Yes I know, two days late. Whoever invented timestamps I would curse your name if I knew what it was. As I didn't hang around for the entire lecture, I don't know if this specific point was raised; but when the discussion of what constitutes a "new" or "old" technology arose, I couldn't help but think that all of them were simply refinements of the oldest communication technology around: language. Starting with gesture and basic vocalisations through to the spoken word and the pinnacle of human achievement: writing. Granted we have found new means to utilise language, but all these techs are built on the same elements. Telegraph through to instant messages, not too different from the Pony Express, just faster. Telephone is still just long distance conversation, television an impersonal public speech. You're still talking or writing, and it seems to me that no one wants to consider language itself as a technology. Then again I hardly ever interact with anyone else, so I'm certain that all my "original" ideas have been thought of before. My main point - if I have one - is that at their base, these "new" techs aren't even using new methods, just a different mode of distribution. When phone hacking was mentioned, I found it hard not to think of the simple act of opening someone else's mail, and the other kind of phone hacking - wiretapping - is just the same as eavesdropping on a public conversation.
Ah well, way of the future I guess.
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