Not Recommended

For class on Thursday, we read the introduction and first chapter of “Emergence” by Steven Johnson. Johnson introduces the emergence through the example of slime mold. Slime mold is an organism that usually lives as a single cell, moving about independently of other slime molds. However, when resources in the environment are scarce, all of the cells will self-organize into what looks like one single organism, without the direction of any one cell, or pacemaker. In one sentence, emergence is “the movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication” (Johnson 18). Johnson points out how this theory can be applied to ant colonies, cities, and even “simple-pattern recognition software” such as amazon.com’s recommendation feature that recommends products based on your wish-list or past purchases.

Amazon.com is basically one of my favorite websites ever, mainly because of the wish-list feature. I have been buying stuff off of Amazon and maintaining a wishlist ever since middle school. I mainly started one so that I my family would get some clue as to what to buy me for Christmas (yea, I was that greedy). But now I basically use it to remind myself of books and movies that I heard were good and want to check out at the library or video store. Despite the fact that I have been using the site for so long, I had never looked at the recommendation feature. When we checked out the site in class, I became very skeptical of whether or not emergence was at work there. In middle school I must have bought a Backstreet Boys album from Amazon.com because the first 7 products recommended to me were related to my former favorite boy band. After checking the not-interested box for all of those (my inner 7^th grader is crushed), about half of the new products were either related to Nsync (gross!) or ballet documentaries, which is what I bought my mom for Christmas this year. After continually refreshing the list, it finally stopped recommending me boy band products, but it still hasn’t gotten over the whole ballet thing and now keeps on recommending poker books, which is what I got my dad for Christmas, and every single Jack Johnson CD, because I said I liked the one I own.

Johnson suggests that a feature of emergent systems is, “the distinctive quality of growing smarter over time” (Johnson 20). Perhaps my tastes are too complex or I’ve messed up the system because of the gifts I have bought for other people, but I’m failing to see emergent behavior in Amazon.com. I have made many purchases for myself since that Backstreet Boy CD, but the recommendation feature has not “grown smarter” and realized that my tastes have changed a bit.

Lost In Translation

The first time I watched Lost In Translation I didn’t like it. I thought it was pretty boring, did not have much of a plot, and I hated the ending. I think my movie tastes have matured a bit because this time I really enjoyed it. There was a lot of subtle humor, which I liked, and I was fully equipped with theories of non-places to apply to the movie!

One thing that I found interesting that I don’t think we really touched on in discussion was the whole issue of identity in a non-place. Auge claimed that people using non-places do not really have an identity, especially if they are traveling alone. For Bob, since he was a celebrity, everyone seemed to recognize him and his Japanese entourage was always doting on him, giving him gifts, and making sure he felt at home. Despite the fact that they were in a hotel, Bob already had an identity there, and once he and Charlotte established a meaningful relationship, the hotel became even more of a place than his actual home.

I also thought it was interesting that Tokyo didn’t become a place for Charlotte until she became friends with Bob. Although she was living there for a certain amount of time with her husband, she still felt alone and didn’t have an identity. I think that she attempted to make it a place at first by going to the Buddhist (I think?) place and making the flower centerpieces, but, as she said on the phone, she felt nothing. Once she became friends with Bob, she revisited the Buddhist place and she appeared to find the meaning she was originally looking for.

After watching the movie, I think that above all others, relationships are the defining part of a place. Bob and Charlotte were both lacking meaningful relationships in their lives, and once they formed one, Tokyo became a place to them. Relationships are what give people identity and history in a certain space.

A little more on Non-Places

For this week, we read “From Places to Non-Places” by Marc Auge. It was kind of long and I did not really understand what Auge was talking about when I initially read it (which was during my two hour flight delay at Logan International Airport— just a tad ironic). After our discussion on Tuesday, everything became a lot clearer.

Basically, Auge feels like there are two different types of spaces: places and non-places. Places, in the anthropological sense, are those recognized as having to do with relations, history, and identity (Auge, 77). Non-places, therefore, are everywhere else. In class, we summed up the main characteristics of non-places, which include transit, traveling, and movement, being anonymous, use of text, solitude, and absence of communication. However, all of these characteristics don’t hold for all non-places. Some of the non-places we came up with are buses, airports, hotels, malls, elevators, supermarkets, and hospitals.

Auge clearly feels that studying non-places is very important because we spend a good part of our lives in them. After our discussion, I started thinking about this more and was very intrigued. I started to think about all of the non-places I go to everyday. One “non-place” that stuck out was the elevator in McArdle Lab. I go to that building once or twice every day, and therefore ride the elevator up to and down from the eighth floor about sixteen times a week. This week, I started thinking about the whole “non-place” theory while I was in the elevator and it made me kind of nervous. I see some of the same people every day in the elevator, but I know absolutely nothing about them. Usually when I’m in the elevator, I check my phone or put my headphones in. Perhaps it is because I want to remain anonymous? Unfortunately, I’m way too shy to actually strike up a conversation with anyone in an elevator, but it definitely got me thinking.

I was bored the other night so I went on youtube, and found this very interesting short documentary on non-places. The beginning has some text in it, but it is in Spanish so I don't know what it says. Also, there is a very interesting part where a girl falls down, and it doesn't really go with the rest of the video. I thought it was pretty funny.

My Experience on the Bus

Today, since the weather was so crummy, I decided to ride the bus. In class we determined that the bus can be considered a non-place, mainly because the reason for taking the bus is transit. You don’t really ride the bus expecting to talk to anyone, and most people are anonymous “travelers.”

I usually don’t take the bus because I always feel lazy when I do, but I had to go to the registrar’s office to get my transcript and I was told that the 85 drops off right in front of it. I got on the 80 on Charter and rode that to Memorial Union, where I picked up the 85. I then felt really stupid because I soon realized that the 85 stops at the same stop that I got on the 80 on Charter. Oh well! After I got my transcript, I got back on the 85 to Memorial Union, and then I took the 80 back to my dorm. The four bus rides probably totaled about 20 minutes.

In those 20 minutes I observed that the majority of people riding the bus just stare off in space, and they usually look annoyed or angry. Some people were listening to/playing with their mp3 players and others were talking on their cell phones. Some people that obviously knew each would start conversations, but it was usually just about where people were going or where they came from; nothing of any substance. Other than that, the most common words that were exchanged were “excuse me,” “sorry,” and “thank you.”

One interesting thing I noticed was that when people were not silent, such as when they were having a conversation, talking loudly on their cell phone, or, at one point, playing the harmonica, a lot of people on the bus would give them annoyed looks. I think that most people want to relax when they ride the bus, especially if it is towards the end of the day. In that sense, a non-place can sort of exist as an escape from stressful places, such as work or home. When people are talking, or playing musical instruments, it kind of disturbs the peace. I’ll admit, it was nice to have twenty minutes of solitude, but I found it kind of depressing that everyone looked so unhappy. Perhaps it was the weather. Seriously, when does it blizzard in April?