WEBVTT 00:00:00.379 --> 00:00:06.880 ♪[Jazz music]♪ 00:00:06.880 --> 00:00:09.418 So yeah, being one of the first 00:00:09.418 --> 00:00:14.398 net culture or computers in society writers 00:00:14.398 --> 00:00:19.058 was, strategically, a poor move for me. 00:00:19.758 --> 00:00:22.175 And I'm living proof, though, you can still survive it, 00:00:22.175 --> 00:00:26.975 if you can get through it somehow, by answering e-mail more slowly 00:00:29.135 --> 00:00:29.971 It's funny, 00:00:30.421 --> 00:00:33.121 I wrote some notes because I thought I should be responsible, 00:00:33.121 --> 00:00:35.591 because you guys are real computer studies, 00:00:35.591 --> 00:00:38.436 computer science people, as opposed to just, 00:00:38.816 --> 00:00:39.856 you know, 00:00:39.856 --> 00:00:44.786 your average, digitally illiterate audience. 00:00:45.736 --> 00:00:50.060 So I don't really need to make the case - I probably don't - 00:00:50.060 --> 00:00:54.380 on why learning something about digital technology is a smart thing, 00:00:54.380 --> 00:00:57.331 because you guys have already made that choice. 00:00:58.911 --> 00:01:02.655 But something that occurred to me on the way here, actually, 00:01:02.655 --> 00:01:06.425 that you might not realize as young people 00:01:06.425 --> 00:01:08.984 if you don't mind being called that 00:01:10.804 --> 00:01:13.578 ...is that it's very hard to get 00:01:13.578 --> 00:01:19.458 an accurate sense of the biases of the digital media environment... 00:01:19.458 --> 00:01:23.096 ...when you've been raised inside it. 00:01:23.096 --> 00:01:28.693 In other words, what I want to suggest to you is that 00:01:28.693 --> 00:01:34.913 those of us who are old enough to have experienced and consciously experienced 00:01:34.913 --> 00:01:41.573 the shift from a pre-digital media environment to a digital media environment 00:01:41.573 --> 00:01:43.123 actually 00:01:43.663 --> 00:01:47.463 understand something or sense something or experience something 00:01:47.463 --> 00:01:50.730 about the biases of digital technology 00:01:50.730 --> 00:01:55.610 that is relatively difficult for those of you who have been raised 00:01:55.610 --> 00:01:58.499 with digital technology to get. 00:01:58.499 --> 00:02:02.188 Right now this is the opposite argument I made through most of my career. 00:02:02.188 --> 00:02:06.443 In 1995, I wrote a book called, Playing the Future, where I argued that, 00:02:06.443 --> 00:02:08.187 "Don't worry, you grown ups! 00:02:08.187 --> 00:02:10.707 Digital technology is coming and you feel overwhelmed. 00:02:10.707 --> 00:02:15.054 But you guys are digital immigrants whereas kids are digital natives. 00:02:15.054 --> 00:02:18.564 So you'll speak the language like an immigrant, they'll speak like a native. 00:02:18.564 --> 00:02:21.490 You're always going to feel slightly out of place and unsure, 00:02:21.490 --> 00:02:24.190 and every time you have a hypertext link, 00:02:24.190 --> 00:02:27.260 you're gonna be a disoriented because we're not used to that, 00:02:27.260 --> 00:02:29.512 whereas kids are going to experience that very naturally. 00:02:29.512 --> 00:02:33.156 That what looks disjointed to us, will be a natural terrain for them. 00:02:33.156 --> 00:02:37.056 And they will have command, don't worry, the kids are alright." 00:02:37.056 --> 00:02:42.422 But as I've grown older, and as I've watched where cyberspace has gone, 00:02:42.422 --> 00:02:45.492 and where our culture has gone, or hasn't, 00:02:46.162 --> 00:02:51.728 I realize that some of my elders were actually more right about this than I was. 00:02:51.728 --> 00:02:53.240 And in reading all the 00:02:53.240 --> 00:02:56.550 finally catching up with who I was supposed to read, 00:02:56.550 --> 00:03:01.021 when I was younger, McCluen and Ong, and all the great media theorists. 