Soulless Technology in William Gibson’s Burning Chrome Essay -- Willia

Soulless Technology in William Gibson’s Burning Chrome An old adage states that the eyes are the windows to the soul. What if, however, those eyes have a trademark name stamped onto them? William Gibson’s short story "Burning Chrome" depicts an advanced but soulless society where most of the technological advances are portrayed as being perverted by commercialization and human mechanization, rather than dedicated to improving the quality of life. This paper will touch upon the frivolous consumerism of as well as the dehumanizing uses of technology in the world of Automatic Jack, the reader’s companion throughout the story. Perhaps the most visible example of this perversion is the high degree of commercialized technology in their society. The character of Rikki, a female friend of Jack’s, has her heart set on a pair of Zeiss Ikon eyes, and, as Jack describes them as a "Brand of the stars" and "Very expensive" (Gibson 1015). Though she desires 20/20 vision, Rikki does not want the eyes because they will help her see better; rather, she has an entire catalogue full of the most fashionable and stylish eyes of the season. Rikki’s friend Tiger gets his eyes redone simply so he can go to Hollywood, risking his eyesight with the not-as-reliable Sendai brand. The fact that anyone would put fashion and fame before something as precious and irreplaceable as optic nerves goes beyond foolish consumerism. It becomes reckless consumerism, putting goods above all other concerns for self and others. As for Tiger himself, Jack describes him in the following manner: He had the kind of uniform good looks you get after your seventh trip to the surgical boutique; he’d probably spend the rest of his life looking vaguely like each new season’... ... newest way to connect to others without needing human interaction. It’s impossible to know when technology will become "too" invasive and society "too" hollow, but by the time anyone looks hard enough, nothing but empty, soul-devoid, trademarked windows will blink in return. Bibliography Gibson, William Ford. "Burning Chrome." The Prentice Hall Anthology Of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Ed. Garyn G. Roberts. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2001. 1006- 1019. Maddox, Tom. "Cobra, She Said: An Interim Report on the Fiction of William Gibson." Hall 142-144. Hall, Sharon K., ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 39. New York: Gale Research, Inc., 1986. Coleman, Howard. "Other Voices, Other Voices." Matuz 129-130. Greenland, Colin. "Into Cyberspace." Matuz 130-131. Matuz, Roger, ed. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Vol. 63. New York: Gale Research, Inc., 1991.

Musical Subculture

Punk rock is primarily a British musical genre that reached its creative and popular peak during 1977 and 1978. The precursors of punk rock were those American and British groups of the late 1960s and early 1970s who played rock music with an aggressive feel, with loud distorted guitars and nihilistic lyrics. While most punk rock groups drew influence from some earlier bands, they were specific about rejecting the majority of music produced in the early 1970s. In particular, punk rock musicians did not like what they termed the hippie music of progressive rock. Central to any discussion of punk is the band The Sex Pistols (Sabin 78). Not the first punk rock group but certainly the most influential was The Sex Pistols. The group was formed in late 1975. Shortly after this the band started touring on the pub rock and college gig circuits. Early songs such as ‘Submission’ and ‘Anarchy In The UK’ lyrically mocked what the band perceived to be the traditional and boring nature of British society. They were against a backdrop of rambunctious guitars and drums. It was not long before The Sex Pistols attracted a fanatical following of punks equally disillusioned with British society and culture (Sabin 123). The media furore that made early Sex Pistol’s gigs was nothing in comparison to the outrage that emerged after their actions in December 1976. Following the cancellation of an appearance by the group Queen, The Sex Pistols were invited to appear on the early evening London television show Today. After drinking heavily before the show, the band verbally insulted interviewer Bill Grundy, and caused a tabloid storm with their explicit language. This set the stage for the release of their ‘God Save The Queen’ single, a week before the Queen’s Jubilee weekend in June 1977. Again tabloid newspapers and the public in general were shocked by the band’s direct attacks upon an institution central to British society, the monarchy. In particular the record cover, created by the band’s ‘Art Director’ Jamie Reid, created a sensation with its image of the Queen with a safety pin through her nose (Sabin 123-125). ‘God Save The Queen’ was The Sex Pistol’s high point. Later in 1977 the band released their one and only official album, Never Mind The Bollocks. Like all the band’s releases it came in a trademark Jamie Reid cover that mimicked the style of a ransom note, and contained direct attacks on central facets of British culture. The Sex Pistols found that they were unable to obtain gigs in Britain because promoters and venues showed an unwillingness to allow them to perform. Band tensions reached