Questions from The Song Of The Alphabet In Cyberspace 

 1. What are the differences between the pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world? How does the media of television become a part of the acoustic world?

The difference between pre-literate acoustic world and the alphabetical visual world is pre-literate acoustic world is a world of no boundaries in which information emerges not from fixed positions but anywhere and everywhere. It is just about our thoughts and opinions.  However, the alphabetical visual world is when the consonant was invented as a meaningless abstraction, vision detached itself from the other senses and visual space began to form. When the consonant was created, it started to take away from the world and gave us a narrow mindset through technology. Everything has a meaning and there is no space to elaborate and give our own thought. The acoustic world is about immersion and this comes after the alphabet. Television which is also musical and mythic, lacks perspective from distance of objects. All humans that watch TV immediately become removed from the world around us and are fully immersed in the messages from the screen.

2. Why does the alphabet have the segregating tendencies? How exactly does the printing press reverse the segregating tendencies?

The alphabet has segregating tendencies because only certain people could read it, transcribe it and understand it. The printing press helps to reverse the segregating tendencies because it made the alphabet more available to people all over so it allowed them the opportunity to understand and learn it.

 3. How does the alphabetic communication in online communication make cyberspace acoustic? How is the online acoustic world different from the television, radio, or print acoustic world?

The alphabetic communication in online communication makes cyberspace acoustic because it is all absorbing and interactive. It requires our undivided attention. We cannot be driving or multitasking in order to absorb with our eyes. We absorb the information as it covers all areas of communication. The online acoustic world is different from the television, radio, and print acoustic world because they are considered closed acoustic spaces. 

 4. Not only do we invent media and media technologies but also we select their uses in different contexts. What are the two selection criteria? According to the selection criteria, please discuss what will happen to our online communication in 20 years.

The two selection criteria are the fact that we want media to extend our communications beyond the biological boundaries of naked seeing and hearing. The second selection criteria is we want the media to recapture elements of that biological communication which early artificial extensions may have lost. In other words, we want our hearth of natural communication even as we exceed it in our extensions. Even though the telephone has taken over the telegraph, the media convergence still makes us miss our original technology. According to the selection criteria, our online communication will continue to expand along new levels in 20 years. The alphabet is even more abstract than our current speech. Online communication will cross new boundaries we have yet to identify.