> Technology as religion?

thekohser

Technology as religion?
- by Clint Cozier

QUOTE

A few weeks ago, I heard Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) at the January Lecture Series hosted by Calvin College. Wales' spoke about Democracy and the Internet. I commented afterwards that I was disappointed because I thought he would talk more about the social implications for democracy that the Internet (and sites like Wikipedia) raised. I wanted Wales to flesh out the sociological and metaphysical implications of the technology he helped pioneer. When he reverted to techie and business owner, I felt shortchanged.

MBisanz

QUOTE(thekohser @ Sat 30th January 2010, 6:34am)

Technology as religion?
- by Clint Cozier

QUOTE

A few weeks ago, I heard Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) at the January Lecture Series hosted by Calvin College. Wales' spoke about Democracy and the Internet. I commented afterwards that I was disappointed because I thought he would talk more about the social implications for democracy that the Internet (and sites like Wikipedia) raised. I wanted Wales to flesh out the sociological and metaphysical implications of the technology he helped pioneer. When he reverted to techie and business owner, I felt shortchanged.

That reminds me of the beliefs of the civilization in The Machine Stops

Milton Roe

QUOTE(thekohser @ Fri 29th January 2010, 10:34pm)

Technology as religion?
- by Clint Cozier

QUOTE

A few weeks ago, I heard Jimmy Wales (founder of Wikipedia) at the January Lecture Series hosted by Calvin College. Wales' spoke about Democracy and the Internet. I commented afterwards that I was disappointed because I thought he would talk more about the social implications for democracy that the Internet (and sites like Wikipedia) raised. I wanted Wales to flesh out the sociological and metaphysical implications of the technology he helped pioneer. When he reverted to techie and business owner, I felt shortchanged.

You shouldn't. That's sort of the way technology works. Those who invent it don't think too hard about what it means. And if they do (like Oppenheimer) they tend to get banniated.

There are a lot of parallels between Oppenheimer and Sanger, actually. But Jimbo is not a good stand-in for Teller.

Once the rockets go up, who cares where they come down?
"That's not my department!" says Werner von Braun.