a head following the band’s tour of the USA, and they split in early 1978. The band’s lead singer Johnny Rotten reverted to his real name John Lydon, formed Public Image Limited, and left the punk rock genre. The band struggled on in his absence, but the drug-related death of bass player Sid Vicious led to their inevitable demise (Strinati 89). However, some commentators claim that the ‘spirit of punk’ is not to be found in those groups who sound like their 1970s counterparts, but in the house, techno and jungle acts who make music for reasons other than commercial gain. For many of the first generation of punk rock groups, making music was about ‘making do’ with the available technology, and they were therefore opposed to the kind of learned musicianship of previous rock genres. It is understandable that house, jungle and techno acts, with their cheap sampling equipment and their own production technology, consider themselves to be the direct descendants of the first punk rock bands. The Sex Pistols were attracting media attention, a whole wave of other punk rock bands were forming, notably The Damned and The Clash in London and The Buzzcocks in Manchester. Although none received the same mixture of notoriety and fame as The Sex Pistols, many considered them to be musically more interesting. In the wake of the successes of The Sex Pistols, many young people began to form their own bands in 1977 and 1978. In particular these bands developed a ‘DIY’ attitude to making music. The Sex Pistols developed different styles of punk, but maintained a central ethos of opposition to mainstream British society. Either implicitly or explicitly, this political ethos was central to punk rock (Sabin 103). The degree to which The Sex Pistols has influenced subsequent rock styles is hotly debated. Throughout the 1980s, new bands formed and drew inspiration from the events of 1976 and 1977. In particular, indie bands’ faith in the seven-inch single and suspicion of the LP has been interpreted as directly related to punk’s ‘DIY’ approach. Musically, The Sex Pistols has been particularly influential upon American bands, with Nirvana, Hole and Mudhoney all having had chart successes in Britain. These ‘post-punk’ bands developed a similar sound to the stripped-down aggression of the first generation of The Sex Pistols. Some British rock groups, such as The Wildhearts, Therapy and the Manic Street Preachers also have their musical roots in punk rock (Curtis 60). In fact, the absence of a symbol of class solidarity made The Sex Pistols more important than it had ever been before. Moreover, punks realized that they no longer had to be passive spectators, for rock ‘n' roll had always meant self assertion of one kind or another. In this sense, the key punk song is the Sex Pistols' â€Å"No Feelings,† especially the line, which Johnny Rotten screams over their version of the wall of sound, â€Å"I'm in love with myself.† What we have here is an assertion, not of a political program, but of the discovery of what Daniel Yankelovich called personal entitlement. The Sex Pistols made a terrific impact because through them their audience discovered that they didn't have to go through their lives saying â€Å"sir.† It was as though they had discovered the working-class equivalent of black pride, and had realized that they didn't play the equivalent of Uncle Tom to their betters—or to their peers, either. After seeing them for the first time, Coon noted: What impressed me most†¦was their total disinterest in pleasing anybody except themselves. Instead, they engaged the audience, trying to provoke a reaction which forced people to express what they felt about the music. Quite apart from being very funny, their arrogance was a sure indication that they knew what they were doing and why (Coon 70). For many people, spiked hair and dog collars had become a joke, the domain of soda pop ads and television dramas. But did punk disappear with the utter sell-out of its foremost corporate spokesband, the Sex Pistols? Did punk rock vanish when pink mohawks could be found only on pubescent heads at the shopping mall? If the spectacular collapse of punk rock was also the collapse of spectacular subcultures? What crawled from the wreckage? In what ways can young people express their unease with the modern structure of feeling? A new kind of punk has been answering these questions. Today, to a certain extent, punk rock means post-punk – a nameless, covert subculture reformed after punk rock. To recap: early punk rock was, in part, simulated ‘anarchy;’ the performance of an unruly mob. So long as it could convince or alarm straight people, it achieved the enactment. For its play to work, punk rock needed a perplexed and frightened ‘mainstream’ off which to bounce. But when the mainstream proved that it needed punk rock, punk's equation was reversed: its negativity became positively commercial. As mainstream style diversified, and as deviant styles were normalized, punk rock had less to act against. Punk rock had gambled all its chips on public outcry, and when it could no longer captivate an audience, it was wiped clean. Post-punk, or contemporary punk, has foregone these performances of anarchy and is now almost synonymous with the practice of anarchism. Long after the ‘death’ of classical punk rock, post-punk and/or punk subcultures coalesce around praxis. The Sex