In The Circle by David Eggers, Kalden takes Mae down one night to see “Stewart.” “Stewart” is a cube-like structure in which The Circle keeps all of the video information they have been recording. Mae seems kind of surprised in the book, but it is not at all surprising that The Circle has “Stewart.” If you think about it, The Circle would like to keep all of their data so that it can be accessed at any time, but that information just doesn’t go to some cloud in the sky. The Circle, like every other tech company or any person or entity, needs a place to store their data. Something physical. That is why The Circle has “Stewart.” Think of it almost as a much larger and complex version of a USB drive or a memory card. Now we may not have storage tech like “Stewart,” but we do have plenty of storage locations in the United States. Essentially, the United States and companies have huge facilities with servers that are used for the sole purpose of storing data. That is what The Circle is doing, but with a more advanced type of server than we currently see today.

What other technology do we have that often gets forgotten about? That is where Nicole Starosielski’s “Undersea Cable Network Operates in a State of Alarm” comes into play. How do you think that most of the internet’s data is sent across continents and around the globe? Magic? That would be wrong. Satellites? That would also be wrong. Undersea cables? Correct! You probably got that from the title, didn’t you? Most of the data that we transit around the globe is sent through cables. How many of you have DSL or fiber optic? Those are cables sending and receiving data every time you use the internet. So of course it would only make sense that undersea cables are the most used method to send data around the globe.

Now you’re probably wondering: “What’s the article say about undersea cables?” Well, in the article; which is an excerpt from a larger work; Nicole Starosielski visited the network operations centers where the undersea cables are monitored by engineers. Dr. Starosielski described the center as “a room dominated by computer screens, endless information feeds of network activity, and men carefully monitoring the links that carry Internet traffic in and out of the country.” These men don’t just monitor though. When something happens an alarm goes off that signals a problem, and then these engineers get to the real work. In order to maintain the flow of data constant, these men have to find why the alarm is going off and then solve the problem. Sometimes the problem is simple, like a loose cable, and sometimes the problem might be larger, like a cable break. The system is very complex and requires the best and most reliably engineers, yet this is a job that nobody seems to know about. Like most Americans, I didn’t even know how complex the system was before reading the article. One engineer stated, “Nobody goes to school and says I want to be in the undersea cable business.” There is no direct path to this career and few people even know about it, but these cables are extremely valuable to our way of life. What do you think would be the outcome if the undersea cable system failed?

Undersea cables are one of the objects that we take for granted and yet know nothing about. There are so many technologies and objects that help us in our lives that we seem to underappreciate. How about our indoor plumbing system, satellite broadcasting, calculators, or clocks? Have you ever thought about the complexity of calculators? I have, it’s kind of mind-blowing. Thinking about how far technology has come can be mind-blowing and yet we seem to know next to little or nothing about the objects we use on a daily basis. So I urge you to think about some objects and technologies that you use every day and think about the system that is involved with it. You may find yourself surprised. I think that appreciating how these things benefit our lives and how they work is important. Now, I think I need to take my own advice and go read up on satellites!

Author Jonathan Crary’s 2013 work 24/7: Late Capitalism and the End of Sleep is a book detailing how society views sleep as detrimental, and highlights our efforts to curb and gain even the smallest amount of control over it. Crary begins chapter one with a look at the white-craned Sparrow, a bird that can go seven days without sleep. That is an impressive feat and one that the advanced research division of the Pentagon has been trying to harness. According to Crary, the Pentagon hopes to make soldiers that would ultimately be unaffected by sleep and fear. The main point by Crary, is today we see sleep as one of the last limiting factors to human productivity and achievement. Something that humans feel the need to overcome and defeat.

Why would humans want to defeat sleep? Doesn’t sleep operate as a yin and yang type function with being awake? In regards to this, Crary points out that in an economically driven world, such as we have today, sleep is a limiting factor in our 24/7 drive for production, completing tasks, and making money. Slowly we have begun to get less sleep as we try to do more and accomplish more. During the early 20th century, the average amount of sleep that adults got was ten hours. Just a generation ago, the average was eight hours and now the average for adults is a mere six and a half (Crary 11). As this drive for productivity and being constantly connected has increased, our amount of sleep has had to decrease. One could try and be productive 24/7, but eventually your body will succumb to being tired. Our mental-state slowly unravels and we experience a drop off in cognitive ability and performance. Ultimately, sleep deprivation will kick in and your body will force you to sleep or else your situation could become fatal.

This problem of 24/7 is extremely relevant in The Circle by David Eggers. In the book, the company “The Circle” is a technology driven country which encourages max efficiency and productivity for its employees as well as them being totally connected. On Mae’s desk she has multiple screens feeding her massive amounts of information at one time. While trying to complete her work, she is encouraged to maintain an update online public profile and to constantly share her thoughts and emotions. The system is obviously very complicated and requires someone to be able to multi-task extremely well. However, this also leads to the 24/7 problem as described by Crary: “24/7 is a time of indifference, against which the fragility of human life is increasingly inadequate and within which sleep has no necessity or inevitability” (Crary 9).

