The media guide was informative along the lines of differentiating between the principles of new media. I myself, did not personally know that there were stages of new media, but I guess that I was wrong. Discrete representation on different scales explains how media is essentially composed of infinite sets of smaller and larger objects, all forming a unified piece of media, whatever it may be. Numerical representation discusses how media is mathematically arranged by the way of an algorithmic manipulation, and that basically, everything in media is a mathematical code.
Automation seems to be a slick way of saying how computers are taking over.
We have no choice. Are decisions are being made for us by the computer whether we like them or not. Plus, we are only going to keep making their decision making capabilities more advanced and complex. The idea of AI is not a new concept, and most of the web readings I have had to deconstruct keep on re-hashing the same subject over and over. Variability deals with second stage of new media in that it can be composed in an infinite amount of ways.