eBook creation software

[Phillip E Cash Cash]

Just a few observations following Richards long "so..."

On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 8:24 AM, Richard Zane Smith <rzs at wildblue.net> wrote:
> so..............
>
>
> every human being should have an iphone
> every human being should have an ebook
> every human being should have a facebook account
> every human being should have an automobile
>
> teyeterih (i don't know)

Children born into this present life, called "digital native(s)," will
or do hold these assumptions as a given.  In other words, for many,
there was never a time when somebody did not possess or have access to
an iPhone, eBook, etc.  In any case, this has a particular potent
meaning and circumstance wrought with a bit of uncertainty.

In the larger flow of things, technology time is rapid and
non-experiential.  I read somewhere, that within a brief inordinate
amount of human time, we have undergone a technology transformation at
a rate 100+ times more than our ancestors.  This will exponentially
increase in lesser amounts of time.

But none of this is solely about young people.  In the Cherokee
example, having an iPhone app that writes in the Cherokee syllabary
may actually encourage many to consider obtaining an iPhone.  This new
option created from a combination of having access to an ancestral
language and a new mobile technology does have a *wow* factor
associated with it but where we go from there is yet unknown.

> amidst the celebration of cool tools... is anyone thinking about
> the cost to the earth  and how human minds WILL BE altered by this stuff?

Recent studies have shown that cell phone use alters the glucose
metabolism of the brain.

Cell phone emissions change brain metabolism
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2011/02/22/cell-phone-emissions-change-brain-metabolism/

Mother earth now wears a robe of cell towers.

> do we see our children now having "NEEDS" we never even thought about?

Exactly.  A world reflected is a world desired.

> are we getting the languages back at the very risk of ripping away
> the very cultural moorings from which these languages are imbedded?

I think this is the heart of the question, Richard.  We need to
consider/ask if technology access and adoption helps to facilitate or
slow the ongoing rapid language change we are already experiencing.
Every endangered language community is unique partly because of their
historical experience, however, the invasiveness or ubiquitousness of
technology follows a multilateral ceaseless flow.  In some parts of
the indigenous world, the opportunities offered by technology outweigh
the challenges...say for example in some parts of aboriginal
Australia, technology use is mostly viewed as an alternative cultural
purpose and not necessarily as an out right change or cultural
replacement of something indigenous.  Rather, such uses are often seen
as reinforcing ancestral foundations rather than "ripping" it away.
In such examples and even those instances in my own community, I
support and celebrate the aspirations they draw upon rather than any
actual technology usage.  Persistent awareness of context is important
however.

> cultural paradigms that are the antithesis of such conquest-based
>  extravagance?

Cultural paradigms of the indigenous mind are like iridescent jewels.
To say that technology is the antithesis to conquest-based
extravagance is another way of celebrating the iridescent cultural
mind.

There has been a lot of talk about the quantum universe lately.  All
fascinating indeed.  I think many ancient indigenous/aboriginal
cultures embody the quantum universe in unique ways, or at least more
so than most.  Part of the idea here, borrowing from quantum
entanglement theory, is that if atom particles can split and "vibrate"
in sync with each other across great distances then this potential
becoming affirms our transmissional intent.  I would like to believe
that I am somebody's quantum potential from some ancient time frame.
Think of a rock-art image created by an ancient mind and when one
stands in front of that image somethings deep happens, a quantum
effect takes place.  I think this is what many intended.

> will a line ever be drawn? enough is enough?

The iridescent cultural mind would say that survival follows a path
with heart.

> are we addicted to the "new?"

Some of us, certainly.

> whatever high tech tool, we hold today will be trashed in 5 years.

The first "computer lab" the tribe ever obtained went quickly
extinct...Windows 95 (some may not even know what this is), etc.  It
sat for many years gathering dust.

> Is this really what our ancestors taught us? where is the balance?

The cultural iridescent mind seeks balance always.

>
> teyeterih
>
> ske;noh
> Richard

Thanks Richard.  Life and language always,
Phil