4.0394 On Technology (3/63)
Elaine Brennan & Allen Renear (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Mon, 20 Aug 90 18:17:33 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 4, No. 0394. Monday, 20 Aug 1990.
(1) Date: Thu, 16 Aug 90 17:27 PDT (15 lines)
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0391 Technology, Etc.
(2) Date: Fri, 17 Aug 90 08:15:07 MDT (37 lines)
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 4.0391 Technology, Etc.
(3) Date: Friday, 17 Aug 1990 13:08:24 EDT (11 lines)
From: "Patrick J. O'Donnell" <U1095@WVNVM>
Subject: 4.0391 Technology, Etc. (3/74)
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 90 17:27 PDT
From: KESSLER <IME9JFK@UCLAMVS.BITNET>
Subject: Re: 4.0391 Technology, Etc.
Dear Willard, Oh those tweedy, not-so-avuncular professors who
condescended to one with their declarations of one's "heresy." From
what? TSE retracted his book of heresies, AFTER STRANGE GODS, in which
he had anathematized Blake and Lawrence as "heretics." He had the
Orthodox line. Rome of course wouldnt not have said that of his
adherence to Canterbury. And he himself, flirting with the brownshirted
"heretics" against civilization itself, as the West once knew it.
If all those condemned as heretics of one kind or another were
laid end to end, they still might not reach to the plane where TSE's
poor soul probably lies awaiting redemption. Would you like to see,
Willard, my mythologem on TSE? Now that you mentioned him? Kessler
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------44----
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 90 08:15:07 MDT
From: Skip Knox <DUSKNOX@IDBSU>
Subject: Re: 4.0391 Technology, Etc. (3/74)
Judy Boss played the devil's advocate to my comments on the printing
press. Since I'm about to take semi-serious issue with her, does that
make me a divinity's advocate?
Sure I can see those developments in a positive light. Harlequin
romances are nothing more than modern forms of the silly tales and bawdy
romances of earlier ages that were related orally (and occasionally
written down). Pornography has certainly always been with us; I can't
find anything reprehensible in the mass distribution of it. Daily
newspapers that report things even when there's nothing to report are
just gossip that makes money. As for junk mail -- at least I can throw
it away. The drop-in peddlar or huckster took more effort to get rid of.
I'll admit that "credentialism" may be a novelty, but isn't this merely a
case of non-scholar administrators unimaginatively applying what is after
all a fairly reasonable rule (namely, that scholars ought to publish)?
No, I'm not trying to say technological innovation is an unmixed
blessing. I'm trying to argue that WHATEVER the effects, those effects
occur because of the humans, not because of the technology. Let's quit
trying to find something sinister in the machine. It's just a machine.
Anthropomorphizing is the proper province of poets, not of social
analysts.
-= Skip =-
Ellis 'Skip' Knox, Ph.D.
Historian, Data Center Associate
Boise State University INTERNET: DUSKNOX@IDBSU.IDBSU.EDU
1910 University Drive BITNET: DUSKNOX@IDBSU
Boise, Idaho 83725
(208) 385-1315
(3) --------------------------------------------------------------19----
Date: Friday, 17 Aug 1990 13:08:24 EDT
From: "Patrick J. O'Donnell" <U1095@WVNVM>
Subject: 4.0391 Technology, Etc. (3/74)
One might add to McCarty's suggestion concerning the de Sola Pool
collection Avital Ronnell's THE TELEPHONE BOOK: TECHNOLOGY,
SCHIZOPHRENIA, ELECTRIC SPEECH. It offers a fascinating (and
scary) view of telephonics in a book which, itself, is
a marvel of technological innovation as far as printing goes.
-
Patrick O'Donnell