Re: The Web Is Making People Stupid (TWIMPS)

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TWIMPS.  Note 4

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Peircers,

We now have a rather complexly ramified discussion on our hands.
Funny how that happens every time we take up the thought of one
Charles Sanders Peirce.

The first branch follows on a number of remarks previously made
by Peter and others, and is exemplified by the first remark of
James below. There is much to say about this, but my thoughts
on it will have to wait until I can get some links and texts
together.

The second branch touches more nearly on what I originally had in mind
when I resurrected my deliberately provocative acronymph from the days
I whiled and whined away on the Wikipedia Review. That theme is echoed
in James' second remark, and I count myself blessed that he managed to
read the mind beneath my clumsy attempts to articulate it. I will make
a concerted effort to focus on that line of inquiry first and foremost.

The third branch ramifying from this juncture is closely related to the
second limb, since the removal of the actual interpreter from the scene
of interpretation is so often compensated by the elevation of a phantom
limb, an infallible, invulnerable, invisible hand to the captainship of
our hermenautical bark, so to speak.

Regards,

Jon

Alb = James Albrecht

Alb: I think it was McLuhan who wrote that technologies are amputations (as
      in your examples below). They "cut off" the capacities that they augment.

Alb: The one that concerns me is the general degradation of interpretive skills in
      a digital environment. That is, when I can efficiently search for discrete facts,
      I tend to consume content as decontextualized facts. Over time, in a world where
      all parts can be accessed directly, denuded of context, do people lose the ability
      to understand the meaning that comes with composition, the specific arrangement of
      parts. (And do they lose the ability to compose anything over 140 characters?)

Alb: And there is a separate but related issue of how "random access"
      makes confirmation bias that much more potent.

Reference Points —

• http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=27783
• http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=30388
• http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=30448
• http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/aboutcsp/ransdell/paradigm.htm
• http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/aboutcsp/ransdell/ia.htm
• http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2011-December/003745.html
• http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2011-December/003746.html
• http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2011-December/003747.html

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