Pistols called attention to themselves with their clothing as well as with their music. The torn clothing, which they wore, like the tattered shirts, the chains wrapped around their bodies, the safety pins in their cheeks, said something of great importance. The Sex Pistols created a fresh moral panic fuelled by British tabloids, Members of Parliament, and plenty of everyday folk. Initially, at least, they threatened ‘everything England stands for’: patriotism, class hierarchy, ‘common decency’ and ‘good taste’ (Curtis 98). When the Sex Pistols topped the charts in Britain, and climbed high in America, Canada, and elsewhere, punk savoured a moment in the sun: every public castigation only convinced more people that punk was real. Fortunately, The Sex Pistols meant more than excitement in a few clubs and big sales in safety pins. The Sex Pistols also produced one of the great bands of the seventies—The Clash. If rock ‘n' roll is a universe, The Clash and the Sex Pistols are different planets. Works Cited Coon, Caroline. The New Wave Punk Explosion, New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1978. Curtis, Jim. Rock Eras: Interpretations of Music and Society, 1954-1984. Bowling Green State University Popular Press: Bowling Green, OH, 1987. Sabin, Roger. Punk Rock, So What? The Cultural Legacy of Punk. Routledge: London, 1999. Strinati, Dominic. Come on Down? Popular Media Culture in Post-War Britain. Stephen Wagg. Routledge: New York, 1992.               

Facebook Puts Other Companies Underneath Its Wings

IntroductionFacebook is considered these days as a leader for the social networking websites, Facebook is such a great success story which officially came out in 2004 created by Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates at Harvard University. On October 28, 2003, when they were in the second year, Zuckerberg and his team started the idea by launching a website called â€Å"Facemashâ€Å", after that, for many reasons the website was shut down by the school. On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg started again with his team a new website called â€Å"Thefacebook†, they worked hard to develop the website and they divided the tasks professionally; Eduardo Saverin is responsible for the business side, Dustin Moskovitz for programming issues, Andrew McCollum for the graphic design, and Chris Hughes. Facebook has been written and developed using C++ and PHP language.They worked together such as a great talent team until the website was expanded to many schools (Who Invented Facebook, ND). In my point of view, Facebook made a difference in the social media world by making the website so attractive to the users, right now Facebook has over than one billion active users, in addition, Facebook has a second global rank and a second US rank according to the Alexa traffic rank, and the visitors of the site are viewed as an average of 18.1 pages per day (Facebook Rank, ND). So we are going in this paper to discuss all aspects and terms of my thesis statement and verify it as well. Moreover, we are going to review one of the strategy that Facebook has and do SWOT analysis as well. My thesis statement summarized as the following â€Å"Facebook puts other companies underneath its wings by imposing Ads network strategies, marketing strategies and as well as social media strategies†.The Five Porters ForcesRisk of entry by potential competitors: The barriers of entry to other  competitors of Facebook is very high, since Facebook has the criteria of the users satisfaction which makes the users more loyal to Facebook, for instance, I would say Google is a potential competitor to Facebook, hence, the risk of entry is low. Intensity of rivalry among established firms: Twitter is one of the most competitors to Facebook, since Twitter has Five Hundred million users on its social network as well as has the tenth rank on Alexa traffic rank; furthermore, Facebook and Twitter are fighting to make the users more attractive by coming up with new ideas in the network social networks to make it more easier to the end users.Bargaining power of buyers: Since Facebook offers social networking services to the end users, Facebook does know the importance of the user’s power to make them successful by offering unique and flexible tools for the social networking, moreover, Facebook team should take into considerations the feedbacks and reviews of the end users. Bargaining power of suppliers: In Facebook case, there’s no specific supplier because they are offeri ng online services, they could be the suppliers themselves, and we would consider the government is a supplier for Facebook; since the government monitor and control the social networks. Threat of substitutes: The threat of substitutes for Facebook is represented by any social networking website like Twitter or Myspace which they are really rivals, so Facebook team should update the website from time to time to make the users satisfied and to face the user’s daily demands on the social network.Facebook SWOT AnalysisStrengths: Facebook has the second rank at Alexa as a global rank and second rank in the US (Facebook Rank,ND). In addition, Facebook now has over than one billion active users; Facebook has announced its revenue by gaining more than $150 million from the mobile advertising (Turcan, 2012). Furthermore, Facebook supports more than 70 languages for the