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 ====== Pursell, 324-348 -- Andrew Ross, "Hacking Away at the Counterculture" ======
-In this reading, the author elaborates on his own concept that is //technoliteracy//. According to the text, technoliteracy is "to make a historical opportunity out of a historical necessity." In doing so, the author speaks to the opportunities in the hacking industry, despite the practice originating from something unanimously considered to be good: computer programming. Which new technological practices today are naively smiled upon that are hiding plenty of opportunities, some of which can be destructive? (--Nate Stringer)
+In this reading, the author elaborates on his own concept that is //technoliteracy//. According to the text, technoliteracy is "to make a historical opportunity out of a historical necessity." In doing so, the author speaks to the opportunities in the hacking industry, despite the practice originating from something unanimously considered to be good: computer programming. **Which new technological practices today are naively smiled upon that are hiding plenty of opportunities, some of which can be destructive?** (--Nate Stringer)
+I found this to be an interesting read. The focus was to look at and describe hacking outside of what may normally be thought. If we can look at technoculture into '"something like a hackers knowledge" then rewriting "cultural programs will be and reprogramming the social values that make room for the new technology." p.346.** The last line of the entire chapter was very powerful. It states " Technoliteracy for us  is the challenge to make a historical opportunity out of a historical necessity."** (347) To me, this means the world is evolving and we must evolve with it in order to be a successful country/person. No matter the difficulty, it is something that is vital for the continued modernization of our country. -- Erika Mabry
+**After reading this, I thought about the connections between digital technology and our changing culture. This article talked a lot about hacking and the implications of the word, and there were several more positive associations I had never had with the word. (When I hear hack I immediately think of computer viruses or malicious intent)**(330) I think one of the most important aspects about digital technology's heavy involvement with our everyday lives is privacy and surveillance. With so much personal information online, it's scary to think about how easily someone could use that information to manipulate you or cyber-stalk you. I especially feel bad for celebrities who have every move online being closely monitored.
+-Meghan McDonagh
+In Chapter 10: Toward Techno-literacy, Pursell starts with **a discourse about the earliest computer viruses such as the one made by Robert Tapp Morris (he named it after himself), a student at Cornell University in 1988, which resulted in the first United States conviction under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. This was the moment when the concept of malicious software entered the public consciousness and “became a thing.” The early sections of the chapter also discuss how viruses which make computers “sick” were compared to the viruses that make us sick, even comparing some of them to organic STDs, such that people said “Remember, when you connect with another computer, you’re connecting to every other computer that computer has connected to,” (**Ross, 326) an example of our at times blatant sexualization of technology, comparing connecting computers to humans “getting busy” only to get infected with something. – Rachel Beatty.
-I found this to be an interesting read. The focus was to look at and describe hacking outside of what may normally be thought. If we can look at technocutlrue into '"something like a hackers knowledge" then rewriting "cultural programs will be and reprogramming the social values that make room for the new technology." p.346. The last line of the entire chapter was very powerful. It states " Technoliteracy for us  is the challenge to make a historical opportunity out of a historical necessity." (347) To me, this means the world is evolving and we must evolve with it in order to be a successful country/person. No matter the difficulty, it is something that is vital for the continued modernization of our country. -- Erika Mabry
 ====== World's Largest Digital Dump ======
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 It is very interesting how the waste ends up in the Atlantic ocean, clearly by negligent companies. There is the infamous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” that exists purely in the water, which has less of a visible impact on the landscape of individuals. -John Liberty
-After reading this article it left me with a feeling of absolute guilt and confusion. How is this able to go on and how has no country stepped in to really stop this problem? I really am shook to the core with the fact that this goes on, and unless for this class I would have never known. The fact that containers are still continually shipped that cause different illnesses from the burning of the contents just makes me feel as though we have failed. The section where it talked about children dreaming to be footballers really hit me because it shows the innocence of the people that live there. They are forced to deal with everything that is brought there and left to fend for themselves. This is something that needs to be fixed. Is there a viable solution or will it just continue to happen? Thinking about this makes me think back to any technology that I have just thrown away like old parts of a computer or an old Ipod. This problem needs to be addressed by the United States and the world as a whole. This is very eye opening to read because we just dispose of things so easily here and never really think of the repercussions of what actually happens when it leaves our houses and our cities. -Tory Martin
+After reading this article it left me with **a feeling of absolute guilt and confusion.** How is this able to go on and how has no country stepped in to really stop this problem? I really am shook to the core with the fact that this goes on, and unless for this class I would have never known. The fact that containers are still continually shipped that cause different illnesses from the burning of the contents just makes me feel as though we have failed. The section where it talked about children dreaming to be footballers really hit me because it shows the innocence of the people that live there. They are forced to deal with everything that is brought there and left to fend for themselves. This is something that needs to be fixed. Is there a viable solution or will it just continue to happen? Thinking about this makes me think back to any technology that I have just thrown away like old parts of a computer or an old Ipod. This problem needs to be addressed by the United States and the world as a whole. This is very eye opening to read because we just dispose of things so easily here and never really think of the repercussions of what actually happens when it leaves our houses and our cities. -Tory Martin
+Sodom and Gomorrah: I first heard about this place from a YouTube video by Vsauce (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5s4-Kak49o) and at 5:12, he explains that many industrialized nations find it less expensive to send their electronic waste marked as donations to dumps in Ghana, like the one in Agbogbloshie, which I find to be morally disgusting and done out of sheer racism and laziness on the part of the nations using these places as their junkyards. Many think they can get away with this because these poor towns and villages are inhabited mainly by people with dark skin, who for hundreds of years, have historically gotten the short end of the stick in their relationships with Europeans and others, and that’s if they even got any part of the stick at all. Imagine if some aliens decided to dump their old tech junk right in the middle of our cities and neighborhoods simply because we couldn’t do anything to convince them otherwise. – Rachel Beatty.
+“Life in Sodom and Gomorrah; The World’s Largest Digital Dump” highlights the end state of most of the western world’s technological trash. As American’s we frequently have the newest, latest, and greatest technology, but what that translates to long term is that all of our old technological devices have to go somewhere… That somewhere is in Ghana, located on the western gulf of Africa. These e-waste dumping sites have sparked mini societies of their own, where extremely impoverished people live amongst the trash. The article was truly heartbreaking, and really beckons the reader to reconsider the waste they’re producing. -Elizabeth Davis
+I was very intrigued by this article from the get go when the writer mentioned that no one really knows when and how “Agbogbloshie” came into existence. This shows how when a city is left by the wealthy and developed populations it is often forgotten about despite the fact that not all inhabitants leave the area. The focus of the article for this class was the fact that this area has become a “digital dump” but I was very intrigued by the fact that the people that stayed in this area turned shop kiosks into homes. On the topic of this being a dumping ground for computers, phones, etc opened my eyes to the fact that when I get a new computer and donate my old computer to be refurbished or any similar concept things like this may happen, additionally computers that are outdated and cannot be sold or are given up onto repair often end up in situations such as this. I think this is something that deserves more attention, it was very impactful to hear that initially residents thought that this was companies trying to bridge the digital gap to then realize they were being taken advantage of to then learning that the population here is risking their lives to attempt to make a dime off of more developed countries trash essentially needs to be publicized more. -Emma Monaghan