Subject: [IFETS] Pre-discussion paper
From: Kinshuk (kinshuk@ieee.org)
Date: Tue 25 Apr 2000 - 10:42:33 MEST
From: "Kinshuk" <kinshuk@ieee.org> Subject: [IFETS] Pre-discussion paper Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2000 20:42:33 +1200
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Dear colleagues
Please find below the pre-discussion paper for our next discussion. Please send
your comments on the paper to IFETS list at
ifets-discuss@LISTSERV.READADP.COM
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"Communications Technology and Personal Identity Formation"
by
Leslie Henrickson
University of California - Los Angeles, USA
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?
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