From the Mind of Mark Slouka
Schmoliticians, so well-connected, well-informed, and opinionated. What do you think of this essay? Compelling? Incendiary? Ho-hum? Relevant?
posted by Sean @ 11/04/2005 07:41:00 PM
2 comments
Politics Schmolitics
We are a group of friends and acquaintances -- a merry band of pranksters indeed -- who have been arguing about politics on-and-off, then really on, then a little off... since 1998. On email. But that meant literally thousands of emails a year. That was too many. So here's the blog dedicated to carrying on that spirit of political and pop culture argument and dialogue. You might think of us as "schmoliticians", because while we take politics seriously, we try not to take ourselves quite so.
Friday, November 04, 2005
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2 Comments:
Is "all of the above" an option?
The essay is certainly well-written, and there is more than a nugget of truth contained therein. How ironic, then, that we are discussing it in Cyberspace! How ironic that the article itself was found online!
One thing that the essayist did not mention (perhaps it was beyond the scope of his argument) is how many technologists themselves, i.e. the people who are building this replacement reality, are so interested in the real outdoors. How many coders and sysadmins do you know that are into hiking, geocaching, hanging out in real coffee shops, etc.? Lots, right? Hell, remember all the time we spent on The Downtown Mall in Chville? Playing hacky-sack not the least? ;)
I do not know if this fact is relavent to his argument, of course.
The other thing I noticed is that he seems to be describing American suburban life more than anything. I live in Japan. I do not own a car. I walk or take the train everywhere, surrounded by people. I do not get a sense of the physical world being replaced for me. Same deal when I am in Europe.
But in the final analysis, I think the author is correct to see one danger of Cyberspace. His pick of books to illustrate the point was apt--now I want to read that book!
I *do* think this article is relevant, even if it is more than a little alarmist. This is an issue we sort of skirted in my Internet Policy class last semester. (And, if anyone is interested in this idea of technology replacing actual experience, I would also recommend Rheingold's book, Smart Mobs.) I think, though, that a distinction needs to be drawn between technology that purports to *replace* experience and that intended to *enhance* experience. I don't see how technology that makes it easier to interact with our environment is destructive or self-defeating. For example, what would be wrong with creating a digital grid of a town/city and equipping people with sensory impairments with some sort of device that would enable them to pick up the grid and therefore move through their environment independently and with far less difficulty than they currently experience? They are still getting out and interacting with the world--their interaction/experience has been made easier, though, through the application of technology.
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