dschonew

Knowledge Ecologies

Knowledge Ecologies
I must also agree that the definition of ecology presented in the fourth chapter has given me a completely different understanding of ecologies. It made me think about my work environment, and how each department assists others departments. The finance / accounting departments maintain all revenue flows as well as pay checks. The IT department provides access to the network for all other departments and is available in case anyone is having technological difficulties. The Operations department maintains day to day company operations and ensures that all customers are satisfied. The sales department seeks out potential customers and brings them in, so that the company has someone to provide its products and services to.
I have to disagree with Neil Postman's idea that our society has lost track of our fundamental values. I believe that most humans have the abililty to interpret the information that is here today gone tomorrow. Just because there has been a large increase in the amount of information available does not mean that humans have removed their tests of morality.
The discussion of what you don't see making an object useful in chapter six was quite intriguing. I can relate to this personally as a member of an IT department. What you see is the servers stacked on one another in the data center, everything is neat and tidy and looks quite powerful. However, you do not see the hours of work that it took to install the equipment. You also do not see the hours of weekly maintenance that actually allow the servers to continue to operate. It is not the servers themselves that useful, it is the software and maintenance of the servers that allow them to be functional.

I found these chapters much more interesting and easy to get through than the first three chapters. I agree with their use of "ecology" rather than "community." Communities can be static, while ecologies never are.

I really found the notion of keystone species interesting, as well as their observation that keystone species are often unrecognized and unappreciated. The humanity behind technology is part of this, and one reason why I argued in my previous post that technology will never get out of hand. This idea especially struck me because one of the things my parents and other family members who are successful in the work force have taught me is that social skills are a huge part of any job. You can be the most brilliant stock analyst in the world, but if you're abrasive and rude and can't communicate, you're not likely to be very successful because no one wants to deal with you. This seems to fit perfectly with the "unappreciated humanity" idea, especially in results-oriented America. Any successful part of business depends on undocumented humanity.

I also liked this: "But each can speak up in his or her own ecology." That's another way to put the common saying that "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something." Nardi and O'Day give the idea a background and examples of how that saying really is true. They hammer it home more than the saying itself.

dschonew

As a self proclaimed technophile there are many aspects included in the first three chapters that hit home with me. I believe that while Negroponte's ideas are rather extreme it is always good to fully embrace new technologies; while still holding on to older tried and true concepts.Technology should not be something to be afraid of, it should be utilized to enhance everyday life. With the increased level of automation in all industries there will certainly be some technologies that take a little longer to get used to. I believe that while robotic equipment will be a great benefit to humanity down the road, for the majority of the world it will take many years to get used to.There are still many communities around the globe that have not adapted to or incorporated technologies that have been around for nearly a hundred years. I do not think we have to worry about the world becoming an anti-social playground in the near future.

Technology is hard to understand, yes. Scary at times, yes. Powerful, yes. But I think it's unlikely that it will become a self-controlling monster that its creators have no power over. Every technology has developed in response to some need that someone sees. Trains, cars, the Internet, search engines, instant messengers all were invented to make life easier. They have all had unintended consequences, yes, but everything has unintended consequences. Everyone's heard the parable about the butterfly in China that flapped its wing and changed the weather in Europe. I've studied this a bit in another rhetoric class, and one fascinating thing I got insight on was hacking. People don't just hack to get money from a bank. People often hack into the computer chips on cars and make better vehicles. People constantly create way to share music for free. People hack into video games to get unlimited lives and power. The point is that the people who manufacture these products are human, and therefore fallible. They don't see all the potential in their product; the consumers do.

To take this a step further and address the common concern that technology will get out of hand - well, maybe it will, if the manufacturers don't think of everything. But the collective knowledge of a million users easily counteracts that. Technology is not one-sided. It's not just a tool, or text, or a system. We can't just quit it and go back to the farms. I think our generation is the first to really grow up around this stuff. It's part of how we think about the world, but it's not all of how we think about the world. But I agree that people need to be more aware than they are of its consequences in a broader sociological sense instead of just knowing how to manipulate the technology (which most of us don't know how to do anyway).

question

How could you ever imagine that the profound mystery in which you are immersed and which flows through you could be displaced or hindered by anything as puny and transient as a thought, emotion, or sensation?

Welcome to Knowledge Ecologies!

This is the class blog for RHE330C and STS331 Knowledge Ecologies, an undergraduate class at the University of Texas at Austin. Here students post responses to readings, questions and discussions about the class.