Now That the Semester is Done

Now that the semester is done, I really feel a weight lifted from my shoulders. I've smiled more in the last three days than I have in the last three weeks. My younger sister will graduate this month from University of Delaware, beating me out for the title of first of our clan to have a Bachelor's. The tinge of defeat is swallowed by my admiration and pride.

So we both look towards the academic future. Her course is clearer and (at my last update) will take a turn towards medical sociology. My plans are slightly more esoteric; I haven't even found a title that accurately describes. I've thought about it a lot in the last week, however, and have summed up my ambitions to a simple statement: I'm interested in the study of communication and in providing culturally sensitive means for the communication process.

What does that mean? Well, we communicate in almost as many ways as there are people in the world. We express ourselves through words, gestures, sounds--even silence. We receive communication generally through three vehicles: visual, aural, and tacit feedback. As we funnel all those expressions through cultural filters and into those lonely three channels, there's lots of room for misinterpretation, ambiguity and inefficiency. Is it possible through anthropology and technology to develop some type of universal (cosmic?) compiler that translates with accuracy? Can I beat my message with a village drum to collaborate with your research stored on a computer? Can that collaboration be accessed real-time by someone who only speaks a southern African clicking language? How much loss can be avoided?

I believe that technology in its current manifestation is a "culture eraser," a machine that standardizes everything but inhibits diversity and dynamics. I want to help it through its metamorphosis, reaching a place where input depends upon what is natural to you. I want to help develop a sustainable world that retains culture without restricting progress. This covers computer science, anthropology, futurology, international affairs, urban planning, communication... the list goes on and on.

I'll be honest and say that I'm not sure where to begin on such a convoluted endeavor, but I think the effort, if fruitful, would be greatly appreciated.