The Seven Ages of Computer Connectivity
or
Flush with Possibilities and Faced with Decisions
John F. Barber
Northwestern State University
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Abstract
Futurists predict that networked computer technology, with its abilities
to store, retrieve, share, and make information promises a world profoundly diff
erent than the one we
currently inhabit. In the future, they say, we will be flush with
possibilities and faced with decisions.
As these scenarios evolve, so will our notions of writing. Therefore,
knowing something of the potential for change implicit in these
future scenarios and how they may affect the teaching and learning of writing
by affecting the world around us is both practical and appropriate.
Borrowing from the notion of a geological "age" to denote a period of
time during which something exists in a state or fashion or capacity
significantly different than other periods of time, and inspired by whimsy, I
have settled on The Seven Ages of Computer Connectivity---The Computer Age,
The Information Age, The Shocked Age, The Telespheral Age, The Aquarian Age,
The Transhuman Age, and The Digital Age.
Interconnected and repetitive themes swirl and
circle back and forth on each other in each of these ages. From these themes I
have attempted to
produce a multilayered linked and overlapping series of speculations on The
Seven Ages of Computer Connectivity.
This webbed writing was reviewed by Ted Nellen and Judi
Kirkpatrick of the Kairos Editorial Board.
Contact John Barber
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About the Author
John F. Barber teaches courses in advanced composition, creative writing,
technical writing, composition theory, and computers and composition at
Northwestern State University. He is interested in pedagogical and cultural
issues raised by the intersection of literacy, technology, and society.
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Kairos: A Journal for Teachers of
Writing in Webbed Environments