users across the world which makes Facebook attractive for many users their mother language is not English. Now Face book has a popular brand name and it has been used as a reference in many movies or even in the business cards (FACEBOOK SWOT, ND). Weaknesses: There are many faked accounts and duplicated accounts that cannot be identified easily. Also, people say Facebook is secretly gathering information about them which may leave an impression to remove their accounts.Moreover, Facebook posted a loss in last two quarters which will  impact its stocks (Turcan, 2012). Opportunities: Researchers can take advantage of using Facebook by gathering data for surveys purposes. Moreover, Ads prices are still going up as Facebook recently announced which will have the investors buy new stocks. Also, Facebook can be used as a market place; people can sell and buy items through Facebook (FACEBOOK SWOT, ND). Threats: China government doesn't allow Facebook to operate out there in China; since china has a huge population. In addition, it is probably that users may switch to any other services like Google+ (F acebook Investment, 2012). Also, Twitter has a strong competition with Facebook in the market place and they are making unique features Faecbook doesn’t. Furthermore, there are many viruses have attacked Facbook as we have heard recently from news, and it might be a threat of ongoing hacking in the future. Facebook Marketing StrategyMarketing strategy is one of the interesting strategies that Facebook has; Facebook demonstrates its strategy by defining the target audience which means Facebook has grouping packages for all accounts by age, gender, profession and location which help the other companies to post their Ads on Facebook for specific class of people and as well as specific region, furthermore, Facebook helps other corporations to increase the traffic on their websites by creating an official page contains their official website link and contact information which truly helps the corporations to share their information, run certain events, post any kind of advertisemen ts and get more likes.I would say the more likes you get, the more success you are. In another hand, the non-profit organizations can take the advantage by creating a page on Facebook to get donations and find volunteers across all the world, moreover, Facebook provides the page owners with all kind of statistics tools and reports, those kind of reports are weekly and daily updated and included with the post quality, how many likes, page views and photo views.ConclusionIn my point of view, the marketing strategy makes Facebook an attractive destination for all kind of businesses to post Ads, upload photos, create events and communicate with people which leads rapidly to grow revenue of  Facebook. In my opinion, Facebook developers should work on the privacy settings to make sure that the users will stick with them for a long period of time. Moreover, the developer team should do something to prevent the existence of the duplicated accounts and the faked accounts by monitoring the IP addresses of the user’s computer. Finally, Facebook is still in the fore beating up Twitter, My Space and other social networking websites, as I mentioned before, Facebook has been a leader for the other online social networking services, I would say Facebook made a difference in the information revolution these days and created a competitive environment in the market place. Facebook Puts Other Companies Underneath Its Wings IntroductionFacebook is considered these days as a leader for the social networking websites, Facebook is such a great success story which officially came out in 2004 created by Mark Zuckerberg and his classmates at Harvard University. On October 28, 2003, when they were in the second year, Zuckerberg and his team started the idea by launching a website called â€Å"Facemashâ€Å", after that, for many reasons the website was shut down by the school.On February 4, 2004, Zuckerberg started again with his team a new website called â€Å"Thefacebook†, they worked hard to develop the website and they divided the tasks professionally; Eduardo Saverin is responsible for the business side, Dustin Moskovitz for programming issues, Andrew McCollum for the graphic design, and Chris Hughes. Facebook has been written and developed using C++ and PHP language. They worked together such as a great talent team until the website was expanded to many schools (Who Invented Facebook, ND).In my point of view, Facebook made a difference in the social media world by making the website so attractive to the users, right now Facebook has over than one billion active users, in addition, Facebook has a second global rank and a second US rank according to the Alexa traffic rank, and the visitors of the site are viewed as an average of 18. 