Thoughts Today

Today I am very much drawn to considerations of technology as a mediating factor.  As I think about our perception and interaction with the world around us through the senses, the connection, to me, feels very direct and active in the sense that there are aren't any filters standing between me and the raw experience of the world... whether it is the direct access I have to the sounds of construction around me or the smell of garbage outside my apartment.  

Although, I wonder if in a way, there is no real true raw experience, because everything that I see, hear, smell, touch, or taste is delivered to me through waves of light, energy etc. or is obstructed by something else, such as in the way that I receive the sounds of construction only as an effect of the echoing that occurs on the buildings outside of my apartment.  My sense experiences though, do seem to offer something very real and something that feels quite different from my interactions with various forms of media like the computer screen, television, or radio.  Each of these machines sort of constructs an experience that replicates what's going on when I hear something organic in the world... What is organic though? And why do I feel that a sense experience with my computer is so different from what I feel in the real world? 

My inclination at this point is that sense experience is something vital to perception and it is interesting that media emphasize the visual to such a great extent.  I feel that attention to the other senses might help to awaken something in us, and I'd like to consider the possibility of regaining the perceptual faculties that took the sidelines as we formed into a visual culture.  Can't we combine the benefits of an oral and literate worldview?

Hopefully, as I get closer to a strong thesis, I'll have a more thoughtful opionion on this...