The Judgement Of Thamus In Technopoly Summary
Commentary #1
An examination of Neil Postman's chapter "The Judgement of Thamus" in Technopoly - by David Wood
The main argument this book explores is not between humanists and scientists, but between technology and everybody else. Most people believe that technology is a friend. It is a friend that asks for trust and obedience, which most give because its gifts are bountiful. The dark side it that it creates a culture without moral foundation, undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living. Technology is both a friend and enemy. The book tries to explain when, how and why technology became a particularly dangerous enemy.
In the first chapter of Technopoly, author Neil Postman recounts the story from Plato’s Phaedrus of King Thamus of Upper Egypt. “For people such as ourselves,” Postman writes, “who are inclinded … to be tools of our tools, few legends are more instructive than his.” (Postman, 1992, p.3) The legend speaks of Thamus’ assessment and judgment of god Theuth’s many inventions that included numbers, calculation, geometry, astronomy, and writing. It is on the technology of writing that Postman picks up the story. The …show more content…
Beyond the introduction of new terms to describe new things, technology changes our definition of existing terms. As an example, both television and computers changes the definition of ‘information’ from that of books. Postman elaborates in suggesting that the terms, “news” and “political debate” have each been altered by television. (p. 8, 1993) The message of warning here is that the reshaping effects technology has on language occur often without any questioning as to why. Of course language is always changing and not always due to technology, however, taking into considering Postman’s views, if technology easily alters language what else is technology changing in
An examination of Neil Postman's chapter "The Judgement of Thamus" in Technopoly - by David Wood
The main argument this book explores is not between humanists and scientists, but between technology and everybody else. Most people believe that technology is a friend. It is a friend that asks for trust and obedience, which most give because its gifts are bountiful. The dark side it that it creates a culture without moral foundation, undermines certain mental processes and social relations that make human life worth living. Technology is both a friend and enemy. The book tries to explain when, how and why technology became a particularly dangerous enemy.
In the first chapter of Technopoly, author Neil Postman recounts the story from Plato’s Phaedrus of King Thamus of Upper Egypt. “For people such as ourselves,” Postman writes, “who are inclinded … to be tools of our tools, few legends are more instructive than his.” (Postman, 1992, p.3) The legend speaks of Thamus’ assessment and judgment of god Theuth’s many inventions that included numbers, calculation, geometry, astronomy, and writing. It is on the technology of writing that Postman picks up the story. The …show more content…
Beyond the introduction of new terms to describe new things, technology changes our definition of existing terms. As an example, both television and computers changes the definition of ‘information’ from that of books. Postman elaborates in suggesting that the terms, “news” and “political debate” have each been altered by television. (p. 8, 1993) The message of warning here is that the reshaping effects technology has on language occur often without any questioning as to why. Of course language is always changing and not always due to technology, however, taking into considering Postman’s views, if technology easily alters language what else is technology changing in