Freedom, the Trap, and New Media
While reading Anna Notaro’s Lo(n)g Revolution, one of her citations of an article by Jon Katz immediately shocked me:
“Where freedom is rarely mentioned in the mainstream media anymore, it is ferociously defended - and exercised daily - on the Net.”
Although the date of the article is given as 1997, it’s blatantly obvious that this quote was taken from a pre-9/11 context. Since September 11th, the mainstream media has become completely saturated with a discourse of freedom. Such an abstract term as freedom is difficult to pin down to a single definition, but it’s obvious that the term can be warped to suit the need of whoever’s using it. The primary dictionary definition is simply “the condition of being free from restraints”, and although some political definitions are given afterwards (such as the distinction of being free rather than a slave), are equally vague. The link I’ve posted with the “NMRS” del.icio.us tag details a few of the current administration’s definitions of freedom (http://empireburlesquenow.blogspot.com/2005/02/brothers-in-arms-osamic-vision-of.html) . Unfortunately, the “free’m”, as W likes to call it, that we’re supposedly trying to provide to the Middle East through military action is freedom that we don’t necessarily get here in America.
The Trap’s definition of freedom is somewhat different. Theirs is the dark, consumerist freedom based on game theory and free market economics, which we’ve discussed already. Given that the idealistic version of freedom that the government lauds is often crippled in America (take, for example, demonstrations in which protesters are forced to stand in designated “Free Speech Zones”, herded like animals into small pens), perhaps the fragmented, perverse version of freedom presented in “The Trap” is really all we have. The one zone that brings this idea into question is the realm of new media, namely the Internet. Whether or not the blogosphere is truly a public forum is up for debate, given a few aspects of its nature (the tendency to overestimate its capabilities as a tool of democracy, the ability to ignore content one doesn’t want, and the individualizing nature of working at a computer). However, it certainly seems that there’s a modicum more freedom on the Internet. I find it difficult to believe that a spontaneous protest could erupt concerning the ideals mentioned in the link I posted, however, on the Internet, the idea can be posted with little fear of punishment.
However, it’s important to note that this freedom isn’t a freedom of anonymity. With a little work, anyone can discover who’s behind a blog post or YouTube video - including the government. It’s wise to question exactly how much freedom we have on the Internet, and what exactly this freedom is, compared to other commonly used definitions.
Game Theory may not be that far off.
One of the ideas presented in the documentary, “The Trap”, was the concept of Game theory. Game theory is a strategy of play in which each player makes decisions based on what they think the other player’s decision will be. According to the documentary John Nash took this idea and from it created what he called “Nash equilibrium”. Nash thought that the ideal way to achieve balance in society would be to live in a society where everyone was selfish and only out for themselves. If every man was constantly on the defensive and constantly plotting and planning against their neighbor, with the idea that their neighbor was doing the same, then a general balance would be created.
While watching the film I thought Nash’s idea was ridiculous and far fetched. While I understood the theory, I didnt think it would work in practice. We kind of talked about it last class when we were talking about altruism, and I don’t think it really matters whether or not a person does an act of charity that isn’t completely selfless, the point is they did something that benefited someone else so a selfish society couldn’t exist.
However, as we started exploring this idea of new media it occurred to me that Nash’s idea may not be that far off. I think that with all the new technology we’ve created, such as the web, internet, cell phones etc., we have started to isolate ourselves from each other. So may things can be done with very little human contact, people shop online now, almost everything is done with automated services now. Text messaging and AIM also make it easier for people to essentially avoid each other.
“Americans are far more socially isolated today than they were two decades ago, and a sharply growing number of people say they have no one in whom they can confide, according to a comprehensive new evaluation of the decline of social ties in the United States.”
 I found this quote on a website which I posted to delicious.
“Village of the Damned” - game theory
The first thing that came to my mind after viewing “The Trap,” was, oddly enough, the 1995 movie “Village of the Damned” starring Christopher Reeve and Kirstie Alley. If you are not familiar with it, to put it in a nutshell, aliens impregnate a group of women in a small town, with their alien spawn. These children grow up to be emotionless creatures who only care about the survival of their kind, doing anything to protect themselves and eliminate any potential danger, whether it means killing others. In contrast, humans are meant to be the creatures with emotion and feelings so that they are selfless. Though people have historically taken over land by pushing animals past further borders, and forming subgroups to separate themselves, I don’t think they are as evil as “The Trap,” makes them out to be. Every decision is not made for the benefit of oneself… I think. Maybe my ideas have been influenced by romanticized movie scenes in which humans quickly make decisions that sacrifice themselves to selflessly help another??Â
Game Theory Post 2
In The Trap, “Game Theory†is brought into conversations several times, in a way that society manipulates its people in a mathematical system in a sense that its people are dominated by the power of number, money. Along with “Game Theory,†a notion “prisoner’s dilemma†has been introduced. Game theory states a non-zero game in which the total benefits to all players, with the combination of all strategies, does not add up to zero. That means the winner doesn’t gain the payoff that the loser loses; however, the balances between pre-game and post-game are unequal.
The concept of “game theory†resemblances the game played in our society, whose participants can be government and its people, economy and social issues, or others. In terms of new media, its counterpart is the publics. New media can be active players in a sense that they are constantly injecting information or advertisements by using different tactics such as pop-ups from the websites, which force people to be exposed to the message. However, the results can turn out differently. If people reject to read the message, the value of the game can be decreasing and both players would be losers (if the message is valuable to the readers); or the value of the game would still lost if the message is categorized jam, because the media have spent money on marketing research and the design of advertising. If people choose to read the message, the result can be add- or reduced-benefits in different situations.
By associating the “game theory†with new media, it is interesting to see how they are demonstrating relevancy.
One of the primary arguments that Curtis makes in his documentary is how Game theory, and its application in psychology and politics, characterizes human beings as simplified and mechanized information processors. I would be interested in knowing how Curtis’s perspective on human interactivity relates to virtual/ cyber relationships and interaction, both in how individuals relate to personal computer devices as well as how they communicate with each other in a system governed by rational numerical rules. If the application of Game Theory based policies are contributing to our further simplification and self centered isolation, and our becoming “Lonely Robots” what role does our increasing dependence on computers/wired devices play? Curtis emphasized how the rational technology of computers influenced the research and theories of scientists, economists, and psychologists but he made no mention of how this dependence and ultimate faith in computer technology impacted (and continues to impact) humanity.
The Trap
A BBC documentary series by Adam Curtis. More about it from Wikipedia.
I have embeded all the files here in the blog but in case you have a problem downloading it from Google Video, I have also uploaded it to my server, where you can download it from and watch in full screen using Quicktime.
Part I:
Part II:
Part III:
