Re: [xmca] Don C about the "epic" googlization film - a bit of mca history

From: Mike Cole <lchcmike who-is-at gmail.com>
Date: Thu Jun 28 2007 - 07:31:18 PDT

Steve-- I believe the Googlezon film is a useful tool for thinking about the
issue of changes in agency
and ontology associated with massive parallel computing systems that are the
media for our knowledge
of thought and the world. It also overlaps the theme of data mining for
inter-cultural business advertising
and decision making Naeem introduced. Sure, there is a lot of hype, which
includes the hype over how
flat the world is, but Friedman is pointing at a real phenomenon, or part of
one.

Michael. I am all for organizing activity that leads to expansive learning.
But, again, going to the opposite
extreme and saying that deep knowledge and skill in a domain is simply a
mode of hierarchy/power creation
is, in my view, not helpful. Two really friendly and cooperative peers who
have no experience gardening (to pick
a domain where I readily concede my dufferhood, yet try to contribute as
best I can, while not hesitating to
stop in at my garden store to figure out why and how I killed two fig trees
in two years) might starve because
they cannot expand quickly enough. By the same token. western experts who
went into Liberia to "teach the
farmers" how to grow rice more efficiently were, for the reasons that bother
Michael and Louise. responsible
for widespread misery, starvation, displacement of people from the land,
etc. I am not valorizing expertise
unconditionally. I do value highly taking advantage of the enormous
heterogeneity of knowledge in a very
heterogeneous and uncertain world. I still do not want my grand daughter
piloting the next plane I ride in,
even if her best friend is co pilot.
mike

Mi

On 6/28/07, Wolff-Michael Roth <mroth@uvic.ca> wrote:
>
> Hi Mike,
> perhaps we have to rethink the "more knowledgeable partner" and think
> zpd as Yrjö suggested as a change in the activity system that leads
> to expansive learning, and this may happen also in the case were
> equally knowledgeable partners get together, or if a new tool is
> introduced, different forms of division of labor are evolved, etc.
>
> Michael
>
>
>
> On 27-Jun-07, at 7:41 PM, Mike Cole wrote:
>
> No one picked up on this and I should probably just drop it but the
>
> continued discussion on ZOPED prompts me to ask, could a computer
>
> algorithm be a "more knowledgeable" partner? Adaptive testing is another
>
> example of an artificial intelligence that tries to move people into a
>
> zone of maximum response. If the vision in EPIC 2015 were actualized,
>
> might not the algorithm be a sensei, showing us the way forward? I
>
> understand that the notion of _forward_ is problematic, but is that not
>
> also true of a human sensei......or any teacher? And why should the goal
>
> in a zoped be the ability to act independently? Most of the things in my
>
> life that have expanded my capabilities are things I have come to rely
>
> on and are now a part of me. I can't imagine how I ever wrote anything
>
> of value when I wrote in long hand, had a poor (now nearly blind thanks
>
> to me) secretary type it up, correct, edit, repeat, and so forth. Here I
>
> link with Donna's contribution where she mentions natural born cyborgs.
>
> Can anyone doubt that within my lifetime (and I'm OLD) that things like
>
> MP3's and cell phones will be available as surgical implants?
>
>
>
> Mind you, this all scares the beejeezes out of me..........djc
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Received on Thu Jun 28 07:32 PDT 2007

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