The networked computer offers an antidote to the junk culture of broadcasting. Why not choose the healthy option?dom
THINK of those fleeting moments when you look out of an aeroplane window and realise that, regardless of the indignities of commercial air travel, you are flying, higher than a bird, an Icarus safe from the sun. Now think of your laptop, thinner than a manila envelope, or your cellphone nestled in the palm of your hand. Take a moment or two to wonder at those marvels. You are the lucky inheritor of a dream come true.ide
The second half of the 20th century saw a collection of geniuses, warriors, pacifists, cranks, entrepreneurs and visionaries labour to create a fabulous machine that could function as a typewriter and printing press, studio and theatre, paintbrush and gallery, piano and radio, the mail as well as the mail carrier. Not only did they develop such a device but by the turn of the millennium they had also managed to embed it in a worldwide system accessed by billions of people every day.工具
The networked computer is an amazing device, the first media machine that serves as the mode of production (you can make stuff), means of distribution (you can upload stuff to the network), site of reception (you can download stuff and interact with it), and locus of praise and critique (you can talk about the stuff you have downloaded or uploaded). The computer is the 21st century’s culture machine.网站
But for all the reasons there are to celebrate the computer, we must also tread with caution. This is because the networked computer has sparked a secret war between downloading and uploading – between passive consumption and active creation – whose outcome will shape our collective future in ways we can only begin to imagine. I call it a secret war for two reasons. First, most people do not realise that there are strong commercial agendas at work to keep them in passive consumption mode. Second, the majority of people who use networked computers to upload are not even aware of the significance of what they are doing.ui
All animals download, but only a few upload anything besides faeces and their own bodies. Beavers build dams, birds make nests and termites create mounds, yet for the most part, the animal kingdom moves through the world downloading. Humans are unique in their capacity to not only make tools but then turn around and use them to create superfluous material goods – paintings, sculpture and architecture – and superfluous experiences – music, literature, religion and philosophy. Of course, it is precisely these superfluous things that define human culture and ultimately what it is to be human. Downloading and consuming culture requires great skills, but failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity.
“Failing to move beyond downloading is to strip oneself of a defining constituent of humanity”
For all the possibilities of our new culture machines, most people are still stuck in download mode. Even after the advent of widespread social media, a pyramid of production remains, with a small number of people uploading material, a slightly larger group commenting on or modifying that content, and a huge percentage remaining content to just consume. One reason for the persistence of this pyramid of production is that for the past half-century, much of the world’s media culture has been defined by a single medium – television – and television is defined by downloading.
Television is a one-way spigot gushing into our homes. The hardest task that television asks of anyone is to turn the power off after they have turned it on. The networked computer offers the first chance in 50 years to reverse the flow, to encourage thoughtful downloading and, even more importantly, meaningful uploading.
What counts as meaningful uploading? My definition revolves around the concept of “stickiness” – creations and experiences to which others adhere. Tweets about celebrity gaffes are not sticky but rather little Teflon balls of meaninglessness. In contrast, applications like tumblr.com, which allow users to combine pictures, words and other media in creative ways and then share them, have the potential to add stickiness by amusing, entertaining and enlightening others – and engendering more of the same. The explosion of apps for mobile phones and tablets means that even people with limited programming skills can now create sticky things.
The challenge the computer mounts to television thus bears little similarity to one format being replaced by another in the manner of record players being replaced by CD players. It is far more profound than that, because it can bring about a radical break from the culture of television and a shift from a consumption model to a production model.
This is a historic opportunity. Fifty years of television dominance has given birth to an unhealthy culture. Created like fizzy drinks and burgers by multinational conglomerates, the junk culture of broadcasting has turned us into intellectual diabetics. The cure is now in our collective grasp. It involves controlling and rationing our intake, or downloading, and increasing our levels of activity – uploading. Not to break it down too much, watching is ingesting is downloading and making is exercising is uploading.
Of course people will still download. Nobody uploads more than a tiny percentage of the culture they consume. But the goal must be to establish a balance between consumption and production. Using the networked computer as a download-only device, or even a download-mainly device, is a wasted opportunity of historic proportions.
