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HTS 2084 > Outline 1.1 > Flashcards

Outline 1.1 Flashcards

1
Q

Niel Postman, author of The Judgment of Thamus, was the former chair of communication arts and sciences at what school?

A

NYU

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2
Q

What was Neil Postman’s position at NYU?

A

Former Chair of Communication Arts and Sciences

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3
Q

Neil postman was influenced by what two Canadian media scholars

A

Harold Innis and Marshall McLuhan

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4
Q

What is the title of Postman’s book

A

Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology

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5
Q

Describe Postman in one sentence

A

Postman is a technological skeptic who challenges the unquestioning embrace of technological process

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6
Q

Technology is a branch of ______, not science

A

Moral philosophy

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7
Q 
Greek philosopher (428-347 BCE)
Laid the foundations of western philosophy and science
A

Plato

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8
Q

Why does Postman begin his book with plato? (2)

A

Moral and philosophical authority

Role in education (founded the academy of Athens, the worlds first institution of higher education)

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9
Q

Does Plato himself ever speak directly in his own work?

A

No, he does so through the mouth of his teacher Socrates

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10
Q

Why do Plato (and postman) begin with writing?

A

Writing is foundational to western culture

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11
Q

Earliest writing systems were based on these

A

Logograms

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12
Q

What’s a logogram?

A

Written characters that represented a word or phrase

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13
Q

Two examples of logograms

A

Sumerian cuneiform script

Egyptian hieroglyphs

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14
Q

When we’re the earliest coherent texts?

A

ca. 2600 BC

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15
Q

When was the Phoenician alphabet

A

13th c BCE

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16
Q

What did the Greek alphabet add?

A

Vowels

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17
Q

What did the Phoenician alphabet add?

A

Phonetic principle

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18
Q

Plato’s writing paradox

A

Plato critiqued writing, but recorded Socrates and his own ideas through it for posterity

19
Q

Communication societal transformations (2)

A

Oral to written

Written to digital

20
Q

God of invention

A

Theuth (Thoth)

21
Q

Theuth was the god of

A

Invention

22
Q

Thamus was the king of

A

A great city in upper Egypt

23
Q

He was the king of a great city in upper Egypt

A

Thamus

24
Q

Legend of Thamus Narrative (3 points)

A

Theuth invented many things, including numbers, calculation and geometry, and writing;

he showed them to Thamus, making them available to his people

Thamus resisted Theuth’s offer because he was convinced that the drawbacks of the technology of writing would outweigh its merits

25
Q

Four principles of technological change

A
  1. New technologies change semantics
  2. New technologies alter power relations
  3. New technologies are ideological
  4. New technologies are profoundly disruptive, even violent
26
Q

Explain how new technologies change semantics

A

They change the meanings of words because they alter how we perceive the world

27
Q

Example of how new technologies change semantics

A

Social media changes “friends” and “likes”

Freedom, truth, wisdom, history, political debate, news, information, etc

28
Q

Explain how new technologies alter power relations

A

They create new elites, new “knowledge monopolies,” and thus winners and losers

29
Q

Examples of how new technologies alter power relations

A

Pc revolution, Ecommerce, social media, big tech (Silicon Valley today)

30
Q

Explain how new technologies are ideological (3)

A

They alter what counts as knowledge and truth
They affect ways of perceiving and knowing the world
They change our everyday worldview, or what we consider ordinary and reasonable

31
Q

Example of how new technologies are ideological and affect ways of perceiving and knowing the world (2)

A

Grading system, mathematical concept of reality

32
Q

Example of how new technologies are ideological and change our everyday worldview, or what we consider ordinary and reasonable

A

Mechanical clocks changed our sense of time

33
Q

Explains how new technologies are profoundly disruptive, even violent

A

New technologies compete with old ones and result in battle of worldviews

34
Q

Example of how new technologies are profoundly disruptive, even violent

A

Printed word vs tv in schools vs computer/smartphone - three overlapping epistemologies in classroom (oral, printed, digital)

35
Q

Is technological change biased?

A

Yes, but not necessarily in any one direction

36
Q

Major technologies being about “______” change

A

Ecological

New environment

37
Q

Does a new technology add or subtract?

A

A new technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.

38
Q

Postman appears to have what type of approach to technology?

A

Oppositional

39
Q

Postman does not tell us much about how technological change occurs. As a result, his account comes across as __________

A

Deterministic

40
Q

2 reasons why technological change is not deterministic (Peter dicken)

A
  1. Technologies are social products, or social constructions

2. Technologies are “enabling or facilitating agents”

41
Q

Explain why technologies are social products, or social constructions (2)

A

They are “conditioned by their social and economic context”

Today, that means they are largely driven by the values and incentives of a capitalist economic system

42
Q

Explain why technologies are “enabling or facilitating agents” (2)

A

Technologies do not force or determine, but rather shape outcomes
Technologies make particular outcomes possible, but not inevitable

43
Q

Postman focused exclusively on radical types of technological change, or

A

Changes in technology systems

General purpose technologies - GPTs

HTS 2084 (9 decks)

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