Socrates + the illusions of writing

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S.J.E.Hobbs@open.ac.uk
Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:22:41 +0100 

From: S.J.E.Hobbs@open.ac.uk
Subject: Socrates + the illusions of writing
Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 18:22:41 +0100

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Dear Mireille,

Thank you for that wonderful quotation (could you possibly send me a
reference for it?), I particularly enjoyed the following:

'The specific (ie writing - S) which you have discovered is an aid
not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth
but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and
will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will
generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of
wisdom without the reality'

What a wonderful description of the 'information overload' which Jens cites
as the central product of information technology. We have access to so much;
knowledge of so much is expected of us and changes so frequently that in
order to be percieved to be successful we feel we must pick up the bright
scraps of immediate information to sew a clashing quilt with big, loose,
dangerously fragile stitches which barely covers our ignorant nakedness. The
warm, vulnerable down of social responsibility and caring leaks though the
gaps.

Sorry, I came over all poetic!
But I do believe that 'information overload' can and does cause people to
become magpies, picking at the brightest shinest morsels of information
because they simply don't have the skills, knowledge and persistence to
search out the nutritious pieces. This is what I would hope would become the
focus of the 'University of the Future', the development of a discerning eye
and the preservation of a belief in beauty of a balanced, informed view.

Samantha

Samantha Hobbs
Lecturer (Digital Media)
Institute of Educational Technology
Open University, Milton Keynes
UK
Tel: +44 1908 654128
Fax: +44 1908 654173

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