Mishra and Wolf

These two readings were slightly difficult to trudge through.  On Mishra's article much of what we see in illustrations can be deceiving. One example is the color coded three dimensional figures used to represent a cell and it's organelles.  While these illustrations are useful in biology, the reality is a cell does not look so organized and color coded as people are taught through the illustrations.  People more often than not see an image in light of a passerby without much thought, which is quite different than the way we analyze texts, which is the meat of how information is interpreted in academic settings.  With t.v. and advertisements galore, people don't examine or think critically of how they are targeted as a consumer.  

The difference of the psychology of the arts and the sociology of sciences in Mishra's article was also interesting. I side with the psychology of arts interpretation, that individual cognition and how Arnheim "sees artistic activity as a form of reasoning, in which perceiving and thinking are indivisibly intertwined."  He goes on to state that laboratory demonstrations and diagrams found in text books are not scientific statements, but rather illustrations of scientific statements, whereas in are the image or illustration IS the statement. 

I tend to find my-self expression through my own experiences making the statements and my own response is the artistic creativity through reason and thought.  When it comes to the sociology of sciences it makes me think of just regurgitating everything we learn in a uniform and conformed way. 


One thing I thought was extraordinary was how many tests take place using simulations.  The fact that a pilot can receive a license without ever flying, or that cars were tested through a simulation, and even computers themselves are put through a simulation is fascinating on how this affects reality.  Will education become a simulation?  So many of our perceptional experiences are now being replaced by conceptual abstractions.  Are there inherent dangers involved in this switch?  Or is it just inevitable being in the midst of a digital revolution?  With a heavy reliance on computer simulations in institutions of industry, medicine, law, and science, the margin for error is slim, especially with human lives in the balance. 

Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the larger role computer simulations in our lives?

(i hope they make computer simulations of video games...virtual reality that you actually have to run to run and use your physical body to move in the virtual world)