00:03:01.021 --> 00:03:05.069 I would read about the digital or the media environments, 00:03:05.069 --> 00:03:07.429 and this notion that McCluen had that, 00:03:07.429 --> 00:03:12.386 if you ask a fish about water he wouldn't be able to tell you what it is, right? 00:03:12.386 --> 00:03:17.977 Because the fish is swimming in the water. The fish not aware of the water. 00:03:17.977 --> 00:03:20.629 If you ask someone who is raised in a television environment, 00:03:20.629 --> 00:03:22.659 "Oh, what about the impact of television on you?" 00:03:22.659 --> 00:03:24.878 You can't say it because you're living in it. 00:03:24.878 --> 00:03:27.568 You're living in that media environment. 00:03:28.638 --> 00:03:31.716 Likewise, those of us who are living in a digital media environment, 00:03:31.716 --> 00:03:35.556 it's very difficult for us to parse its effect, 00:03:35.556 --> 00:03:38.675 for us to feel what it is 00:03:38.675 --> 00:03:42.276 for us to understand the difference between 00:03:43.406 --> 00:03:45.276 what it is to be a human being 00:03:45.276 --> 00:03:49.572 and what it is to be a digital being. 00:03:50.172 --> 00:03:50.895 And 00:03:53.085 --> 00:03:58.555 being able to parse it, though, being able to begin to look at that 00:03:58.555 --> 00:04:03.210 What Norbert Weinert used to call, 00:04:03.210 --> 00:04:04.510 "the human use of human beings." 00:04:04.510 --> 00:04:07.510 He was one of the first people to talk about cybernetics 00:04:07.510 --> 00:04:10.222 I think he invented the word, actually, back when, cybernetics. 00:04:10.222 --> 00:04:12.652 Even though it got stolen. 00:04:13.132 --> 00:04:17.423 He was really looking at as we develop a computer environment, 00:04:17.423 --> 00:04:19.113 how will we recognize the difference 00:04:19.113 --> 00:04:21.353 between humans and the machines that we're in? 00:04:21.353 --> 00:04:25.403 How will we understand how to create a human, 00:04:25.403 --> 00:04:29.403 or a humanity-encouraging, digital media environment? 00:04:31.394 --> 00:04:36.014 Now the reason why I think this is important is because most of my peers 00:04:36.014 --> 00:04:39.384 strongly disagree with this sentiment 00:04:39.384 --> 00:04:41.954 Most of my peers, and call them the sort of, 00:04:41.954 --> 00:04:44.964 the Negroponte, Kevin Kelley, 00:04:44.964 --> 00:04:48.324 Wired Magazine, Chris Anderson, 00:04:49.074 --> 00:04:54.758 all the way to Ray Kurzwhile on that spectrum, Clay Shirkey. 00:04:54.758 --> 00:04:59.138 There's this sense, and I used to have some of it, 00:05:03.338 --> 00:05:06.268 that is uncomfortably consonant with corporate capitalism. 00:05:06.268 --> 00:05:07.858 But that's another story. 00:04:59.138 --> 00:05:03.338 this sort of letter ripped sense about technology 00:05:07.858 --> 00:05:08.778 That 00:05:09.232 --> 00:05:12.472 human beings are merely one stage 00:05:12.472 --> 00:05:17.232 in information's inevitable evolution towards greater states of complexity. 00:05:17.454 --> 00:05:20.234 And they tell this very compelling story 00:05:20.234 --> 00:05:23.774 about the beginning of time all the way through now. 00:05:23.774 --> 00:05:28.174 That matter has been groping toward greater states of complexity. 00:05:28.174 --> 00:05:33.135 That we had atoms became molecules and molecules became 00:05:33.135 --> 00:05:37.205 sort of these weird pre-proto-life things which became cells 00:05:37.205 --> 00:05:40.295 and now we have this whole life thing that happened. 