Well, here goes my first blog entry ever. This is new to me, but I’m game. I didn’t know what to expect from this Digital Past course, and I feel pleasantly surprised to find out that we’re approaching the concepts mainly through the history of digital music. This makes so much sense, especially since music is such a universal language and can provide solid insights on what music is to people and what it does to them and for them. One little aside – Professor O’Malley mentioned how Socrates believed that a person who reads is inferior because they are not memorizing the material (poetry, etc.) – they are using reading as a crutch. I am reminded of how the Romans and other cultures looked down on the Celts because they did not have much of a written tradition. They depended heavily on their remarkable oral tradition. The bards who maintained this tradition (along with the Druids) were considered one of the higher classes in Celtic society, While I believe both of these traditions are beneficial for human cultures, it would be interesting to know how the passing away of the strong oral traditions of ancient cultures has affected the human brain – for better, or for worse. Has this weakened parts of the brain and strengthened others? Or has it had no impact on the various areas of the brain? This is something that I hope we’ll be exploring more in our class.