David Lyon's lecture at L’Abri of Southborough, Massachusets (tape S162)
20010523
taught in Britain
speaks of a Clever Friench philosopher, Jon Leo’ta (or Leotard?), who wrote "The Postmodern Condition" in response for being asked to write a report on knowledge
postindustrial era
postmodern era
changing status of knowledge
information technology
fusion of computer technology with telecommunications
enlightment figure - postmodernism, he sees as a decline from positive modernist ideals
broken covenant (fall)
technology is an important part of creation
postmodern and modern elements
nothing qualitatively different with the rise of information technology
daniel bell - harvard
The Coming the Information Society
1974
social forcasting
Alvin Tofler influenced by bell
systems-based
efficiency
common sense, traditional religious beliefs and intuition excluded as irrelevant or illegitimate
information and software becomes a commodity
printing coersed European culture from an imatative to an innovative style of knowledge
personal data about us is increasingly stored on disks and processed in electronic circuits
Joe Wiesenbaum (spelling?, who is he?) "computer is a powerful metaphor for understand many aspects of the world, but it enslaves the mind that has no other metaphors and few resources to call upon"
buying technologies because they are cheap, or cheaper than the alternatives
commodification of information
scrolls
books
newspapers
radio
...
compact disc based intellectual tools
modernity is related to the enlightenment - human autonomy - human reason as a means of human emancipation - expressed in the growth of science and technology - economic growth related to discovery and implementation
postmodernity
glut of meanings
scarcity of authority to adjudicate between meanings
policy makers are still acting as if the rationality of the enlightenment still exists,
newtonian anthropology was still behind anything
democracy is a sham because advertising agencies who run election campagnes, cynicism
philosphical father of postmodernity is Niche
contrast roll of intellectuals in modern and postmodern societies
modern intellectual was a legislator
postmodern intellectual is an interpreter between "language communities"
a postmodern feature - growth of consumerism and consumer freedom
Leo’ta is pesimistic about uncoordinated activity
handing over to technologies the roll of integrating our lives
What happened to those bright enlightenment hopes?
"There is a close connection between fate of European culture and a technology guided solely by the logic of the tools themselves."
"The industrial production of a variety of objects generates a series of closely related biproducts for which, strictly speaking, there is no need. It is only compulsion for the full utilization of the equipment that calls for it."
Definition of words like "knowledge" or "information"
Shannon theory - reduced information to signal traffic
Can we evaluate new technologies?
Market share - delivery dates
Dead lines - drop dead dates
normative - of or relating to a norm, especially an assumed norm regarded as a standard of correctness in behavior, speach, writing, etc.
Scripture
responsible technology
notions of truth and technology have been divorsed