Databases

What is a database? It means a set of data inside a computer. This set of data is usually accessible via an interface, the means with which a human interacts with the data. For instance, a webpage serves as the messenger between data and a person, and vice versa.

Databases shape the way we see the world in the modern era. The dominance of the internet is a major part of this. The internet first appeared as a way to store information, then became a 'world wide web' where databases from allover the world became linked. This was similar to a spider's web, thus the name. Nowadays the internet has more independent sites than linked ones.

Databases can be transformed into a narrative. The way this was explained in class was a bag of marbles. In the bag they are jumbled and we have no way of knowing which ones are where. However, if we take them out of the bag and put them in a line they are now in a sequence. This is a good analogy for how raw data is transformed into a narrative. The process of this is called an algorithm.

In traditional narratives such as novels, algorithm-like behaviour isn't required from readers. However, in a digital art form (see the previous post for information about digital art), there is an algorithm. An example of this is video games. The raw data information is converted into something humans can interpret via an interface. In a video game such as the popular role-playing game Skyrim, the player's narrative is not limited by what is there. The narrative is non-linear. This is different to a novel where the narrative is limited by what is physically there.

As technology develops we as humans are able to do things that were not imaginable before. We can interact with other humans who live on the other side of the globe in less than a second with greater accuracy than ever before. The increasing developments of databases and technology have had a profound effect on humanity.