Mae feels that she falls behind on the social aspect of her job, therefore, she decides to going on a work-related social media romp one night. She posts, replies, and messages until she could no long stay awake. Mae’s productivity became limited by her need for sleep. That 24/7 drive clearly began to affect Mae. Her desire became entirely to achieve even more and more. Had sleep not been a factor, she probably would have kept going until she was completely consumed by her drive. In this world which is controlled by The Circle, everyone seems to be required to consistently do even more. To be involved more, to connect more, and to achieve more. Sleep is almost entirely viewed as useless.

In regards to sleep, The Circle seems to show a dystopian future where sleep no longer has any relevance to life. The employees are demanded to do even more, to adapt this 24/7 lifestyle. As Crary points out, it becomes almost robotic performance. These characters no longer seem to act normally, but are completely driven by what they need to do. Crary seems to be completely right, the world almost wants to abandon sleep and toss it in the trash. The characters in The Circle are almost achieving that. Mae’s night of work is a good example of this point by Crary. Maybe we should look at this as an eye-opener… and get some more sleep.

At the end of Mae’s first week at The Circle, she went with Annie to the Great Hall for the unveiling of a new technology. This event is a weekly event, known as “Dream Friday,” in which engineers and inventors at the Circle share their work, projects, and newest inventions. For Mae’s first “Dream Friday,” the newest invention is introduced by Eamon Bailey, one of the three founders of The Circle. In his presentation, Eamon introduces SeeChange.

What is SeeChange? SeeChange is a tiny camera with an image that is much clearer and the camera itself is “the size of a thumb.” Mae describes it as lollipop-like. Eamon Bailey pronounces it as an improvement on current live feed technology. In this book, this camera broadcasts live footage through a satellite so that people can view crystal-clear live footage at any time. Eamon shared in his presentation that he had set up a bunch of cameras up and down the coast of California. He could then check the footage any day and see if there were good conditions to go surfing. He also placed them in his mother’s house (without her knowledge), so that he could check up on how she was doing. SeeChange also had a wider use, to maintain transparency and omniscience. Eamon then switched the feed to cameras in Cairo, Egypt where a protest was underway. The audience in the book was then able to view the protests live. With this technology, any wrongdoing by soldiers could be spotted and human rights could be better protected. Proceeding in his presentation, Eamon stated that within a few years, two billion cameras would be placed all over the world. Crime would go down and human rights activists could have better success. Then they switched between different feeds from all over the world. People could see the world without leaving their house, just by using the footage from the cameras of other people.

On the surface, this seems great. You can view everything around the world at any time. You can almost have omniscience. Anything you want to see or know can be accessed through the tips of your fingers. You don’t have to watch the news to only obtain a limited picture of the protests in Egypt, when you can see them live with SeeChange! Today, sometimes we feel omniscient. With the internet, we can access all the information we want at any time about anything, but SeeChange allows this to be taken even further. You can have plenty of visual information too. I could see what was going on at the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France with just a few clicks. Right now you can view some videos that people recorded, photos, or read about the Eiffel Tower. With SeeChange, you could view it live and everything that was happening there at that moment. However, SeeChange could also mean access to too much data and the end of privacy. Sometimes in life we are not meant to know everything or see everything. Privacy is important. Look what Eamon did to his mother, he attached cameras in her house without her permission! SeeChange could be a technology that could become widely used by stalkers or spies. How would you feel if you found out there was a camera in your bathroom filming 24/7 that anyone could have access too? I know that most people would probably feel extremely violated. So while SeeChange seems great on the surface, all this knowledge at the tips of your fingers might be too much. Privacy is important, even at the cost of omniscience.

When reading The Circle, I caught myself comparing SeeChange to the telescreens in George Orwell’s 1984. While on the surface, the telescreens seemed like a great way to communicate and have a better grasp at the world around you, they quickly became used for surveillance by the Thought Police. Citizens became compelled to be obedient or else they would be arrested by the Thought Police at any sign of disobedience or “unusual” or “uncommon” thought. I feel that SeeChange will become used to the same effect. They induce people to be more aware of what they are doing, knowing that someone could be watching, and could ultimately cause people to think more mainstream. Some people have beliefs that are supported by valid reasoning but are frowned upon by others. With surveillance devices like SeeChange and the 1984 telescreens, people desire to fit in and avoid any trouble they may encounter from thinking differently. That is why I think SeeChange is a dangerous technology.

In the book, Eamon really tries to grab at the possibilities with this new technology. By placing it in Cairo, Egypt, he is attempting to enact change. Eamon is essentially trying to show the value of transparency. Not just the fact that governments and militaries should be transparent, but that people should be transparent as well. At The Circle they believe that transparency and sharing knowledge is extremely valuable and beneficial for all, and that it is a crime to keep knowledge to yourself. SeeChange is a technology that allows them to further that ideal. People around the world can use them to help create greater sharing of knowledge and demand more transparency. With his presentation, Eamon Bailey is attempting to espouse that a new reality of transparency can be obtained and that now is the time to do it. A new age has dawned with SeeChange.