1 pages per day (Facebook Rank, ND). So we are going in this paper to discuss all aspects and terms of my thesis statement and verify it as well. Moreover, we are going to review one of the strategy that Facebook has and do SWOT analysis as well.My thesis statement summarized as the following â€Å"Facebook puts other companies underneath its wings by imposing Ads network strategies, marketing strategies and as well as social media strategies†. The Five Porters Forces Risk of entry by potential competitors: The barriers of entry to other competitors of Facebook is very high, since Facebook has the criteria of the users satisfaction which m akes the users more loyal to Facebook, for instance, I would say Google is a potential competitor to Facebook, hence, the risk of entry is low.Intensity of rivalry among established firms: Twitter is one of the most competitors to Facebook, since Twitter has Five Hundred million users on its social network as well as has the tenth rank on Alexa traffic rank; furthermore, Facebook and Twitter are fighting to make the users more attractive by coming up with new ideas in the network social networks to make it more easier to the end users.Bargaining power of buyers: Since Facebook offers social networking services to the end users, Facebook does know the importance of the user’s power to make them successful by offering unique and flexible tools for the social networking, moreover, Facebook team should take into considerations the feedbacks and reviews of the end users. Bargaining power of suppliers: In Facebook case, there’s no specific supplier because they are offering online services, they could be the suppliers themselves, and we would consider the government is a supplier for Facebook; since the government monitor and control the social networks.Threat of substitutes: The threat of substitutes for Facebook is represented by any social networking website like Twitter or Myspace which they are really rivals, so Facebook team should update the website from time to time to make the users satisfied and to face the user’s daily demands on the social network. Facebook SWOT Analysis Strengths: Facebook has the second rank at Alexa as a global rank and second rank in the US (Facebook Rank,ND).In addition, Facebook now has over than one billion active users; Facebook has announced its revenue by gaining more than $150 million from the mobile advertising (Turcan, 2012). Furthermore, Facebook supports more than 70 languages for the users across the world which makes Facebook attractive for many users their mother language is not English. Now Faceboo k has a popular brand name and it has been used as a reference in many movies or even in the business cards (FACEBOOK SWOT, ND). Weaknesses: There are many faked accounts and duplicated accounts that cannot be identified easily.Also, people say Facebook is secretly gathering information about them which may leave an impression to remove their accounts. Moreover, Facebook posted a loss in last two quarters which will impact its stocks (Turcan, 2012). Opportunities: Researchers can take advantage of using Facebook by gathering data for surveys purposes. Moreover, Ads prices are still going up as Facebook recently announced which will have the investors buy new stocks. Also, Facebook can be used as a market place; people can sell and buy items through Facebook (FACEBOOK SWOT, ND).Threats: China government doesn't allow Facebook to operate out there in China; since china has a huge population. In addition, it is probably that users may switch to any other services like Google+ (Facebook Investment, 2012). Also, Twitter has a strong competition with Facebook in the market place and they are making unique features Faecbook doesn’t. Furthermore, there are many viruses have attacked Facbook as we have heard recently from news, and it might be a threat of ongoing hacking in the future. Facebook Marketing StrategyMarketing strategy is one of the interesting strategies that Facebook has; Facebook demonstrates its strategy by defining the target audience which means Facebook has grouping packages for all accounts by age, gender, profession and location which help the other companies to post their Ads on Facebook for specific class of people and as well as specific region, furthermore, Facebook helps other corporations to increase the traffic on their websites by creating an official page contains their official website link and contact information which truly helps the corporations to share their information, run certain events, post any kind of advertisements and get more likes.I would say the more likes you get, the more success you are. In another hand, the non-profit organizations can take the advantage by creating a page on Facebook to get donations and find volunteers across all the world, moreover, Facebook provides the page owners with all kind of statistics tools and reports, those kind of reports are weekly and daily updated and included with the post quality, how many likes, page views and photo views. Conclusion In my point of view, the marketing strategy makes Facebook an attractive destination for all kind of businesses to post Ads, upload photos, create events and communicate with people which leads rapidly to grow revenue of Facebook.In my opinion, Facebook developers should work on the privacy settings to make sure that the users will stick with them for a long period of time. Moreover, the developer team should do something to prevent the existence of the duplicated accounts and the faked accounts by monitoring the IP addres ses of the user’s computer. Finally, Facebook is still in the fore beating up Twitter, My Space and other social networking websites, as I mentioned before, Facebook has been a leader for the other online social networking services, I would say Facebook made a difference in the information revolution these days and created a competitive environment in the market place.