Paul.Treanor on Mon, 7 Oct 96 14:09 MET |
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nettime: MetaForum III: claims and ideology |
Ethical, political, and historical claims are made to legitimise or justify the Internet, cyberspace, and the information society. The introductory text for the MetaForum III event in Budapest is a good example of such claims. (The text is included at the end). MetaForum III claims.... 1. ...that the world undergoes a transition. This is a historicist claim - the aims or goals of a group are said to be an inevitable historical process, linear and singular. 2. ...that the construction of links is, in itself, this transition - or part of it. However, even if there is a transition, it does not logically follow, that every event is part of it. 3. ...that the political or social goals of the MetaForum organisers are development. The use of the word development to describe a political ideal is an implicit historicist claim. 4. ...implicitly, that the changes produced by this development legitimise it 5. ...that there is an information age, and therefore implicitly a pre-information age 6. ...implicitly, that history is unidirectional, moving in one direction, from a pre-information age to an information age 7. ...implicitly, that this is not reversible 8. ...that the construction of links is progress in technology 9. ...implicitly, that there is only one technology, which progresses as a unit 10. ...that there is only one society 11. ...implicitly, that this society should undergo transitions as a unit. At best these claims are just claims. At worst they are based on logical errors. Anyone can call anything a transition. That does not make it right, or desirable, or inevitable. Historicist claims a are form of argument, in practice a form of propaganda. They are often found in texts or declarations in favour of the Net, cyberspace, or the information society. The best way to consider them is to ask in each case: what is this person or group trying to achieve by this claim? A simple example can illustrate the basic errors in these historicist claims. Around 1820 Europe entered the age of the steam train, and an age of co-operation between stable monarchies. Now Hungary is a republic with electric trains. According to the logic of unidirectional historicism, Hungary is going back into the past. Even if there is an Internet, or an information society, it can be abolished or replaced. That is not necessarily impossible, or wrong. The historicist claim is that any attack on the Internet, cyberspace, or the information society will cause a return to the past, and is therefore wrong. It is easy to show this kind of logical error, with examples. However, this kind of example has very little effect. The claims made by the MetaForum organisers, are made to support their beliefs. It is psychologically very difficult, to change basic beliefs. It is interesting to compare MetaForum III with the recent EU-CEEC Prague Forum on the Information Society. This was a typical European Commission conference for government and business in Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). The participation fee was 1000 ECU. That is selective enough in Eastern Europe, but the organisers also reserved the right to select participants. In other words, the Prague Forum was a typical closed elite conference, in this case emphasising business-government partnership. Superficially, the MetaForum meeting is different. However, it is more accurate to say that the two events are complementary. MetaForum III and similar events are not in any way radical, or alternative, or critical. On the contrary, they are the places where the ideology of the information society is formulated. Without that ideology, and a political movement to enforce it, there would probably be no business opportunities to talk about - at least, not in this sector. ------------ The MetaForum introductory text: As the world undergoes a transition from an industrial base to one of information, the construction that links continents takes place invisibly, through satellites, the air waves, and telephone lines. Technology is the vehicle for this construction, information is the building block- this information is content. These developments have the potential to effect such profound changes in culture, commerce, and the Arts that have not been seen since the invention of the Guttenberg Press. For many, this rapid growth has changed the way that information is viewed, accessed, shared, and generated- a possible revolution in media. The title "Under Construction" refers to the common Internet experience of finding incomplete Web pages, signaling the constant growth of the World Wide Web, the most visible aspect of the Information Age. While progress in technology has gained a great deal of attention, questions surrounding content must be raised. How does technology alter the information it transmits; What can society learn from the media of the past; How is society affected by the ever increasing amounts of information it receives; How does an information society change the labor process; When does content become a commodity?...... Quoted from: http://WWW.iSYS.hu/metaforum/meta96.html -- * distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission * <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, * collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets * more info: majordomo@is.in-berlin.de and "info nettime" in the msg body * URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@is.in-berlin.de