we rely on software.

The inventors were Liicklider, Sutherland, Nelson, Engelbart, Kay, Negroponte and the others that contributed to transforming the computer into what it is today. We don’t hear much about these contributors because there’s slim history of cultural software available. Additionally, “And we also don’t have any detailed studies that would relate the history of cultural software to history of media, media theory, or history of visual culture”.

The inventions that spawned this experimental, unfixed, and democratic visual culture will never look back. As previously stated, technology is hard to keep up with; it is constantly changing. This popular created software continues to build on each other. A continuous cycle such as this is shown through Microsoft Office software—providing newer versions every so often. This is also shown throughout new video games/consoles, and the alterations within online blogs such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Manovich stated in this reading that users tend to forget older versions of software but I disagree. For example, Microsoft Office has recently released a 2010 version but I am currently using the 2007 edition. Another example of this is once again, video games and consoles—many friends of mine still have the original Nintendo, along with Playstation’s, Wii’s, etc. We may not give these contributors the credit they deserve in Manovich’s eyes, but our demand for newer and faster software is essential for our fast-paced society today.