Cyberbole.
The writer discusses Jaron Lanier's One Half of a Manifesto, which is not dedicated to proclaiming a new theory, as most manifestos are, but to deflating the already fully-formed theory of cybernetic totalism. This theory, developed by an elite group of techies, is one of those grandiose ideologies...
| Published in: | American Prospect Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 54 - 57 |
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| Format: | Article |
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American Prospect
March 12-26 2001
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=510181246&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 510181246 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10497285 ANP jtl: American Prospect issn: 10497285 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: March 12-26 2001 vid: 12 iid: 5 pid: 2396 pub: American Prospect artinfo: ui: 510181246 ppf: 54 ppct: 3 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 428KB tig: atl: Cyberbole. aug: au: Blume, Harvey su: Lanier, Jaron Dennett, Daniel Clement, 1942- Cybernetics Evolutionary theories sug: subj: Cybernetics Evolutionary theories Lanier, Jaron Dennett, Daniel Clement, 1942- ab: The writer discusses Jaron Lanier's One Half of a Manifesto, which is not dedicated to proclaiming a new theory, as most manifestos are, but to deflating the already fully-formed theory of cybernetic totalism. This theory, developed by an elite group of techies, is one of those grandiose ideologies that attempts to explain everything. In his 9,000-word document, Lanier argues that cybernetic totalism is primed to wreak havoc on the world. Lanier, sets out to oppose some of the most formidable writers and theorists of the present time. He is not a defector from the digital revolution that he has helped to foment, but he does join in the postmillennial mood of second thoughts about computers and the Internet from a philosophical perspective. Lanier is determinedly anti-totalism, and he argues that the totalism to be most wary of at present is built on Darwinism. Darwinism provides the new totalists with what they take to be a bridge between nature and technology and a way to translate between genetics and cybernetics. Lanier's warns of the horrors ahead when the computer becomes instrumental in human genetic engineering. pubtype: Periodical doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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