Midterm

Part One:

Can computers think?  It seems a pertinent question to ask while playing Guru Meditation on the iPad.  The iPad, in this particular case, acts as a mediator between the player and the App; it seems to safe to say that some people may believe that the Guru Meditation App forces the iPad to "think," but this is not the case.  A slight jerk of the hand, and the little green bar--so tantalizing to the player because it is infinitely unattainable--disappears completely.  The App thus believes that the player has lost his concentration.  But this is cannot be further from the truth.  

Searle, in his article "Can Computers Think?", argues that in order for a computer--a machine--to think, it must have the knowledge as to why something occurs.  He uses the example of computer programmers creating a program in which the computer simulates understanding Chinese symbols; the computer is able to answer questions with Chinese symbols because it searches through its databases for a relevant and "appropriate" answer.  However, the computer does not "think," it simply rattles off the information that has been programmed for it.  Searle describes the computer as having "syntax, but not semantics" (671).  In short, the computer can respond with Chinese symbols because that is what it has been programmed to do, but it cannot formulate a conversation or comprehend what it has said--in a way, the Chinese symbols experiment demonstrates that while a computer can perform to exceedingly high standards, it is not able to explain the *why*.

As such, the same can be said for the Guru Meditation App.  The App does not "think," but only performs.  It acts solely on the motions of the player's hands.  Perhaps the player has managed to wipe his brain of any and all thoughts--which, according the App's Inspiration page, that is what the App is intended for--but perhaps he has naturally shaky hands?  Guru Meditation would promptly end the player's attempt and make him start over again.  Much like the computer with the Chinese symbols, Guru Meditation only understands the programming, but does not take into account the why's or how's or any of the other issues that may play a hand in the game.

The Guru Meditation App also functions as a reproduction of the reality of meditating.  In Benjamin's "The Work of Art," he explains that art is always being reproduced throughout the centuries.  Although Benjamin speaks of films and statues or the like in his article, meditating is simply a different form of art, one which applies to his argument.  The process of reproduction takes away from the original and loses its uniqueness.  That is not to say that the reproduction, of say, the statue of Venus, is not as appealing, but there is something to say about the original--to use Benjamin's vocabulary, the original is "natural."  As such, Guru Meditation is a reproduction of actually meditating; it is a simulation (a program) that creates the illusion of peace because in reality, the player is much more focused with not moving his hands than losing focus completely.  

Part Two:

The Kindle App, and the e-books that can be then bought from Amazon, is a form of the third order of Baudrillard's simulacra.  The third order of the simulacra, in short, is the hyperreal, it is the "simulacra of simulation, founded on information, the model, the cybernetic game--total operationality, hyperreality, and total control" (1).  Perhaps it may help to back up a little: if Kindle (or, let us be more specific, the e-book) is the third simulacra then that means that the printed book must then be of the second order--the model, the imitation of the "natural" (the first order).  

But what is the "natural?"  Baudrillard describes the "natural" to be, in a way, God, or at least a person's imitation of it.  In this particular case, we can perhaps substitute "Author" for "God."  The second order, the printed book, seeks to make a Utopia of the Author (unless we are speaking of Barthes, who claims that we should separate authorship from reading completely).  It is the "real" model, meaning that one can find a book in a bookstore or a grocery mart.  It has been mass-produced and is therefore a reproduction.  However, the third simulacra takes the simulation a step further, a simulacra of a simulacra, if you will.  For a simpler example, let us look at the infamous bagel vs. mini-bagel scenario.  The bagel has been mass-produced, it has become the "ideal" in both shape and form (i.e the printed book has become the ideal because it is what a person recognizes); however, the mini-bagel is not a replication of the standard bagel, but rather a hyperreal version of it, a new version.  The same can be said for the e-book.  

The e-book is intangible; it exists solely in an alternate plane.  The App displays the e-book to appear as the printed book might--it simulates turning pages and text against the back screen, but it is not a printed book.  This can be seen in the simplest of manners: locations rather than page numbers, changes in font, the mere fact that a reader can purchase a book and have it in his library in under ten seconds.  Moreover, the concept of the "library" is also changed, formatted to appear as a real bookcase might (if all the books faced forward, that is).  The Kindle's library is a simulation, an imitation, of a real library; and Amazon's Kindle Store is also a simulation, an imitation, a simulacra, of Barnes&Noble or Borders or any other bookstore.  The e-book (and the Kindle App as a result) is the mini-bagel: it is passed forward as a simulation of the printed book (the standard bagel), when in fact, it should instead be viewed entirely as its own entity.

In addition, the e-book can also be viewed as the third order of the simulacra in a different light.  Baudrillard explains that science fiction (the third order) has altered and changed over the years because the discovery of  Earth has already been completed--in fiction then, one must push past that and create other worlds to show a way of "otherworldliness."  The same can be said for the Kindle App, and also, the e-book.  Since the sixteenth-century, the printed book has been tweaked and altered and praised; for 600 years, it has been the way in which people read.  However, Baudrillard would claim that the progression to the e-book and online reading has been done in much the same way that science fiction has moved to alternate universes.  We have used (and perhaps abused) the printed book, the model of the "natural," and we have now moved onto the hyperreal, or, the third simulacra.  As such, the Kindle App and its subsequent parts (the e-book) is a simulacra of the printed book/bookstore, the production.