8 An Interactive Life

1. 8 An Interactive Life It will put the world at your fingertips, changing the ways you shop, play and learn. But when will the future arrive? from Newsweek

2. Objectives • To understand the text • To learn the words and phrases about the interactive life • To be familiar with the interactive life

3. Teaching Contents 1. Introduction (10 min.) 2. Detailed study of the text (140 min.) 3. Structure analysis (5 min.) 4. Language appreciation (5 min.) 5. Summary of words and phrases(5 min) 6. Exercises (15 min)

4. 1. Introduction • The text is taken from American Newsweek. Newsweek is American news weekly established in Dayton, Ohio in 1933. In it domestic and international news is summarized, analyzed and categorized according to topics each week. It also has special sections devoted to arts, science, medicine, sports, etc. it is one of the three largest newsweeklies of America and has a wide domestic and international circulation.

5. The authors of the text, The authors • Barbara Kantrowitz and Joshua Cooper Ramo: regular contributors to Newsweek • “An Interactive Life” was published in Newsweek on May 31, 1993

6. Introduction of the text

7. 2. Detailed study of the text What’s the meaning of the title? An Interactive Life: a life which acts reciprocally, mutually, receives and gives in return • “An Interactive Life” refers to the future life, meaning a life which acts reciprocally, mutually, receives and gives in return. This interactive life is the life with Internet, and this life will familiarize you with the world, change the ways you shop, play and learn.

8. What does the essay try to describe to us? • The essay describes to us an interactive life—the future life that will fully involves us all interactively, and suggest us that we should hang on for a ride even though we do not know when this life will come.

9. Para. 1 Stepping into the past so as to understand the future • Why do people have to step back to see the future?

10. Because the past indicates the development of the human history. We learn from history that every invention in history brings about great development. Techniques have marked different eras over the centuries: from the primitive tools of the Stone Age, to the Industrial Age marked by steam and electrical power and the discovery of turbines, and engines. Today, we have entered a new era: the computer age and Information Age.

11. Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) American inventor, one of the greatest inventors of all time.

12. Edison • began to work at an early age and continued to work right up until his death. • Throughout his prolific career as an inventor, he was well known for his focus and determination.

13. During his career • Edison patented more than 1,000 inventions, including the electric light, the phonograph, and the motion-picture camera. • These three inventions gave rise to giant industries—electric utilities, phonograph and record companies, and the film industry—thus changing the work and leisure habits of people throughout the world.

14. Age of Edison • The period from 1879 to 1900, when Edison produced and perfected most of his devices, has been called the Age of Edison.

15. Edison National Historical Site in West Orange, N. J.

16. Edison National Historical Site in West Orange, N. J. • It is a museum about 15 miles west of New York City, New York. • It now has closed for major rehabilitation work. The Site plans to reopen sometime in 2006.

17. Edison National Historical Site • For more than forty years, the laboratory created by Thomas Alva Edison in West Orange, New Jersey, had enormous impact on the lives of millions of people worldwide. • Out of the West Orange laboratories came the motion picture camera, vastly improved phonographs, sound recordings, silent and sound movies and the nickel-iron alkaline electric storage battery.

18. Edison National Historic Site provides a unique opportunity to interpret and experience important aspects of America's industrial, social and economic past, and to learn from the legacy of the world's best known inventor. • Today, the Laboratory remains a powerful symbol of American technical ingenuity and productive power.

19. In the decades represented by the display, the concept and purpose of sound recording changed dramatically: In the tens of years covered by the machines on exhibition, the idea and purpose of sound recording experienced great changes.

20. Edison conceived of his phonograph as a business machine that would help people in distant places communicate: • Edison designed and developed his sound recording machine as a working tool for people to talk to each other over long distance. conceive of ..(as): think of …(as), imagine…(as)

21. He intended to record voices—nothing more: • His only intention in inventing the machine was the recording of voices. 

22. envisioned the greater potential for • His competitors,/His business rivals, adversaries saw in their minds that there was great possibility of using the machine for entertainment and art.

23. envision: • picture in the mind. Am.E; • envisage: see in the mind as a future possibility; foresee; • e.g. It should be quite simple; I don’t envisage /envision any difficulty. • envision doing/ that… When do you envision being able/ that you will be able to pay me back? potential: future possibility;

24. Where he saw internal memos, someone else saw Beethoven He imagined that the machine could record informal communication between departments in a company but other people thought it could be used to record music. Edison applied the machine to business while others to a different thing, music—entertainment.

25. memo=memorandum (formal): • a note from one person or office to another within the same firm or organization; a note of sth. to be remembered. • e.g. I made a memo on my memo pad to buy more coffee. • Beethoven: metonymy, referring to the music by Beethoven

26. Why do the authors say “Where he saw internal memos, someone else saw Beethoven”? • Because by saying this, he means to gives an example how Edison’s invention brought about the development.

27. Para.2 definition of the interactive life

28. a similar memorial to…breakthrough—interactivity: • to have a place like the Edison National Historical Site in memory of those who make the important advance recently in interactivity although it has not been able to do all the things the creators promised.

29. memorial (to): • n. sth. esp. a stone monument, in memory of a person, event, etc. • e.g. a war memorial (=in memory of dead soldiers) a memorial sculpture. • The church service is a memorial to those killed in the war.

30. What do you think is the latest breakthrough—interactivity? • The Internet is the latest breakthrough—interactivity in particular, because it has created a brand new environment. A new culture has been born – free, rapid, and universal – where people share their knowledge and expertise. Information and communication techniques have been turned upside down, distance has been eliminated, frontiers abolished. A tremendous interactive potential is burgeoning on our planet Earth today. Like it or lump it – none can stop it!

