The representation of time in the article The Garden of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges, 1941 For Victor Ocampo
is similar to the representation of new technologies and their relation to time in our days.
Time can be overwhelming as well as technologies.So many times new technologies can be overwhelming and sometimes they work in your advantage and sometimes in our disadvantage. Just like in the Garden of Forking Paths, “all possible outcomes occur; each one is the point of departure for other forking. Sometimes, the paths of this labyrinth converge: for example, you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy, in another, my friend. If you will resign yourself to my incurable pronunciation, we shall read a few pages.”
We are consumed with technology and time seams to shrink and disappear. The fast paste of all we do and the inpatient that is within us make all the moments blend and time never enough.
“He believed in an infinite series of times, in a growing, dizzying net of divergent, convergent and parallel times.This network of times which approached one another, forked, broke off, or were unaware of one another for centuries, embraces all possibilities of time. ”
Should we embrace all possibilities in our lives because we soon may be limited in possibilities to choose from? It seems that more and more things we do and occupy ourselves with, the more we forget about other possibilities in life.
On one hand the more the technology grow the more limited we become in living a life with endless possibilities. On the other hand we learn more and more about the limits of our imagination. I guess there is always a price to pay and each person has to choose which price is ready to pay.
In “As We May Think” by Vannevar Bush the author says:
“For years inventions have extended man’s physical powers rather than the powers of his mind.” We see in this article as well how the same question we ask ourselves comes across, how the new changes and techno revolution affects us and if is more beneficial or harmful.
In the article You Say You Want a Revolution? Hypertext and the Laws of Media we come across the same dilemma:
When Moulthrop asked the last of McLuhan’s four questions—”What does it produce or become when taken to its limit?”—of hypertext, he noted that a medium taken to its limit is said to reverse.
As I read that passage I started thinking, how is the technology going to backfire or as the author said to reverse? Are we going to reach our limits and then start stop or as we go along and reach our limits in designing new technologies we are going in reverse in our development as human beings.
All the articles del with the similar question of how technology and the techno revolution is affecting us and is the positive more than the negative outcome or the other way around.
As I mentioned before I think for each person is individual to what to embrace however if you want stay current in your ability to work for example there is no way going around the new inventions. There are still people and generation that do not use www but in few years we will not be able to exist with techno resistance.
I personally think that we can find a balance and still use the power of our brain and also keep up with the new changes.
