MSTU4016-08/Discuss 3
From Studyplace
September 17
Interrogating the Present III: A Digtial Age?
- Discussion Question
- How do the views of Moglen and Lanier converge and diverge? What in their views do you find particularly illuminating in forming your own ideas about the effects of digital media on the way we think and communicate?
- Discussion leader: TBA
- Required Readings
- Eben Moglen, "The Dot Communist Manifesto"; Read
- Jaron Lanier, "Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism"; Read
- Supplemental Reading
- Cass Sunstein, Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), Ch.1-3, pp. 21-102. Read
Contents |
[edit] Discussion: Moglen vs. Lanier on Digital Possibilities for the Individual and the Collective
Like so many attempts to grapple with the affordances and social implications of emergent digital technologies (or perhaps any emergent technologies for that matter), this week’s readings take determined stands on whether or not the ultimate effects of these developments are positive or negative for society as a whole – and they come out on different ends of the utopia/dystopia continuum.
[edit] Lanier
Lanier worries that our increasing tendency to rely on collectively-engineered tools like wikipedia and meta-aggregators like Digg and Reddit comes at the expense of individual human voices and the their unique ability to create and share certain forms of knowledge: “The beauty of the Internet is that it connects people. The value is in the other people. If we start to believe that the Internet itself is an entity that has something to say, we’re devaluing those people and making ourselves into idiots” (6).
[edit] Moglen
Moglen, on the other hand, celebrates our current technological moment as one that (if freed from legal constraints such as intellectual property law) could potentially empower the proletariat to escape – and ultimately destroy – the long-standing system of ownership and consumption that keeps workers under the thumb of the bourgeoisie: “It is in the domain of technology that the defeat of ownership finally occurs, as the new modes of production and distribution burst the fetters of the outmoded law” (p. 7).
[edit] Moglen vs. Lanier
While their arguments diverge in many ways which we will discuss in class, one key difference lies in their views on digital technologies’ effects on the individual: Lanier argues that digi-tech tends to bury individuality in a collective mire while Moglen sees it as a tool for individual empowerment.
[edit] Class Challenge: Discussion of Key Terms
Both Lanier’s more dystopic view and Moglen’s utopic one suggest that in our current technological climate certain concepts are being redefined. I anticipate some of these same questions coming up in our assessment of previous technological transformations as well. I suggest that in class we consider the following key concepts in order to understand what Lanier and Moglen are saying about how each of these may be changing, but also to develop our own opinions regarding their respective arguments.
Authorship -- how does authority get established?
Identity
Ownership
Individual and collective
- rights
- freedoms
- responsibilities
Knowledge
- claims to it
- ways it is shared and preserved
Mysterious/mystical qualities of new technologies
Human connections
