Alltid läsvärda edge.org har ställt sin årliga Fråga med stort F till ett antal tongivande tänkare: "How is the Internet changing the way you think?" På Infontology har vi ju frågat oss detta i många år, men det är roligt att projektet "Ömsesidig förståelse?" nu ligger så väl i tiden! Här är några av svaren från Edge-enkäten:
"It is our misfortune to live through the largest increase in expressive capability in the history of the human race, a misfortune because surplus always breaks more things than scarcity. [...] The mere fact of being able to publish to a global audience is the new literacy, formerly valuable, now so widely available that you can't make any money with the basic capability any more. This shock of inclusion, where professional media gives way to participation by two billion amateurs (a threshold we will cross this year) means that average quality of public thought has collapsed; when anyone can say anything any time, how could it not? If all that happens from this influx of amateurs is the destruction of existing models for producing high-quality material, we would be at the beginning of another Dark Ages. So it falls to us to make sure that isn't all that happens." (Clay Shirky)
"As admittedly useful as the Internet is, easy access to images of everything and anything creates a false illusion of knowledge and experience." (Erik Fischer & April Gornik)
"My generation is the first generation that has lived their entire lives with the Internet. The Internet is how we think. We have developed a way of thinking that depends on being connected to an ever changing graph of all the world’s people and ideas. The Internet helps to define, evolve, and grow us. The Internet is social. The Internet is a way of life." (Dave Morin)
"I notice that I now digest my knowledge as a patchwork drawn from a wider range of sources than I used to. I notice too that I am less inclined to look for joined-up finished narratives and more inclined to make my own collage from what I can find. I notice that I read books more cursorily — scanning them in the same way that I scan the Net — 'bookmarking' them. [...] I notice that I correspond with more people but at less depth. I notice that it is possible to have intimate relationships that exist only on the Net — that have little or no physical component. I notice that it is even possible to engage in complex social projects — such as making music — without ever meeting your collaborators. I am unconvinced of the value of these." (Brian Eno)
"Digital media and networks can only empower the people who learn how to use them — and pose dangers to those who don't know what they are doing. Yes, it's easy to drift into distraction, fall for misinformation, allow attention to fragment rather than focus, but those mental temptations pose dangers only for the untrained mind. Learning the mental discipline to use thinking tools without losing focus is one of the prices I am glad to pay to gain what the Web has to offer. Those people who do not gain fundamental literacies of attention, crap detection, participation, collaboration, and network awareness are in danger of all the pitfalls critics point out — shallowness, credulity, distraction, alienation, addiction." (Howard Rheingold)
"But we obviously have the freedom not to participate in such networks. And we have the freedom to consume the output of such networks selectively, and holding our noses — to participate, we needn't be true believers. So it is very hard for me to take the "woe is us, we're growing stupid and collectivized like sheep" narrative seriously. If you feel yourself growing ovine, bleat for yourself." (Larry Sanger)
"SORRY, JOHN, NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT THE EDGE QUESTION" (George Church)
Bara några smakprov. Sammanlagt har 167 tänkare svarat! Det vore en intressant utmaning att pröva att sortera upp alla dessa synpunkter och försöka urskilja vilka som är de mest grundläggande, vilka som är mest personligt tyckande, vilka som är tidsbundna etc. Får se om jag gör det längre fram! I vilket fall som helst är det mycket bra att ha så många kvalificerade synpunkter samlade på ett ställe.
/Per
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