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Part 1.
What is Technology?
Technology tends to become mythic. I use this word in the sense in which it was used by the French literary critic, Roland Barthes. He used the word "myth" to refer to a common tendency to think of our technological creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things. I have on occasion asked my students if they know when the alphabet was invented. The question astonishes them. It is as if I asked them when clouds and trees were invented. The alphabet, they believe, was not something that was invented. It just is. It is this way with many products of human culture but with none more consistently than technology. Cars, planes, TV, movies, newspapers--they have achieved mythic status because they are perceived as gifts of nature, not as artifacts produced in a specific political and historical context.
Technology tends to become mythic. I use this word in the sense in which it was used by the French literary critic, Roland Barthes. He used the word "myth" to refer to a common tendency to think of our technological creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things. I have on occasion asked my students if they know when the alphabet was invented. The question astonishes them. It is as if I asked them when clouds and trees were invented. The alphabet, they believe, was not something that was invented. It just is. It is this way with many products of human culture but with none more consistently than technology. Cars, planes, TV, movies, newspapers--they have achieved mythic status because they are perceived as gifts of nature, not as artifacts produced in a specific political and historical context.
Technology tends to become mythic. I use this word in the sense in which it was used by the French literary critic, Roland Barthes. He used the word "myth" to refer to a common tendency to think of our technological creations as if they were God-given, as if they were a part of the natural order of things. I have on occasion asked my students if they know when the alphabet was invented. The question astonishes them. It is as if I asked them when clouds and trees were invented. The alphabet, they believe, was not something that was invented. It just is. It is this way with many products of human culture but with none more consistently than technology. Cars, planes, TV, movies, newspapers--they have achieved mythic status because they are perceived as gifts of nature, not as artifacts produced in a specific political and historical context.
the wheel
writing
books
electricity
jacquard
radio
flight
television
computers
Don’t read books!
Don’t chant poems!
When you read books
your eyeballs wither away
leaving the bare sockets.
When you chant poems
your heart leaks out slowly
with each word.
It’s so much better
to close your eyes,
sit in your study,
lower the curtains,
sweep the floor,
burn incense.
It’s beautiful to listen to the wind,
listen to the rain,
take a walk when you feel energetic,
and when you’re tired go to sleep.
The original Luddites would answer that we are human. Getting past the myth and seeing their protest more clearly is a reminder that it’s possible to live well with technology—but only if we continually question the ways it shapes our lives. It’s about small things, like now and then cutting the cord, shutting down the smartphone and going out for a walk. But it needs to be about big things, too, like standing up against technologies that put money or convenience above other human values.
On the way from mythology to logistics, thought has lost the element of self-reflection, and today machinery disables men even as it nurtures them.
Technology is the active human interface with the material world.
Part 2.
A History of the Internet
( which includes the world wide web )
While many have debated the origins of the Internet, it’s clear that in many ways it was built to withstand nuclear attack. The Net was designed as a solution to the vulnerability of the military’s centralized system of command and control during the late 1950’s and beyond. For, the argument goes, if there are no central command centers, then there can be no central targets and overall damage is reduced.
The “Whole Earth Catalog” was founded by Stewart Brand.
Brand teamed up with NASA to help release those first images of the earth from outer space.
He thought the image might be a powerful symbol, evoking a sense of shared destiny and adaptive strategies from people.
The catalog’s tagline was “access to tools” and focused on sharing DIY techniques and important knowledge any individual should know.
An item is listed in the CATALOG if it is deemed:
- Useful as a tool,
- Relevant to independent education,
- High quality or low cost,
- Not already common knowledge,
- Easily available by mail.
The cultural origin of the internet is related to 60s counter-culture. The rediscovering of liminal experience is the appeal. For people who don’t have some sort of spiritual practice, technological change is the thing that comes closest to the experience of the unreal. It’s similar to the experience of getting a cell phone call for the first time. “This is weird, this is magic.” There are are all kinds of spooky experiences. It’s not just newness, either—it’s an experience where the previous understanding of the universe is broken. You don’t get many experiences like that if you don’t do drugs or have some sort of meditative practice. You don’t play with social rules or create new social spaces. Magic changes the rules of the world in a way we don’t expect.
The cultural origin of the internet is related to 60s counter-culture. The rediscovering of liminal experience is the appeal. For people who don’t have some sort of spiritual practice, technological change is the thing that comes closest to the experience of the unreal. It’s similar to the experience of getting a cell phone call for the first time. “This is weird, this is magic.” There are are all kinds of spooky experiences. It’s not just newness, either—it’s an experience where the previous understanding of the universe is broken. You don’t get many experiences like that if you don’t do drugs or have some sort of meditative practice. You don’t play with social rules or create new social spaces. Magic changes the rules of the world in a way we don’t expect.
The cultural origin of the internet is related to 60s counter-culture. The rediscovering of liminal experience is the appeal. For people who don’t have some sort of spiritual practice, technological change is the thing that comes closest to the experience of the unreal. It’s similar to the experience of getting a cell phone call for the first time. “This is weird, this is magic.” There are are all kinds of spooky experiences. It’s not just newness, either—it’s an experience where the previous understanding of the universe is broken. You don’t get many experiences like that if you don’t do drugs or have some sort of meditative practice. You don’t play with social rules or create new social spaces. Magic changes the rules of the world in a way we don’t expect.
@
IP
TCP
HTTP
WWW
On April 3rd, 1995, the first item was ordered from Amazon.com—John Wainwright ordered Douglas Hofstadter’s book Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies.
A friend of his, the first Amazon employee, had invited him to a beta launch of Amazon.com. Wainwright thought the items would be free and was surprised when "they took my credit card and charged it!"
Amazon would later name a building after Wainwright on their corporate campus to commemorate the sale; he still has the packing slip.
It is worth remembering that the internet wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be six boring men with too much money creating spaces that no one likes but everyone is forced to use because those men have driven every other form of online existence into the ground. The internet was supposed to have pockets, to have enchanting forests you could stumble into and dark ravines you knew better than to enter. The internet was supposed to be a place of opportunity, not just for profit but for surprise and connection and delight. Instead, like most everything American enterprise has promised held some new dream, it has turned out to be the same old thing—a dream for a few, and something much more confining for everyone else.
It is worth remembering that the internet wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be six boring men with too much money creating spaces that no one likes but everyone is forced to use because those men have driven every other form of online existence into the ground. The internet was supposed to have pockets, to have enchanting forests you could stumble into and dark ravines you knew better than to enter. The internet was supposed to be a place of opportunity, not just for profit but for surprise and connection and delight. Instead, like most everything American enterprise has promised held some new dream, it has turned out to be the same old thing—a dream for a few, and something much more confining for everyone else.
It is worth remembering that the internet wasn't supposed to be like this. It wasn't supposed to be six boring men with too much money creating spaces that no one likes but everyone is forced to use because those men have driven every other form of online existence into the ground. The internet was supposed to have pockets, to have enchanting forests you could stumble into and dark ravines you knew better than to enter. The internet was supposed to be a place of opportunity, not just for profit but for surprise and connection and delight. Instead, like most everything American enterprise has promised held some new dream, it has turned out to be the same old thing—a dream for a few, and something much more confining for everyone else.