00:05:40.295 --> 00:05:41.995 And life got very complex through evolution 00:05:41.995 --> 00:05:43.305 and we had people 00:05:43.305 --> 00:05:45.105 And people built machines, 00:05:45.105 --> 00:05:50.335 and machines are just sort of in that big blue, overtake humanity moment. 00:05:50.547 --> 00:05:51.837 And when they do, 00:05:52.007 --> 00:05:56.539 then machines, our computers, our networks will be the real host 00:05:56.539 --> 00:05:59.009 for the evolution of information 00:05:59.009 --> 00:06:02.173 and we human beings can tend to those machines 00:06:02.173 --> 00:06:04.743 or, at best, upload our consciousness 00:06:04.743 --> 00:06:08.263 and then they will continue that journey for us. 00:06:09.108 --> 00:06:11.988 You know, and each one has a different metaphor for explaining it 00:06:11.988 --> 00:06:14.528 You know, whether it's Kevin talking about 00:06:14.528 --> 00:06:17.759 what technology wants, right? What technology wants, 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:19.869 like it really wants. 00:06:19.869 --> 00:06:22.728 It's not bias towards something, but it wants something, 00:06:22.728 --> 00:06:24.518 we've made this thing. 00:06:24.518 --> 00:06:27.628 Just as God made people, people made technology, 00:06:27.628 --> 00:06:30.978 and this child will go on wanting something. 00:06:32.117 --> 00:06:35.447 Or Ray Kurzwhile who will talk about the singularity, 00:06:35.447 --> 00:06:40.067 which I'm sure you've all read or heard about, even on, 00:06:40.262 --> 00:06:44.262 if you find out about it in Vice Magazine or anything, at this point 00:06:44.284 --> 00:06:47.204 The idea that technology reaches this point of, 00:06:48.023 --> 00:06:52.023 not self-consciousness or self-awareness necessarily, but it just surpasses us 00:06:52.023 --> 00:06:55.103 It becomes this thing and can keep going. 00:06:56.512 --> 00:06:58.202 It's a... 00:07:01.132 --> 00:07:05.192 for me it's a discomforting view of humanity 00:07:05.192 --> 00:07:08.672 but it's also, I would argue, an incorrect one, you know? 00:07:08.672 --> 00:07:11.672 It's one that is... 00:07:13.042 --> 00:07:18.642 it's one that is the result of living unconsciously in a digital media environment 00:07:19.226 --> 00:07:22.926 It's one where you let the digital media environment dictate 00:07:22.926 --> 00:07:24.736 what you are and how you think about the world 00:07:24.736 --> 00:07:27.876 rather than maintaining some sense of humanity in that. 00:07:27.876 --> 00:07:30.016 So, what's interesting to me 00:07:30.016 --> 00:07:33.916 as I look at the history of computing, which now we have 00:07:33.916 --> 00:07:37.306 and as we look at computers in society, which is a real thing. 00:07:37.306 --> 00:07:40.081 I mean, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, when we taught courses like this, 00:07:40.081 --> 00:07:41.541 it was futurism. 00:07:41.541 --> 00:07:43.531 Computers in Society was a course in, 00:07:43.531 --> 00:07:46.331 "What's it gonna be like someday when people have e-mail?" 00:07:46.331 --> 00:07:48.851 I mean, there were times, and I'm sure you were in those conversations 00:07:48.851 --> 00:07:52.149 when people like me used to go to a cocktail party 00:07:52.149 --> 00:07:55.179 or go to a publisher, or explain to a magazine editor. 00:07:55.179 --> 00:07:57.919 Someday people are going to have their own computers 00:07:57.919 --> 00:08:01.429 They are gonna send messages to eachother using little text editors 00:08:01.429 --> 00:08:03.449 using, you know, word processors, 00:08:03.449 --> 00:08:05.999 and they would literally laugh us out of the room. 00:08:05.999 --> 00:08:10.699 They did not, it seemed so outrageous, that - Or they'd walk around 00:08:10.892 --> 00:08:12.932 No, you're not gonna have to implant chips in people, 00:08:12.932 --> 00:08:15.932 they're gonna walk around with phones that are gonna track them everywhere they go 00:08:15.932 --> 00:08:17.492 they're gonna do this voluntarily 00:08:17.492 --> 00:08:20.492 They're gonna give all their information . No one believed us. 00:08:20.492 --> 00:08:22.252 But, of course that happened. 