[93] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Computerspeak
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Mattison)
Mon Apr 27 12:18:09 1992
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1992 11:05:52 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: "David Mattison" <dmattiso%cue.bc.ca@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.BITNET>
In-Reply-To: <ww920423101352>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
At the risk of starting a flame war, I'd like to point out a couple of recent
titles that assess the risk of technology altering culture, specifically the
technology of computers.
O.B. Hardison's _Disappearing Through the Skylight: Culture and Technology
in the Twentieth Century_ (Viking, 1989) provides an overview of technology
in culture, especially the relationship between new technologies and the
arts. Hardison, in my opinion, seems to be saying that the machine-as-life
metaphor is a valid one: "...a major influence on the development of silicon
devices is the imperative <italics start> to make the metaphor of machine
intelligence a reality <italics end>" (p. 320). Hardison's goes on to
conclude that "This sounds less like a death than a birth of humanity.
Perhaps it is the moment of triumph of the noosphere. Perhaps, however, it
is the moment at which the spirit finally separates itself from an outmoded
vehicle. Perhaps it is a moment that realizes the age-old dream of the
mystics of rising beyond the prison of the flesh to behold a light so
brilliant it is a kind of darkness. ... [I won't quote the rest as it would
spoil the fun]."
Neil Postman's _Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology_ (Alfred
A. Knopf, 1992) attempts to refute the machine-as-life or machine as
human metaphor and to warn of the dangers of trusting the judgment of
data displayed, printed, spoken by or otherwise disseminated by computers. He
mentions the ARPANET worm incident of November 4, 1988 as "the most chilling
case of how deepy our language is absorbing the 'machine as human' metaphor"
(p. 113). Postman, however, appears to have missed the significance of the
Internet and public-access computer systems as a viable and relevant form of
communication.
David Mattison
Internet: dmattiso@cue.bc.ca
