Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 17:56:48 -0500
To: technology-AT-world.std.com
From: kirez-AT-cornell.edu (kirez korgan)
Subject: Re: This list


Hello everyone.  I've just finished finals and am beginning a short
vacation, which means I can jump into some good books - and finally start
posting to this list.

Malgosia writes:
>technology touch almost everybody.  My vision of this list is that
>it should permit all of its participants to become aware of, and avail
>themselves, of existing intellectual tools with which to probe into 
>these issues, and allow them to productively think about and discuss 
>technology as it affects all of our lives.

I strongly agree - allow people to avail themselves of a wide variety of
intellectual tools with which to understand technology and assess its value
to ourselves as indiviudals and as a society.  

>However, I am now having doubts about this approach.  For example,
>I perceive myself as forcing Steven Meinking into a level of
>explanation which, although of interest to me, may be of no interest 
>or benefit to him.  It is definitely not my intention to put Steven,
>or anybody else, in a position where their time is taken up by
>catering to my idiosyncratic vision of this list. 

Sorry Malgosia, but this is the nature of the list.  I think you're a fine
moderator and your posts represent a strong component of our society's
regard for technology, and a philosophical position which is playing an
increasingly powerful role - one which I think everyone should understand. 
We all have different backgrounds, some better and some worse.  But we're
all here voluntarily and, I think, happily, and if we want to communicate
we'll take the effort to bridge the gaps, and do it cheerfully, for I think
much of our enjoyment of this communication is in bridging the gaps between
each other's views.

If I get involved in this list, I will present a view which I believe is
alien, and diametrically opposed to most of what I've read so far, both on
the list and in the philosophy and history of science/technology.  I hope
you all can handle some true diversity.  

My background is in philosophy, and my approach to technology is that of a
philosopher's.  I started studying philosophy when I was 14 and started
studying it exclusively  and full-time when I was 15.  My early background
was in Plato, Marx, Hegel and Nietzsche.  Now I am a lover of Aristotle,
and I have transferred to studying computer science and electrical
engineering.   A difficult transition.    My focus is robotics, but I also
do laboratory research in materials science.
        Still philosophy is my first love.  But I can't emphasize enough
how much I love technology.  See my signature - I mean it.  The future has
the potential to be a wonderful, exciting place, because of science.

I'm stating my position straightforward and from the beginning.  As long as
I'm on this list I will try to show why technology is the essentially human
practice, that it cannot be judged good or evil in itself, but that as an
activity and a social phenomenon we should embrace it and love it and
become more human, more healthy and happy and successful as humans, through
technology.   And most critically, that individuals should be left free to
enjoy technology for themselves if they believe it will benefit them, and
free to disregard technology and live without it if they don't - I believe
that both are possible, if we're careful and intelligent in our treatment
of each other.  In the future I will try to demonstrate why these beliefs
are sound; I'm not arguing for them yet!

My position is not at all the status-quo.  I take a much more theoretical
approach to technology, with an explicit standard of value and very basic
intellectual tools for understanding the human-technology interaction.

>In other words, what kind of a list would you like this to be, and
>what kind of moderator does it call for? 
>- malgosia 

I would like this to be a list on which people struggle to be objective and
rigorous in their arguments and evaluations, and eager to benefit from the
meeting of minds and ideas which this list enables.  Aren't we all hear
because we believe we will benefit from the experience?
And Malgosia is doing a great job - I appreciate your work and hope that
you will happily remain our moderator.



___________________________________________
"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data."
                                                - Sherlock Holmes

Kirez Korgan, hardcore technophile
kirez-AT-cornell.edu