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| A summary of Negroponte's 'Being Digital' | ||||||
| |Intro-Chap.4| | |Chap.5-Chap.9| | |Chap.10-Chap.14| | |Chap.15-Epilogue| | |||
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INTRODUCTION
The world is changing fast from being atoms to bits. More and more people are using and are becoming dependent on computers and other forms of techbology that computing is not just about computers but about a living as well. In the future, information will be universally accesible and will be delivered instantaneously. The way we live our lives will be changed..physical space will be irrelevant and time will play a different role. The author though has chosen to keep these information in the form of atoms and not as bits for some reasons. The bit culture is still primitive and needs to be understood further. Also, being digital leaves little to the imagination. | ||||||
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CHAPTER 01: THE DNA OF INFORMATION
Most forms of media are now being digitized. Atoms are starting to lose their value while the bits are starting to become priceless. Even a company's future is determined by the ability of its products and services to be converted into digital form. Digitizing is beneficial in terms of data compression and error correction which are important if the channel of information is noisy. A bit can pass through channels like copper wire, radio spectrum and optical fiber. The number of bits that can go through a channel is called the bandwidth. Digitizing would also mean that bits can be used and reused together or separately. Digitizing also builds an opportunity for new content to originate from a whole new combination of sources. | ||||||
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CHAPTER 02: DEBUNKING BANDWIDTH
Bandwidth is a channel's capacity to move information and transfer bits. One of the channels used to transfer bits is copper telephone wires also known as twisted pair. Copper telephone wires are considered as a low bandwidth channel. Fiber is another channel which can transmit bits faster the copper telephone wires. It is also cheaper than copper. We cannot even count how many bits per second a fiber can handle. As the world continues to change from atoms to bits, the entire world would probably end up using fiber. Ether also known as air waves is another channel used to transfer bits. Its bandwidth in comparison to fiber is quite insufficient. That is why, the author suggests a switch. What is in the air will go into the ground and what is in the ground will go into the air. The bandwidth in the ground is infinite and in the ether it is not. |
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CHAPTER 03: BITCASTING
The television is one of the first and most known form of digitized media. Through the years, most television viewers complain about its programming and content. Yet, the television is continually being enhanced not in terms of its content but its resolution and better picture quality. As the world becomes more digitized, changes in television are foreseen. The television and computer are said to end up as one. The television as a computer or the computer as a television. Television would become a new media altogether and would no longer be dependent on time. | ||||||
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CHAPTER 04: THE BIT POLICE
The Federal Communications Commission or FCC is tasked to look after and control the different channels to get into one's home: satellite, cable, telephone, terrestrial broadcast and packaged media. Currently, one of FCC's concerns is to ensure the fair use of the spectrum. One concern of the transformation of atoms into bits, is the copyright law. Through digitilization, there will be unlimited access to information and the possibility of producing unlimited copies. And this poses as a problem for those concerned about copyrights. | ||||||
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