| The problem here is he's misquoting history which is a big issue when your stated goal is to put things into historical context. I honestly don't have the time to critique this guy to the extent he deserves but I picked out a few points just to illustrate what I mean... Quote #1: "I start with Plato's critique of writing where he says that if we depend on writing, we will lose the ability to remember things. Our memory will become weak. And he also criticizes writing because the written text is not interactive in the way spoken communication is. He also says that written words are essentially shadows of the things they represent. They're not the thing itself. Of course we remember all this because Plato wrote it down -- the ultimate irony." I encourage you to read Plato's actual words here: http://www.platonicrelationship.com/blogger.php/?p=411
Plato wasn't against writing (as the author says Plato used it himself) he was against thoughtful debate via writing. He's saying that people who learn by reading rather than by interacting tend to parrot what they learn rather than actually understand the concepts behind it (and he's right in many ways). So Plato wasn't against writing he was just trying to get people to realize where it should and should not be used. ------------------------------------------------ Quote #2: "Thoreau objecting to the telegraph, because even though it speeds things up, people won't have anything to say to one another. " Thoreau wasn't objecting to the Telegraph at all. Read the quote: http://www.allsoulscommunity.org/sermons/2003/BetweenWaldenP...
Then go here and read Martin Luther King's take on it (Search for "Improved means to an Unimproved End"): http://www.geocities.com/thoreaulogy/07sep.html Thoreau was commenting on the illusion that technology improves the content of our communication not coming out against the technology itself. ------------------------------------------------ Quote #3: "Then we have Samuel Morse, who invents the telegraph, objecting to the telephone because nothing important is ever going to be done over the telephone because there's no way to preserve or record a phone conversation. " I can't even find this quote by Samuel Morse but I suspect what he was saying is that the Telegraph records communication between two people where as the Telephone can't so the telegraph isn't made useless by the telephone. Not that the telephone is itself useless. ------------------------------------------------ Hopefully I've made my overall point. All these people were simply trying to help society decide how to use these inventions not saying the inventions were bad. That's exactly what people are doing now with Twitter, Facebook, etc... and it's a good instinct. This author's aim seems to be embarrassing people with that instinct into silence with false quotes and that's just wrong. |
“You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting. The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true of written words. You’d think they were speaking as if they had some understanding, but if you question anything that has been said because you want to learn more, it continues to signify just that very same thing forever.
What's great about this quote is that it suggests that Plato might have liked the web very much. The web steadfastly refuses to say the same thing forever. (Indeed, it is absolutely terrible at archiving things.) But it supports updates, and revisions, and back-and-forth much better than print does. The two media compliment each other.