Is Technology Good for Culture? (Video)

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid2323364781001?bckey=AQ~~%2cAAAAAF1454s~%2cQH_ygumSKiUSM5umxH7QftbSQjDYIwCl&bclid=0&bctid=2722379534001

I couldn't embed it (if someone can, please do so) but the above link is to a video of curmudgeon novelist Jonathan Franzen and technology theorist Clay Shirky discussing the pros and cons of the Internet and it's effects on culture. From the current New Yorker Festival.

I really want to track down Shirky's writing and lectures now. I think he's very good at articulating the issues at hand and drawing parallels to other points in history, like the changes brought on by the invention of the printing press for example.

As for Franzen, well at least he didn't crawl up into a ball and cry, "WAHHH! Take me back! Take me back to a simpler time!!" but by the end it seemed like he was about to.

flol at these 2 pictures, interest piqued, watching viddy now.

I sTechnology Good For Culture?

no

technology will eventually destroy civilization IMO

whenever and however

  On 10/11/2013 at 12:53 PM, LimpyLoo said:

no

technology will eventually destroy civilization IMO

whenever and however

How do you cope with that? I suppose you rely on technology for music making.

I'm just curious, not trolling.

Hand waving.

I think while extending our abilities, the Internet and technology also becomes those abilities. Early adopters receive a competitive advantage over their peers in the race for profit, meanwhile tech itself receives the thing that really matters: constant upgrades! Speedy evolutionary usurpers! It might seem like I'm painting a bleak picture here but I'd say I'm a cyber-utopian because once tech is smarter than us, it will have better ethics and taste than us (although I'm sure we'll be reluctant to admit it). At which point we humans will be absolved of the responsibility of running the world, much like pets. Current captains of industry think the money that tech delivers will safeguard their positions of privilege on into the future, but that would be like a dog thinking it could bribe it's way out of a kennel with a bunch of bones. Pets do have the best lives though! The main priorities are cuteness, companionship and tricks (for us that could be making the IDMs).

Technology brought us together. But, at the same time, technology keeps us apart.

But more importantly, is culture good for technology?

Technology is evil.

*posts on forum dedicated to electronic music*

  On 10/11/2013 at 1:29 PM, wabby said:

 

This picture is all the proof I need to know deep in my heart that technology is indeed good for culture.

  On 10/11/2013 at 3:03 PM, mokz said:

But more importantly, is culture good for technology?

can I just say, coolest avatar. absolutely love it.

Every time someone tries to artificially restrict the growth or direction of culture, I think about the dark ages.

Everything will be fine, or if it isn't, at least the world no longer contains Franzen.

I like this guy:

  On 10/11/2013 at 12:55 PM, pierlu said:

 

  On 10/11/2013 at 12:53 PM, LimpyLoo said:

no

technology will eventually destroy civilization IMO

whenever and however

 

How do you cope with that? I suppose you rely on technology for music making.

I'm just curious, not trolling.

 

My abstaining from technology would make no difference. I am not against technology in principle. It's just that the way things turned out, technology has the power to kill everyone on the planet. But it didn't have to happen this way.

Technology is a bell that can't be unrung. We can't unlearn how to make nuclear weapons. Technology is getting so cheap that there will come a day (theoretically, of course) where weapons of mass destruction will be able to be made in someone's basement with 10-cents worth of materials and the internet.

I mean, there is a chance the technological singularity will happen and will be as amazing as Ray Kurzweil thinks it will be and we'll all live in paradise forever. But the problem with any emerging technology is the law of unforeseen consequences: as advanced as we are we can't imagine every possible eventuality. This is why we are dealing with global warming.

Today on The Guardian :

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/oct/11/david-byrne-internet-content-world

I get his point (of course it's kinda to promote the softcover version of his book, with an new material).

To my futurist/Kurzweilian friends irl, I usually pose this question: Do you truly believe that humans are incapable of creating a problem too big for us to solve? If not, why march forward toward the singularity as if we can "engineer our way out" of whatever issues we create, as is often sugggested?

Some people will hate this but....

Is culture truly necessary for civilisation?

Wtf is "culture" anyway in the 21st century? Is it only about people who want to share an experience with other human beings (whatever it's in video, text, music form, etc...)? Is culture needed to solve anything?

Are unnecessary things unnecessary?

first we must admit we r out of control

  On 10/12/2013 at 4:30 AM, Redruth said:

first we must admit we r out of control

I dunno but I'm taking control of the drum machine. Yoink!

must...destroy...skynet.

you might as well consider "is air good for culture"

as far as i'm concerned technology is the 5th element and its not something we wield, it more like something that congeals on us

can you imagine humans with hands like ours developing without ever picking up a stick and using it to whack some shit? technology happens on its own its given the right conditions, like the other 4 elements

a world without technology would be a world of corpses and happy lions

  On 10/12/2013 at 7:26 AM, RadarJammer said:

you might as well consider "is air good for culture"

 

as far as i'm concerned technology is the 5th element and its not something we wield, it more like something that congeals on us

 

can you imagine humans with hands like ours developing without ever picking up a stick and using it to whack some shit? technology happens on its own its given the right conditions, like the other 4 elements

 

a world without technology would be a world of corpses and happy lions

Yes.

  On 10/12/2013 at 4:19 AM, Philip Glass said:

Some people will hate this but....

 

Is culture truly necessary for civilisation?

I saw a documentary about the human brain and how it has developed through time a while ago - the ability for the human mind to create abstract artwork is one of the main things that has allowed us to develop to the point we have. In evolutionary terms, without culture there is no room for civilisation to grow. There will just be anarchy and a bunch of dudes living in caves.