What struck me as one aspect of Gutenbergs Legacy was the macro impact of the human

consciousness. With more access to information, not only did that create readers and writers on a
massive scale, but how such access to information lead to culmination of knowledge. In turn, we
created betters tools and those tools changed the way we begin to think as humans.
Naughtons interpretation of Maryanna Wolfs perspective on the plasticity of the brain changes
every time we learn a new skill via neurons and neuro-pathways between each neuron node.
What may have seem natural feels alien now, as older generations tend to experience losing the
ability to concentrate and read lengthy articles and books prior to the introduction of the Internet.
If that means older neurons are no longer parts of specific neuro-pathways in active use, due to
techno-societal circumstances, does that make us smarter or stupider? By asking this question
leads to the societal inquiry of human consciousnesss progression and regression, as we look
towards the future now from the focal points of a progressive Utopian or a regressive Dystopian
point-of-views.
Honestly, I have the heart of a Utopian and the mind of a Dystopian. What I mean by this is that I
prefer to dream and hope the absence of corruption and the unadulterated freedom that comes
from this. I also have the mind of a Dystopian, which is a societal byproduct notion, to which Tony
Horwitz alludes to marketplace products, made by tools, defines modern childhood in his book,
Confederates in the Attic. I happen to watch Anime shows like .Hack//Sign, Sword Art Online,
and Log Horizon, showing both sides of the coin of increased human consciousness via the
Internet through progressive and regressive themes, and Video Games like Ar tonelico, Mass Effect,
and Deus Ex: Human Revolution as well. With the Facebook $2 Billion acquisition of Oculus Rift, a
Kickstarter firm with a working Virtual Reality (VR) developers kit, and Sonys Morpheus VR
project, we now have an emerging market that is entirely Internet-based, starting in the Gaming
and Anime industries before other sectors of society.
To answer the earlier question, I feel we continue to be smarter, as Naughton cites Steven
Johnson argument that we are indeed progressing towards a brighter Utopian society through the
media we acquire. What I feel limits Utopian human consciousness is the fear generated by the
Dystopian human consciousness. That is to say the fear produces a need to control of others for
the sake of a Utopian society. Log Horizon talks partly about what happens if players are left
stranded within a video game database world and have to form Dystopian rules without sacrificing
Utopian ideals. Even Ar tonelico portrays catastrophic regression from too many Utopian ideals
through the use of Wave Theory, a fictional evolution of the Internet creating magic in real life via
a servers programing language called Hymmnos (which you can sing or talk in order to use the
server interface). How would that feel as being natural to speak while typing on a cumbersome
computer feels alien to produce the same content? It is for these reasons that after such historical
progression a pure Utopian and a pure Dystopian cannot exist without the other to certain
degrees when future gazing.