31. Can you mention one or two of the creators of the latest breakthrough—interactivity? • The inventors in 1990 of the World Wide Web (WWW), which revolutionized the contemporary computer world, did not become millionaires. British Tim Berners-Lee and Belgian Robert Caillau, both researchers at European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, did not make any money through their invention of the WWW. They refused to patent it. They feared that in so doing, the use of the Web would prove prohibitively expensive preventing its use worldwide. Thus, they passed up a fortune so that our world can learn and communicate today, and we should be grateful to them for their foresight.

32. With…, there’s no limit to the hype • Since large sums of money have been spent on an idea which is mainly in the planning stage, since great hopes have been put on such idea, there certainly is a lot of exaggerated publicity.

33. on the drawing board: in the planning stage; • hype: n. (infml. often derog.) loud, exaggerated promotion or publicity; attempts to get a lot of public attention for things or people by saying loudly and often that they are very good, or better than they really are • e.g. media hype 传媒宣传 • to hype v. hyping their latest record with a lot of interviews 借大量采访大肆宣传他们的最新唱片

34. …from airline schedules to esoteric scientific journals to video versions of off-off-off Broadway. • To put it in a simple way, the most wonderful thing is that if you press a button, you will be able to get a large amount of information over a wide range of topics, from something common like airline schedules to something very professional like esoteric scientific journals to something untraditional like video versions of off-off-off Broadway

35. esoteric scientific journals: • magazines on science written in such a way as to be understood only by a few who know the subject

36. Broadway: • New York City thoroughfare that traverses the length of Manhattan, near the middle of which are clustered the theatres that have long made it the foremost showcase of commercial stage entertainment in the United States. The term Broadway is virtually synonymous with American theatrical activity.Broadway gained its name as the axis of an important theatre district.

37. off-off-off Broadway : • Shows that cannot make into Broadway are called "off Broadway." • If a show is really bad, or really small in scale, it is even less than off Broadway show. • Broadway shows are usually big budget productions with famous producers. • Newer shows usually start as off Broadway, meaning that they are performed in some smaller theaters, usually in some other odd places like the village. Some of these off Broadway shows can become successful and eventually become a Broadway show, but mostly that never happens.

38. At various points … version of “Terminator XII”: • Terminator XII: an American science fiction movie series, starring the popular actor, Arnold Schwarzengger. The number XII implies a future installment of the series. • At different places, you can turn on the device for other possible development of the story and offer your own variation.

39. Say you shoot a video that you think is particularly artsy. • For example, you film a video which you think has special artistic pretensions or quality.

40. Beam it out and make a small fortune by charging an untold number of viewers a fee for watching: • Send out the video and ask those who have watched it to pay a fee. In this way you can make quite a sum of money.

41. Peter Jennings would be obsolete: • There is no longer any need for news anchorman because anyone can record news with a video-camera and put it on the universal network for everybody else to see. • obsolete: no long used; out of date e.g. obsolete machine, obsolete idea

42. On the receiving end, … the no-brainer will have finally arrived: • For viewers, the time of no need to bother about the selection of programmes will have finally arrived.on the receiving end: for those who are the viewers. the era of the no-brainer: the period of no need to bother about the selection of programmes.

43. Para.3 a hard time • Sounds great in theory… how it will actually work: • In theory the whole idea seems wonderful but even for those who firmly believe in this, it is difficult to work out the details of how it will actually function.

44. come to: concern • e.g. When it comes to politics/ to repairing cars, I know nothing. • nailing down: making sure, settling • to nail sb. down: to force (a person) to state clearly their intention or wishes. e.g. Before they repair the car, nail them down to a price.(=make them tell how much it will cost). • to nail sth. up: If you nail sth. up, you fix it to a vertical surface using nails. e.g. the warning notice that he had nailed up on the pole • specifics : details, particulars

45. How will we negotiate …still find time to sleep? • How shall we handle and manage such a large quantity of data and still have time to sleep? • negotiate: infml. to succeed in dealing with or getting past (sth. difficult); succeed in crossing, surmounting, moving through, overcoming;e.g. to negotiate a steep hill/ sharp bend in one’s car • mass: a large quantity or number;

46. Will government regulate messages sent out on this vast data highway? • Will government formulate regulations to control and govern the kind and number of communications sent over the numerous channels? • data highway: the authors are comparing the transmission in the air to a busy highway and information, data travels along the highway. This is a vivid metaphor.

47. And frankly, what do we need all this stuff for anyway? • This is no longer a question on specifics. It inquires/makes a search, investigate into the usefulness and ultimate purpose of such an idea.

48. Para. 4 near future life • “We’re a long way from ‘Wild Palms’: • There is still great distance before we can reach the stage as depicted in the TV series “Wild Palms.”

49. Wild Palmsis a TV miniseries directed by Oliver Stone. It was released in 1993. It is a science fiction: Los Angeles in the near future, Harry Wykoff accepts a job as presidents of a gigantic TV company. He is confronted with a total new technology called "The New Reality" where three-dimensional TV animated pictures are projected in living rooms all around the world. Harry launches to the top of the company with his career but once there he is caught in a web of intrigues, betrayal and murder. A game of life and death begins…

50. But even if… computers will be entering a new and deeper phase within a year or two: But even if we are still far away from the technological disorder of that highly imaginative TV series, some consumers may actually find that their relationships with their TVs, telephones and computers will develop to a higher order within a year or two.