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.網站
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中文機翻：
計算機如何治癒文化糖尿病
做者：Peter Lunenfeld
使用計算機創造將有益於人類文化
聯網計算機爲廣播的垃圾文化提供瞭解藥。爲何不選擇健康的選擇？
當你從飛機窗口望出去並意識到，不管商業航空旅行的侮辱如何，你都會想到那些稍縱即逝的瞬間，你的飛行高於鳥類，是一種遠離太陽的伊卡洛斯。如今想一想你的筆記本電腦，比一個馬尼拉信封更薄，或者你的手機坐在你的手掌中。花一兩個時間來思考這些奇蹟。你是夢想成真的幸運繼承者。
20世紀下半葉，一羣天才，勇士，和平主義者，曲柄，企業家和有遠見者都在努力創造出一臺神奇的機器，可用做打字機和印刷機，工做室和劇院，畫筆和畫廊，鋼琴和收音機，郵件以及郵件運營商。他們不只開發了這樣的設備，並且在千禧年之際，他們還設法將其嵌入到天天數十億人訪問的全球系統中。
聯網的計算機是一個了不得的設備，第一個做爲生產模式的媒體機（你能夠製做東西），分發方式（你能夠上傳東西到網絡），接收站點（你能夠下載東西和交互）它），以及讚美和批評的位置（你能夠談論你下載或上傳的東西）。電腦是21世紀的文化機器。
但因爲全部緣由都要慶祝電腦，咱們也必須謹慎行事。這是由於網絡計算機引起了下載和上傳之間的祕密戰爭 - 在被動消費和主動創造之間 - 其結果將以咱們只能開始想象的方式塑造咱們的集體將來。我稱之爲祕密戰爭有兩個緣由。首先，大多數人沒有意識到工做中存在強有力的商業議程以使他們處於被動消費模式。其次，大多數使用聯網計算機上傳的人甚至都不知道他們正在作什麼的重要性。
全部動物下載，但只有少數上傳除了糞便和他們本身的身體以外的任何東西。海狸建造水壩，鳥築巢和白蟻創造土墩，但在大多數狀況下，動物王國經過世界下載。人類不只可以製造工具，並且可以轉而使用它們創造多餘的物質產品 - 繪畫，雕塑和建築 - 以及多餘的體驗 - 音樂，文學，宗教和哲學。固然，正是這些多餘的東西定義了人類文化，最終定義了人類的文化。下載和消費文化須要很高的技巧，但未能超越下載的目的是剝奪人性的決定性成分。
「未能超越下載將剝奪一我的的人性定義成分」
對於咱們新文化機器的全部可能性，大多數人仍處於下載模式。即便在普遍的社交媒體出現以後，仍然存在一個生產金字塔，少數人上傳材料，一個稍微大一點的評論或修改內容，以及剩餘的大部份內容僅供消費。這個生產金字塔持續存在的一個緣由是，在過去的半個世紀中，世界上大部分的媒體文化都是由單一媒體定義的 - 電視 - 電視是經過下載來定義的。
電視是一個涌入咱們家的單向龍頭。電視詢問任何人的最艱鉅的任務是在打開電源後關閉電源。網絡計算機提供了50年來第一次扭轉流量的機會，鼓勵深思熟慮的下載，更重要的是，有意義的上傳。
什麼算是有意義的上傳？個人定義圍繞着「粘性」的概念 - 其餘人所遵循的創造和經驗。關於名人失言的推文不是粘性的，而是有點無心義的鐵氟龍球。相比之下，像tumblr.com這樣的應用程序，容許用戶以創造性的方式組合圖片，文字和其餘媒體，而後分享它們，有可能經過娛樂，娛樂和啓發他人來增長粘性 - 併產生更多相同的東西。手機和平板電腦應用程序的爆炸式增加意味着即便是編程技能有限的人如今也能夠製做粘性的東西。
所以，計算機安裝到電視上的挑戰與以CD播放器替換的唱片播放器的方式被另外一種格式替換的格式幾乎沒有類似之處。它遠比那更深入，由於它能夠完全打破電視文化，從消費模式轉變爲生產模式。
這是一個歷史性的機會。五十年的電視主導地位催生了一種不健康的文化。由跨國企業集團創造的碳酸飲料和漢堡包，廣播的垃圾文化使咱們成爲知識型糖尿病患者。如今咱們已經集體掌握了治療方法。它涉及控制和配給咱們的攝入量，或下載，並提升咱們的活動水平 - 上傳。不要分解太多，看正在攝取下載和製做正在上傳。
固然人們仍然會下載。沒有人上傳他們消費的文化的一小部分。但目標必須是在消費和生產之間創建平衡。使用聯網計算機做爲僅下載設備，甚至是如下載爲主的設備，是一個歷史性比例的浪費機會。
Peter Lunenfeld是加州大學洛杉磯分校設計媒體藝術系的教授。這是改編自他的新書《下載和上傳之間的祕密戰爭：做爲文化機器的計算機故事》（麻省理工學院出版社）