Peter Lunenfeld is a professor in the Design Media Arts department at the University of California, Los Angeles. This is adapted from his new book The Secret War Between Downloading and Uploading: Tales of the computer as culture machine (The MIT Press)
Google中文机翻：
计算机如何治愈文化糖尿病
做者：Peter Lunenfeld
使用计算机创造将有益于人类文化
联网计算机为广播的垃圾文化提供了解药。为何不选择健康的选择？
当你从飞机窗口望出去并意识到，不管商业航空旅行的侮辱如何，你都会想到那些稍纵即逝的瞬间，你的飞行高于鸟类，是一种远离太阳的伊卡洛斯。如今想一想你的笔记本电脑，比一个马尼拉信封更薄，或者你的手机坐在你的手掌中。花一两个时间来思考这些奇迹。你是梦想成真的幸运继承者。
20世纪下半叶，一群天才，勇士，和平主义者，曲柄，企业家和有远见者都在努力创造出一台神奇的机器，可用做打字机和印刷机，工做室和剧院，画笔和画廊，钢琴和收音机，邮件以及邮件运营商。他们不只开发了这样的设备，并且在千禧年之际，他们还设法将其嵌入到天天数十亿人访问的全球系统中。
联网的计算机是一个了不得的设备，第一个做为生产模式的媒体机（你能够制做东西），分发方式（你能够上传东西到网络），接收站点（你能够下载东西和交互）它），以及赞美和批评的位置（你能够谈论你下载或上传的东西）。电脑是21世纪的文化机器。
但因为全部缘由都要庆祝电脑，咱们也必须谨慎行事。这是由于网络计算机引起了下载和上传之间的秘密战争 - 在被动消费和主动创造之间 - 其结果将以咱们只能开始想象的方式塑造咱们的集体将来。我称之为秘密战争有两个缘由。首先，大多数人没有意识到工做中存在强有力的商业议程以使他们处于被动消费模式。其次，大多数使用联网计算机上传的人甚至都不知道他们正在作什么的重要性。
全部动物下载，但只有少数上传除了粪便和他们本身的身体以外的任何东西。海狸建造水坝，鸟筑巢和白蚁创造土墩，但在大多数状况下，动物王国经过世界下载。人类不只可以制造工具，并且可以转而使用它们创造多余的物质产品 - 绘画，雕塑和建筑 - 以及多余的体验 - 音乐，文学，宗教和哲学。固然，正是这些多余的东西定义了人类文化，最终定义了人类的文化。下载和消费文化须要很高的技巧，但未能超越下载的目的是剥夺人性的决定性成分。
“未能超越下载将剥夺一我的的人性定义成分”
对于咱们新文化机器的全部可能性，大多数人仍处于下载模式。即便在普遍的社交媒体出现以后，仍然存在一个生产金字塔，少数人上传材料，一个稍微大一点的评论或修改内容，以及剩余的大部份内容仅供消费。这个生产金字塔持续存在的一个缘由是，在过去的半个世纪中，世界上大部分的媒体文化都是由单一媒体定义的 - 电视 - 电视是经过下载来定义的。
电视是一个涌入咱们家的单向龙头。电视询问任何人的最艰巨的任务是在打开电源后关闭电源。网络计算机提供了50年来第一次扭转流量的机会，鼓励深思熟虑的下载，更重要的是，有意义的上传。
什么算是有意义的上传？个人定义围绕着“粘性”的概念 - 其余人所遵循的创造和经验。关于名人失言的推文不是粘性的，而是有点无心义的铁氟龙球。相比之下，像tumblr.com这样的应用程序，容许用户以创造性的方式组合图片，文字和其余媒体，而后分享它们，有可能经过娱乐，娱乐和启发他人来增长粘性 - 并产生更多相同的东西。手机和平板电脑应用程序的爆炸式增加意味着即便是编程技能有限的人如今也能够制做粘性的东西。
所以，计算机安装到电视上的挑战与以CD播放器替换的唱片播放器的方式被另外一种格式替换的格式几乎没有类似之处。它远比那更深入，由于它能够完全打破电视文化，从消费模式转变为生产模式。
这是一个历史性的机会。五十年的电视主导地位催生了一种不健康的文化。由跨国企业集团创造的碳酸饮料和汉堡包，广播的垃圾文化使咱们成为知识型糖尿病患者。如今咱们已经集体掌握了治疗方法。它涉及控制和配给咱们的摄入量，或下载，并提升咱们的活动水平 - 上传。不要分解太多，看正在摄取下载和制做正在上传。
固然人们仍然会下载。没有人上传他们消费的文化的一小部分。但目标必须是在消费和生产之间创建平衡。使用联网计算机做为仅下载设备，甚至是如下载为主的设备，是一个历史性比例的浪费机会。
Peter Lunenfeld是加州大学洛杉矶分校设计媒体艺术系的教授。这是改编自他的新书《下载和上传之间的秘密战争：做为文化机器的计算机故事》（麻省理工学院出版社）