We're on our way to progressing from Plato's "Writing things down is for losers who can't remember stuff" to the modern "Why should I write anything down if I can just use my voice to mumble a semi-coherent command to a chatbot who'll do the research and the draft for me?"
I suppose Plato also told you that the whole memorization thing was something his mentor Socrates taught him....
I can't get the thought of oral memorization out of my mind without thinking about the people who memorized the collected works of certain authors in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" so that they would not be forgotten in that dystopian society. A fate we need to avoid.
Hey you practiced that closing line on me in a comment! The pessimists archive has lots of good stories of advances that were poo poo-ed as Plato did writing. I think they had one recently about how the newspaper was going to ruin us with everyone reading them on the subway. Another one I recall was cameras were going to kill art.
It's funny how right and wrong those proclamations were, you know? I mean, we did kill off lots of people doing fine art, but mainly because now there's a better way to reach the same objective. Now, you aren't forced into fine art if you want to create, say, a sketch of an alleged criminal, EG.
In ways, the camera does kill art. The advance of a new form of media ossifies the older forms. As that sets in, the power (maybe demand is a better term) of the older form is diminished. We went from crude portraits, to highly skilled portrait artists then comes along the camera and this art form is now mechanic and automatic. Who is commissioning painting portraits in 2025 despite TikTok/Insta suggesting we are as enthralled with our own image as ever.
If we don’t like the direction, we can argue for no change like the pessimist always seem to do or we can provide a compelling change in a new direction.
I kinda drew the same conclusion vis a vis "killing art." it's much more complex than most people want it to be (of course anyone named Andrew gets it; that's why we are here).
We're on our way to progressing from Plato's "Writing things down is for losers who can't remember stuff" to the modern "Why should I write anything down if I can just use my voice to mumble a semi-coherent command to a chatbot who'll do the research and the draft for me?"
I kid, but only slightly.
If WWIII happens, we'll be full circle with sticks and stones too!
I suppose Plato also told you that the whole memorization thing was something his mentor Socrates taught him....
I can't get the thought of oral memorization out of my mind without thinking about the people who memorized the collected works of certain authors in Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" so that they would not be forgotten in that dystopian society. A fate we need to avoid.
Feels close.
Hey you practiced that closing line on me in a comment! The pessimists archive has lots of good stories of advances that were poo poo-ed as Plato did writing. I think they had one recently about how the newspaper was going to ruin us with everyone reading them on the subway. Another one I recall was cameras were going to kill art.
It's funny how right and wrong those proclamations were, you know? I mean, we did kill off lots of people doing fine art, but mainly because now there's a better way to reach the same objective. Now, you aren't forced into fine art if you want to create, say, a sketch of an alleged criminal, EG.
We suck at predicting the future https://open.substack.com/pub/pessimistsarchive/p/why-steve-wozniak-dismissed-pcs-and
Ever see the IBM/Watson predictions from like the 50s? Something about seeing a future where there could be as many as five computers one day
Yeah I have seen that. Spot on Watson, spot on
Oh yeah! You commented on the "Predictions are Hard" piece I did, and we invented the band name Punk & Poor
In ways, the camera does kill art. The advance of a new form of media ossifies the older forms. As that sets in, the power (maybe demand is a better term) of the older form is diminished. We went from crude portraits, to highly skilled portrait artists then comes along the camera and this art form is now mechanic and automatic. Who is commissioning painting portraits in 2025 despite TikTok/Insta suggesting we are as enthralled with our own image as ever.
If we don’t like the direction, we can argue for no change like the pessimist always seem to do or we can provide a compelling change in a new direction.
I kinda drew the same conclusion vis a vis "killing art." it's much more complex than most people want it to be (of course anyone named Andrew gets it; that's why we are here).
I saw that! More complex and simplifier at the same time.