1) Reflects on how the future technology described in “Soonish” relates to notions of oral history as you understand them from the StoryCorps project
The way that Kelly Weinersmith, the author of the book Soonish, describes the future of technology is just as someone would if they were telling their story with the StoryCorps project. She tells the perspective of the technological advances that we have now and compare it using references from scientists about what the human race will be capable in the future. This is a form of oral history because the author is piecing all of these advances of technology in order to provide an insight on how what it would be like in the future, possibly. Some examples of this would include having robots do everything for us, even building our buildings, and manipulating DNA in crops in order to make it into whatever scientists want. In the introduction of the book the author notes and she is not necessarily trying to predict anything, but give insight on the topics and outcomes that could possibly surface based on the current technology. But this is all taking place in the form of a book, a story if you will, makes it a perfect fit as a history that is written and not spoken.
For this oral history project I want to interview someone who depends on technology for their job, and how that has affected them since they started working in the position. I want to focus on the impact modern technology has made in that specific occupation and how it has improved since they first started. This description fits most jobs now, but I think that it makes it interesting understanding personal perspectives about technology in the workplace, for example grocery stores, “what did they do before the scanning and had to do everything manually?” It would be interesting to know the perspective of someone who witnessed that firsthand. I could also focus on one technologic advance that that person has seen firsthand expand and what it was like to see it first come out, like a computer. I really want to focus on the effects and technology has personally affected their lives.