I like Brian’s writing style because his writing seems to have humor and something acute. He always used funny stories and expressions. Especially, in the blog for the book “Soul of Machine” he used one of episodes of The Simpsons to explain the definition of a soul. It made me laugh very much but was a brilliant simile. The idea to compare West’s project team to soul music groups was also a good simile, in that they both are people, enduring hunger and not enough money, who are doing what they want to do with tremendous passion. To add a little more idea to his comment, I think West and his team did not work day and night on their machine only for money. They were proud of their machine, and they achieved self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction. When we look for the meaning of the soul, I think we have to see not only the soul itself but also the continuous passion and efforts of human.

Response to Nicole’s comment on Sep 26, 2006 about the value of electronic documents

A mere 72 pages of Leonardo’s writing was evaluated over $30 million in 1994. About the question of asking the future value of the electronic media, Nicole’s answer was that if the replica of original in digital form proliferates, the value of original handwritten work would increase. I think this is a highly plausible and interesting theory. But, I have a different view about this question. Leonardo’s works are highly valued because of both its scarcity and its quality (or Lenardo's fame). But the work created originally by electronic media will be highly valued only by good quality of the work only when the intellectual property right is properly protected. This is because the original form of the work is electronic and the printed copy will have no value. Accordingly, I don’t think electronic documents will have value only for its scarcity in the future.

Response to Seth’s comment on Sep 28, 2006 about the benefits and drawbacks of technology

Seth described the drawbacks of technology precisely and correctly. I agree with most of his or her viewpoints. However, I kindly want to add my view about technology. How do our daily lives look like without such technologies? Today, we cannot imagine the situation without technologies, because we are accustomed to them. Let’s imagine the situation without cell phone and Internet. How can we contact our friends without cell phone when they are out of their home or office? How can we send urgent documents without Internet and e-mail? In my opinion, technologies have two aspects; beneficial and harmful. Whether it is beneficial or harmful depends on our usage. The Internet and technologies brought us the new economy and provided wealth through various economic effects. Moreover, they will keep evolving in the future, even though, as Seth noticed, they have harmful influence on our daily lives. The only thing we can do is to reduce the harmful effects and activities of technologies.