[Air-l] Re: Air-l-aoir.org Digest, Vol 4, Issue 20

[Ellis Godard]

J.J. asked:
> >The content of interactions has certainly changed in some
> regards. For
> >example, the proportion of content which is reflexive (about the
> >content and the interactions themselves) has increased. And 
> reflexive
> >content is distributed unevenly not only through time, but across
> >different situations and relationships.
> 
> Before I answer the first question, could you please define
> "reflexive content?"

Content about itself. Ideas about ideas. Interactions about interactions.

> I still believe that the content of our discussions maybe
> different but only to the extent that's allowed by the new 
> medium (the 
> technology part) and what we bring to the discussion from the 
> outside world.

Ah, there's the rub: What does the new medium bring, and what does it
attract from the "outside world"?
 
> >I'm curious what you mean by the Internet providing answers to
> >questions. Whatever changes the Internet represents, presents, and 
> >effects may contribute to answer-finding (and question asking) in 
> >indirect and even abstract ways.
> 
> I think I hold a pessimistic view here, ... Even though we
> have this 
> magnificent capability to connect, we don't connect to seek 
> answers like: 
> why we hate, or where Islamic extremists come from.

I'm not sure why cyberspace would change this. But the idea that it could,
and your raising the question of why it doesn't, could produce (or even
constitute) social change of some (minor) magnitude.

...
> Technology and connectivity do not bring us equity, social justice,
> fairness, or whatever else that we think we all deserve.

Possibly not.

> I
> don't think that technology has made us into better human beings at
> all.

I don't think I know what "better human beings" would mean. But that's a
normative question, and I'm interested in empirical matters.

-eg