Blown to Bits: Koan 7

     The main idea of Koan 7 is that information today travels faster than it has ever before, even faster than some human to human communication. Koan 7 presents a few key points about why this is true which has led me to agree with this koan. Processing power and storage capacities of computers and devices has increased exponentially in the past few decades. Personal computer ownership and power have all increased in the past decades making us more interconnected with fast machines. The processing speed of processors have only increased exponentially according to Moore's Law and radio communication has become more widespread than ever. It is possible for an email to reach a person faster from one side of a room than an actual person walking to tell someone the same information. This speed has made it easier to get information to places once difficult or expensive to get to. To communicate information from New York to London might have been expensive over phone since international calls used to be very expensive a few decades ago. The most cost effective option was to write a letter, which would take weeks to deliver and also had the possibility of going lost. In current times, however, computers have made exchanging information as fast as milliseconds and as cheap as almost free. Now, a phone call to London from NY is consumer friendly but an email can also be sent and received in London in the matter of seconds. This koan will remain true unless humans somehow evolve to be faster than technology. Technology is only going to get faster and even though in recent years it has seemed to stop increasing exponentially it is still increasing by a little each time. At the rate we are going it is unlikely human speed will beat computer speed. This koan has intersected in my personal life as a student as well. To see my friends as a kid, I would need to wait the next day to see them in school again. Now, I can video chat them in seconds. To talk to teachers about grades I would need to wait until the next day of school but now I can message my teachers even in the evening. Assignments are easy to submit digitally so if I miss school I can scan my homework and turn it in. Technology has made communicating faster and easier than before and the human response to messages seems to be the only slow and inconvenient thing about it.
     Koan 7 also presents another idea, the availability and accessibility of information through technology can be thwarted by government restrictions and censorship. With information spreading like wildfire, especially on the Internet, it is normal to see organizations and governments try to limit or remove the thing spreading bad press. We have seen throughout history the ways governments try to prevent bad press from being exposed. This could've been the banning of certain media groups and outlets, such as newspapers, to murder and purges of people who are against the government, such as the ones we've seen in the totalitarian countries like the USSR or modern day North Korea. This has led me to agree that such thing as 'cyberspace' is only made up. There have always been attempts to limit what people can consume and how connected they can be to others by governments throughout history. If a government needs to cover up bad press it will go as far as to control communication methods. Technology has connected people more ever than before but one thing that can stand in its way is the government. The author gives a modern day example of how Myanmar took full control of the Internet and cell lines after a protest went viral. I also encounter this as a student. What sites I can visit are restricted at school. Certain types of conduct online is punishable at school. The school restricts the students' freedom to make sure they don't do anything inappropriate. While it seems like technology has created a digital land with interconnectedness and freedom known as cyberspace something will always come in the way of so much freedom.