Week 1 Lecture

New semester, new subjects, new chapter to our lives. Some would be excited to get in there and take this semester’s studies by the horns, but unfortunately, I did exactly opposite. I missed just about every class possible as I tried to get myself back on track after an overly relaxing 5 weeks of sun and holidays in the beautiful, tropical, North Queensland. However, I still read the lecture notes for this subject on the internet, and it’s made me think about the way we know so little about technology and what goes on in order to create easier ways of communication and entertainment.

It’s obvious technology plays a large part in our lives, and thanks to the incredibly vast growing reliance we humans have on technology, it’s next to impossible to go for any length of time without it. Thirty years ago we wouldn’t of had dreamed of being able to download multiple gigs of free music off the web, transfer it to a gadget which can be as small as our thumb, and listen to high quality music for hours on end while anywhere in the world. Whereas now, people may find it hard to believe we use to live our lives without these current necessities, and quite happily too.

Everyone knows that the advancing of technology has significantly shaped the way we communicate to each other throughout each day. However, in week 1’s Lecture, it talks about Shannon and Weaver’s model of communication from their book Mathematical Theory of Communication:

“The speaker produces an effect on the transmitter which sends a message (which is degraded by the noise of the transmission process) that is intercepted by the receiver which converts it into an effect that is heard by the listener.”

It’s come to my attention that many people take this “scientific study of mechanical art” for granted and are not thankful for the people who discovered multiple ways our message can be sent with as little effort as possible. And when the next generation come through they will do the same, just with a whole new batch of technology and gadgets.