Divide history into three segments: pre-literacy tribal, modern and post-literacy societies. The movement between segments is characterized by transitions which our sensibilities undergo as technological advances are made and as the tools are incorporated into everyday life. The printing press divided the pre-literacy and modern; the computer divides the modern and the post-literacy.
In the move from pre-literate to modern society there were few technological advances and the speed of mechanical devices was slow as well. The sensory shift occurred between an emphasis on the ear in the oral society to the visual in the modern literate society. The few changes and slow movement insured that individual and societal reactions to innovation were delayed and absorbed over a considerable amount of time. People were able to develop new competencies as changes in organizations stabilized.
This is not the case in the move from modern to post-literate society. Electric tools instantaneously extend our capabilities in a “global embrace”. Action and reaction times occur simultaneously and there are many more tools available.
This panel opens the discussion on the social and individual effects due to computers as communications technology. Do we have a cultural lag with our tools? The speed and shear choice prohibits people from gaining competency with their tools, to ever catch up to an advancing technology. As our world becomes smaller through global networks, it seems no longer possible to adopt the highly specialized and detached dispassionate modern attitudes, no longer possible to just report the technical facts and remain neutral to their consequences. Let’s open the discussion with these questions:
Do you ever notice sensory changes in how you perceive the world? Subtle changes that you would attribute to having used computers? What effects do communication technologies have on your own sensibilities? What effects do communication technologies have on your social structure? Do you think virtual reality and wearable computers may impact our senses more than computers? If not, why not? If so, will it be important? Are there permanent effects on my sensory capabilities from using communication technologies? If so, how will these effect who I think I am? What would the changes be? How would I be able to tell differences? What might be the impact on society?
