Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 15, No. 287.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
[1] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi (78)
<tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: Albert Borgmann and Arun Tripathi on Coping with
Innovation
[2] From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi (18)
<tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: future of technology & rethinking human-computer
interaction
--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 06:40:24 +0100
From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi
<tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de>
Subject: Albert Borgmann and Arun Tripathi on Coping with Innovation
Dear Prof. Willard McCarty,
Comments are appreciated on the below threads, which later would be
developed into an article! Thank you. Best regards.-Arun
--------
Coping with Innovation by Professor Albert Borgmann and Arun Tripathi
There must be a middle way between radical and universal innovation and
clinging to an eternal human essence. I am sure there is continuity in the
human condition. But traditional things and practices are also revitalized
and rejuvenated by technological innovations.
Computing will become more pervasive, but not to the extent its
visionaries think. For one thing, as their examples show, the benefits are
for the most part crashingly banal. For another, people will want to
continue to appropriate their world in a knowing and competent way. Pearl
in an oyster is not a satisfying condition for humans. The disappearance
of the info highway was, sadly, entirely foreseeable. The phenomenon is
the converse of the point above. We have become used to appropriate our
world through consumption rather than excellence. Informational
citizenship would be a kind of excellence. Consumption is procured by
business. We are divided in our relation to reality, aspiring to
excellence and finding ourselves to be consumers. The only truly different
development in this new century would be the resolution of our ambivalence
in favor of excellence.
There is certainly new potential. I am not sure we have been equal to it.
The future will judge us not by our potentials (theirs will be so much
greater), but by what we have made of them--not much so far.
---- It is great that we have the ability to reach out and touch people all around the world. I don't pretend to know what the end results will be, but it is exciting to be living and working in a world where the potential to somehow touch each of the six billion people of the world exists. I am acutely aware of the inequities and that at least a fourth of the world's population does not have access to a telephone or for that matter even seen a telephone.In the 1890s the most optimistic futurists thought that there might be one telephone in every USA village. It was inconceivable that the telephone companies would be advertising "family cellphone." What the next century will bring is hard to guess. Kurzweil believes by 2020 we can have Mindprints, i.e. dump our brains into computers. Other futurists tell us it is not inconceivable that we will have direct brain to machine communications. It's a wonder future world. The challenge is for us to make the best of it and not squander it. Coping with Innovation
There must be a middle way between radical and universal innovation and clinging to an eternal human essence. I am sure there is continuity in the human condition. But traditional things and practices are also revitalized and rejuvenated by technological innovations.
Computing will become more pervasive, but not to the extent its visionaries think. For one thing, as their examples show, the benefits are for the most part crashingly banal. For another, people will want to continue to appropriate their world in a knowing and competent way. Pearl in an oyster is not a satisfying condition for humans. The disappearance of the info highway was, sadly, entirely foreseeable. The phenomenon is the converse of the point above. We have become used to appropriate our world through consumption rather than excellence. Informational citizenship would be a kind of excellence. Consumption is procured by business. We are divided in our relation to reality, aspiring to excellence and finding ourselves to be consumers. The only truly different development in this new century would be the resolution of our ambivalence in favor of excellence.
There is certainly new potential. I am not sure we have been equal to it. The future will judge us not by our potentials (theirs will be so much greater), but by what we have made of them--not much so far.
---- It is great that we have the ability to reach out and touch people all around the world. I don't pretend to know what the end results will be, but it is exciting to be living and working in a world where the potential to somehow touch each of the six billion people of the world exists. I am acutely aware of the inequities and that at least a fourth of the world's population does not have access to a telephone or for that matter even seen a telephone.
In the 1890s the most optimistic futurists thought that there might be one telephone in every USA village. It was inconceivable that the telephone companies would be advertising "family cellphone." What the next century will bring is hard to guess. Kurzweil believes by 2020 we can have Mindprints, i.e. dump our brains into computers. Other futurists tell us it is not inconceivable that we will have direct brain to machine communications. It's a wonder future world. The challenge is for us to make the best of it and not squander it. ------
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2001 06:41:09 +0100 From: Arun-Kumar Tripathi <tripathi@amadeus.statistik.uni-dortmund.de> Subject: future of technology & rethinking human-computer interaction
dear professor Willard McCarty,
i have tried to put several thoughts regarding human values, future of technology & rethinking human-computer interaction..
"we must learn to balance the material wonders of technology with the spiritual demands of our human nature" --John Naisbitt (1982) [Naisbitt, John, Megatrends: Ten New Directions Transforming Our Lives, Warner Books, New York, NY]
"we can make a difference in shaping the future by ensuring that computers serve human needs --Mumford (1934) [Technics and Civilzation by Lewis Mumford]
"unlike machines, human minds can create ideas. we need ideas to guide us to progress, as well as tools to implement them....computers don't contain "brains" any more than stereos contain musical instruments....machines only manipulate numbers; people connect them to meaning.. --Penzias (1989) [Ideas and Information by Arno Penzias]
your comments, criticisms, and ideas are appreciated.
thank you. best, arun
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