Week Two Weblog

Response to Themes from Readings

I.

"Broadly speaking, the information society is imagined as the culmination of human cultural maturity, the sixth stage of economic growth, or, as...the ultimate civilization."
-Taken from Competing Visions, Complex Realities, Chapter 3 by Jorge Reina Schement, pg 36

This statement is taken from an assumption by post-industrialist interpretations of the so-called "information society." It is quite probable that similar statements were made in the mid to late 19th century about the advent of the Industrial Revolution. It seems that at those who wish to encourage a fundamental shift in the way society is structured always claim that the shift is the epitome of all that is needed to become "ultimate." Every large and powerful society that has a breakthrough in a distinct way of interpreting and manipulating physical and mental environments will demand some kind of profound recognition as the "culmination of human cultural maturity." This is not very different than a conquistador's opinion of his own culture as he stood on the edge of Incan civilization. It is not very far from the ideology of a bigot.

This all is not to say that the post-industrialists are bigots. Perhaps some of their rhetoric is a bit tainted with assumptions that raise questions about their own level of cultural maturity though. When a group of people claim there is something intrinsic to their way of life that is an ultimate achievement, it immediately should be cast into doubt and scrutiny. No culture should be seen as ultimate. Rather, a society that claims to be information based should be more capable of becoming aware of this very fact. If so much information is available to such a society, should they not become enlightened to the fact that there are thousands of ways of life that function on levels of equal competence? Should not such a society be better able to examine any imperfections it might have acquired from previous levels of development (i.e., pollution that pervades in Industrial Societies)? Should not a society recognize the fact that the informational infrastructure they create can be a memory bank for generations to come who must maintain the society's industrial, agricultural and informational developments?

Yes, yes and yes.

II.

"It is ironic that the most persuasive conception of an information society, that which centres on the role of theoretical knowledge, is the least commonly suggested by information society adherents."
-Taken from Information Society Revisited by Frank Webster, pp 456

It can be argued that it isn't necessary for the physical stucture of society be immediately changed as it was in the Industrial Revolution which beget the Industrial Societies, but rather only the recognition of a shift in the collective psyche is enough to create an Information Revolution for the birth of an Information Society. It might be found one hundred years from now that the physical landscape societies will be radically redifined (and perhaps capable of healing many of the current system's grotesque maladies, i.e. pollution) as a result of a collective mental shift that could not manifest itself immediately. The role of theoretical knowlege will be central to such a shift. While those who are adherents of the Information Society might be currently focused on recognizing their own existence by examining new gadgets of technology and creating a metaphorical lingo, there is a backdrop of compressed learning and transferring of collective information into collective knowlege. This backdrop will eventually take the foreground as a curtain call to those who take the stage denying an Information Society exists.

III.

"We are fixated with the image not because we have lost faith in reality, but because images now have an enormous impact on reality, to the extent that the older image-reality opposition doesn't really work anymore."
-Taken from Interface Culture by Steven Johnson, page 30

Images have always been precusors to any written words and always be. This is because, as Albert Einstein put it, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." The ability to imagine is first used to map reality. It is true that image has become a far more abundant form of communication since the Industrial Revolution and this is because of the information technology that resulted thereafter. Photographs are easier to produce than oil paintings. Television is easier to watch than to make the effort to be at event yourself. Google is easier to use than the book-form encyclopedia. Everyone must become image-literate as well as maintain text-literacy in order to critically think. An interesting film on this topic is The Ad and The Ego by Sut Jhally.

IV.

"To exist, is the exist in situ, here and now, hic et nunc. This is precisely what is being threatened by cyberspace and instantaneous globalized information flows."
-Taken from Speed and Information: Cyberspace Alarm! edited by Arthur and Marilouise Kroker, pg. 1

If an electro-magnetic cloud passed by Earth and shut down all orbiting satellites, the Buddhist would not feel their existence in the here and now was being attacked. An Informaion Society must develop this mental state before it can feel "threatened." Only then, through mindfulness, will it realize that it is not threatened at all; only overspecialized.