I saw it spring semester of last year when you first posted it. And, being ever so interested byt the first one, I definately had to watch the second.

It’s pretty interesting to note that some of the things that they added to the second one (such as podcasting) are things that I am currently tacking in my honors thesis. Right now I am attempting to prove that online communications do have a place in PR, but EPIC makes me see the limitations to that point. Yes, online communications, such as blogging, can be used as effective PR tools, but not when your target publics are customizing their own online content. How do you get the word out on something when everyone gets to choose whether or not they want to hear about it? Wouldn’t such highly customized content make introducing new ideas virtually impossible?

And a big wow on that last part. I do not look forward to the day when I look to my computer to tell me if it is a nice day outside.

I saw EPIC last year in Robert’s class and it was very interesting. A little spooky and hard to understand but interesting. We watched the second EPIC in class this week and it was a little easier to understand. The graphics were still spooky and the technology still a little over my head but I could follow it. I also saw how what they were predicting was already coming true. The future is very exciting. Marketing and communications will be so customized and personalized that the companies will pretty much do my shopping for me without me even giving them a list.

Marcomm blog continues to list postings of prominent public relations practitioners that pertain to things we, as students, are interested in. I love getting on this blog and reading the new, and old, posts and learning more about the “blogosphere”.

Think about 9 years ago and how much technology has grown since then. We can do nearly everything through the Internet: shop, communicate, find information on ANYTHING, etc. Natalie raises an interesting question, are we relying too much on technology? I hardly know anyone who doesn’t have things such as a computer or a cell phone including my 14-year-old brother, so it seems that as technology advances it will be less strange to have the Internet control our lives because we will become dependent on it.

It seems inevitable that the Internet will continue to grow because people are always looking for ways to make things easier. The video suggested that computers will think for us and make decisions for us. Is this going too far? It may be easier, but it is just going to make us lazier and less dependent on our own minds than we already are.

Who knows if one day we will have robot servants and flying cars, but I bet 20 years ago no one really thought computers would be as capable of doing all that that they are able to do now. 2015 doesn’t seem like that far away, but the way technology is growing, a million things can happen between now and then. Is EPIC II a prediction of what is to come? I guess we just have to wait and see.

I am scared that people are going to become too dependent on these advances and forget about the other things in the world that make them happy. An example would be actually spending time with your family instead of just talking to them on a web cam. How can we remind ourselves where to draw the line?

The other scary problem is the security of technology. We already see problems with hackers and identity theft. Would a life style that focused on technology and the internet be safe?

The EPIC interests me because I am intrigued by how my family and I will live in the future. Yes, technology has its faults but it is also amusing and very helpful. Think of all the things we have already; iPod, Google, cell phones, PDAs and the internet itself is a big deal. I can’t imagine how I survived without the internet and my cell phone. So new technology advances could be just as exciting and helpful as the technology we already have now.

Why did the creators make EPIC II occur only one year after epic? It would have taken more time and creativity, but I think if EPIC II had perhaps occurred in 2025, that would have become more interesting. There could have been two scenarios: one that continued with computers becoming more engrained into our lives or one that had the computer world crashing and technology slipping as some sort of catastrophe (think Y2K hysteria) hits.

One of my favorite books is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. When he wrote about the future, it was all dreams and imagination. Reading it in the 21st century makes one wonder if he had some sort of insight, since so many of his imagined inventions are now a part of our daily lives. Will EPIC be the same type of thing and in 10 short years, computers run everything? It will be exhilarating to see what happens.

Unlike some of the above comments, I think that we have some say in how much control we allow computers to have. We must silently give up our privacy for it to be taken away.

However, we do have the ability to stop something like this, ironically enough using what will also feed this monster system. As the world does turn more and more toward a interactive media system, that system will depend on everyone to contribute to the that system. Essentially each one of us will be making news. So you take that oportunity and you make news about the very thing that is carrying the news. So you have two options…one, is simply don’t contribute, noble, but probably not going to have an impact. Or you use your contibutions to create negative news about the system. You see if enough people fight this, then it won’t happen.

All of this isn’t a forgone conclusion. What this thing didn’t talk about was how many hoops it has to go through. Consider for example privacy laws…you are talking about a computer that will inspect every thing you send or type on the internet…these computers will know some pretty intimate details about you. I can think of quite a few members of congress that aren’t going to like this at all. And if you have millions of people creating negative news, then congress is going to listen pretty closely to what is being said. And this really wouldn’t trigger the free speech activists who value the internet so much and apose legislation regulating it, because congress can simply go after googlezon as an individual company…since according to EPIC, it will be running everything anyway…would that make it monopoly?

The world definitely needs to be prepared for the events described in EPIC. It is inevitable, believable and basically already beginning to take place. A merge between Google and Amazon will be huge, as well as computers knowing consumers every want and need. It sounds great at first, but I don’t want my entire personal life accessible to the entire world.

I don’t believe the public can do anything to control what the Internet will do in the next few years. Hopefully, the security aspect of the new Internet era will not be as scary at the video implied it will be. The video is there to make us think, show us what the Internet is doing to society and what it can do in the future. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

It was interesting to see the history of the entire system evolve. I didn’t know that the World Wide Web has been around since 1989. Now, 16 years later I feel pretty behind. According to EPIC, we only have 9 years until computers control everything.

For an assignment in our PR writing class this week, we wrote a press release about where we will be in 20 years. Wishfully thinking, I wrote about the A-list clientele that I would be representing. If EPIC happens, computers will be handling these clients. What about the millions of jobs that computers will be doing instead of people? What will this do for the economy?

EPIC is sure to happen, but we all need a plan for when it does. I am all for change and innovation, but not at the expense of mankind. This is certainly not a bridge we want to cross when we get there.

Big Brother is something that my mother worries about, a big factor in her generation. She isn’t a hippie, but I didn’t have a Social Security Number until kindergarten because she hated the idea of sharing me with the government. Allowing computers to have large databases of our personal preferences and vital information will open the door to scammers and identity theft.

The benefits of a program like this sound great. We would have our favorite type of news selected from the web, lying right there on our laptops. We would have emails telling us that our favorite products are on sale, or new products are available that we might like.
It sounds like a plot intro for a Sci-Fi movie about the intelligent computer taking over the world. A bad Terminator sequel in the making.

The sad thing is that the facts “reported” by EPIC can possibly happen. As a people, we can be led to creative slaughter like little lambs by the promise of fast bandwidth and the words USER FRIENDLY.

This flash video is amazingly intruiging and deeply thought-provoking. The creators’ genius in creating something so disturbing, yet so real and personal to the entire world is astonishing. However, in contrast to previous comments, I believe that the predictions and assumptions made in this piece are inevitable. The internet/technology isn’t currently taking over the world, it HAS taken over the world. I don’t think we’re fully aware of how much it already controls everything. Like Erin said, basically everything is computerized and there are records of all sorts of things saved on the Internet. Everything anyone has or does is recorded, can be tracked and can be used against you or to your advantage, now, or in the future of 2014. But maybe the total domination of the Internet isn’t such a bad thing…its certainly an easier (lazier) way of life.

Scary? Yes. Inevitable? Most definitely. Preventable? Probably not.