Internet Philosopher

A fascinating interview with Richard Thieme | Linux Journal who is described as a philosopher of information technology, describing the interactions between technology and human experience. A number of points stand out for me in this interiew by Mick Bauer. Here are three that I think are particularly worthy of consideration.

Thieme asserts that computer technology defines our reality in a similar way to language. Modern culture has been formed through its interaction with and interpretation of written texts:

I could see by contrast that interacting with text on computers created a different experience, shifted how we thought about our possibilities, our work, meaning, ourselves--everything.

Secondly, the long term impact of technology:

In the short term, we always overstate the effects of new technologies. But in the long run, we always understate them.

Finally, on the role of unconventional thinkers who cross the boundaries of disciplines and conventional ways of acting and thinking:

First, they sound crazy. Then, they sound funny. Then, people attack them. Then, everybody believes that they always agreed with them all along. That's when you know their way of seeing things has become the core of a new consensus reality, and already new truths that contradict that are arriving on the edges.

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