Blog Post #2

1. Numerical Representation

Numerical representation, as described by the writer, is simply when numbers and equations form a grid of colors on screen, ultimately forming an image. A photograph and an image on screen (whether a still frame or a video) are different in this way. It is highly customizable and the basics of all images on screen. The words you are reading right now are not actually physical writings, but simply results of a bunch of numbers signaling certain colors to appear on screen. When a photograph is scanned onto a computer, it is converted to this form.

2. Modularity

Modularity is the concept that a whole something is created by several independent parts. HTML consists completely of this idea, as one hyperlink code may be a completely different object than an image code, yet they together make up the contents of one web page. I pictured a newspaper while reading this section. To get rid of the image, you would have to cut the image out of the paper, making the paper not whole anymore. But on a web page, all you need to do is delete the code. In most cases, the page will not completely fall apart because the image was an independent piece.

3. Automation

This is basically the ability of a computer to "think" for itself or to respond to a manual action and create. For example, Google has a database of web pages -- almost every single one on the web, I dare say. When I type in a keyword and/or a boolean phrase, the computer responds and sorts through its data. This is surprisingly a similar action to playing a video game. I visited my parents the other day and played Mario Kart with my youngest brother. I raced against "the computer," which raced in a seemingly random pattern as if it was a person. However, it simply was manipulated from codes that responded to the way I raced--when my car hit theirs or when I attacked their car with an item.

4. Variability

This is perhaps the most popular reason to use the internet these days, other than for social media and business. Variability is the ability to take one thing and change it. This is something that is nearly impossible with a physical image or page. You would only be pasting, writing or drawing over it, but the image itself underneath would be the same. On a computer, I can take a video and completely change it to however I want. I can take a clip from my favorite T.V. show (which is, by the way, Dexter. I highly recommend it if you don't mind some profanity here and there) and splice it, change it to black and white, or add a caption. Just as easily, anybody can take that same clip and do whatever they want with it. This also made me think of Bad Lip Readings on Youtube (also highly recommended). People take a video clip and customize the corresponding audio.

5. Transcoding

This is the idea that the "computer world" is divided in two: The cultural layer and the computer layer. The computer layer is everything behind the screen -- the codes and the equations. The cultural layer is what the average person can see and do on the internet. Basically, it is a person's interactions with the codes. I likened this to a play. If you have ever been in a play, you will know that there is so much more going on than what you see on stage. To the audience, it is quite simple--just the story on the stage. To the actors, there is a whole other world back there to make it all happen. The stage crew is working the lights, the set, and the sound system. Actors are back stage changing costumes for other scenes or scampering around to get props, to rehearse lines and to help out with the set. Assistant directors and other leadership are also backstage. Dancers may be rehearsing. Makeup and hair artists are doing their work backstage. Sometimes, somebody is doing an emergency repair on a set piece. This is all happening before, during and after the actual play. This is much like the function of a website.


My opinion of what is most important is probably not so original, but that is only because it is the most true. Transcoding is by far the most influential. I would not venture to say that it is the most important, however, because without the others, this aspect would not exist. It is transcoding, though, that truly made the internet as much of a necessity and a want as it is today. Between social media, image and document editing programs, research, banking, and everything else that has become so simple, transcoding is a fascinating concept.