00:08:22.252 --> 00:08:25.637 But, the thing to me that's interesting about computer history, 00:08:25.637 --> 00:08:29.122 if we're gonna follow it from the history of humanity 00:08:29.122 --> 00:08:31.307 rather than the history of technology, right? 00:08:31.307 --> 00:08:36.302 Let's not worry about paper tape to punch cards to tape to discs 00:08:36.302 --> 00:08:39.132 to hard drives to RAM. 00:08:39.132 --> 00:08:41.322 Let's not worry about machine evolution. 00:08:41.322 --> 00:08:44.292 But you look at the difference in people, right? 00:08:44.292 --> 00:08:50.042 If we look at history as the human story rather than the story of stuff 00:08:51.079 --> 00:08:53.459 then the interesting thing becomes 00:08:53.459 --> 00:09:02.059 the big switch, I think, is the shift from a pre-literate to a literate society. 00:09:02.149 --> 00:09:05.129 When we look at the impact of the printing press. 00:09:05.160 --> 00:09:06.572 Do we talk about it in terms of 00:09:06.572 --> 00:09:10.082 "Oh, look! These rooms filled up with books!" 00:09:10.082 --> 00:09:12.102 No, that's not the part that's interesting. 00:09:12.102 --> 00:09:15.032 The part that is interesting is people learned to read 00:09:15.032 --> 00:09:16.882 and then when they learned to read, 00:09:16.882 --> 00:09:19.962 they had personal interpretations of the Bible, right? 00:09:19.962 --> 00:09:23.372 We had a Protestant Reformation with people rebelling against the Church 00:09:23.372 --> 00:09:25.192 We had the idea of "one man, one vote" 00:09:25.192 --> 00:09:26.972 because everyone has their own perspective. 00:09:26.972 --> 00:09:29.142 It coincided with prospective painting. 00:09:29.142 --> 00:09:31.442 It coincided with central banking. 00:09:31.442 --> 00:09:34.092 And all of these other, very... 00:09:35.272 --> 00:09:36.812 analogous 00:09:37.642 --> 00:09:41.712 human inventions that were all about people having individual perspectives, 00:09:41.712 --> 00:09:43.712 "one man, one vote" it led to the Enlightenment 00:09:43.712 --> 00:09:45.712 and all this other stuff consumerism, 00:09:45.712 --> 00:09:49.192 Industrial Era and everything else. 00:09:49.372 --> 00:09:52.922 When we look at digital technology I think we have to look at it that way. 00:09:52.922 --> 00:09:54.932 In other words, what is the difference between 00:09:54.932 --> 00:09:59.952 a pre-literate digital society and a post-literate digital society? 00:09:59.952 --> 00:10:03.722 You know, I'm over arguing for digital literacy. 00:10:03.722 --> 00:10:07.582 I think digital literacy is inevitable, you know? 00:10:07.582 --> 00:10:11.684 I feel like I'm making that - when I... it's my main talk that I do. 00:10:11.684 --> 00:10:13.254 It's like "Programmer be programmed!" 00:10:13.254 --> 00:10:15.094 And I wrote this book, Programmer Be Programmed. 00:10:15.094 --> 00:10:17.264 We have to learn to program. If you don't learn how to program, 00:10:17.264 --> 00:10:20.544 you're just swimming blindly in a sea of information. 00:10:20.544 --> 00:10:23.634 Kids don't understand the biases of the technologies they use. 00:10:23.634 --> 00:10:25.314 If you ask a kid what Facebook's for, 00:10:25.314 --> 00:10:27.574 he'll say Facebook's here to help him make friends. 00:10:27.574 --> 00:10:28.974 But we all know Facebook is really not here 00:10:28.974 --> 00:10:32.104 it's really here to monetize the social graft and all that.