[FRIAM] Collapse of the Information Ecosystem/Noosphere

Tue Nov 19 16:57:16 EST 2019

Media Ecology is a 30-40+ year old concept/discipline.  High-profile
researchers are

   - Neil Postman:
   https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=neil+postman+media+ecology&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart

   - Walter Ong:
   http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.625.5142
   - James Cary:
   http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.625.5142
   - Of course, to a slightly different vector and early to the game,
   Marshall McLuhan:
   https://www.google.com/search?=marshall+mcluhan&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS807US807&oq=marshal+mc&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.5518j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
   <https://www.google.com/search?q=marshall+mcluhan&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS807US807&oq=marshal+mc&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l5.5518j1j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8>

Tom
============================================
Tom Johnson - tom at jtjohnson.com
Institute for Analytic Journalism   --     Santa Fe, NM USA
505.577.6482(c)                                    505.473.9646(h)
*NM Foundation for Open Government* <http://nmfog.org>
*Check out It's The People's Data
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Its-The-Peoples-Data/1599854626919671>*

============================================

On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 2:02 PM Steven A Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> Glen -
>
> I chose not to respond specifically to the link/point you offered in my
> last response because I felt this was a (useful) tangent and wanted to
> address it more directly.
>
> I do appreciate the analogy drawn between our physical ecosystem and
> what the author calls the Information ecosystem and that this threat may
> well be existential.   I also believe that such a collapse as is
> suggested might be much more imminent than *other* existential threats.
> I'm tempted to distinguish this "information ecosystem" from de
> Chardin/Vernadsky's "Noosphere".
>
> It feels to be, by analogy, somewhat like the difference between talking
> about the collapse of the biosphere *strictly* in terms of the
> geochemical basis of it...  while CO2 Absorption/acidity of the ocean is
> the *basis* for the collapse of pterapod/shellfish/coral/etc.
> populations/health and average temperatures, humidity levels and weather
> patterns are the direct result of our heightened greenhouse gas
> emissions, it may well be the collapse of the flora and fauna that
> collapse in response which defines the sharpest end of the consequences
> (to humans?).
>
> I wonder if perhaps the real crisis of our unhealthy/collapsing
> information ecology is not *just* in the way information is generated,
> flows, etc.  but more acutely what might be doing to the individual and
> collective "spirits" of humanity and a subsequent "collapse of
> culture".   It feels as if some involved in what has been referred to as
> "the culture wars" may well be trying to engineer (or trigger tipping
> points) such a collapse.
>
> If we contemplate the
> noosphere/anfosphere/anthrosphere/biosphere/geosphere as a complex
> adaptive system, then it is not surprising that there have been (and
> will continue to be) patterns of "punctuated equilibrium".   The
> (imminent?) information ecosystem collapse described in this article may
> well be in some sense inevitable but my own illusions around individual
> (and by extension, collective) free will suggests that such a thing
> might be avoidable.
>
> This Guardian Article reads *almost* like an infomercial for their own
> product, however.   My week in Austin included a visit with Mary's son
> and D-in-Law.  He works for the Texas State legislature editing bills
> but has degrees in journalism and education, both fields he seems to
> believe he came to too late to be able to participate in righteously.
> His wife is an archivist for the Presbyterian University there (she is
> not Presbyterian) and so has her *own* take on meaning, reality, and the
> value of recording and archiving words both written and oral, formal and
> informal for future reference.   She is less pessimistic, but both
> (early 40s) share a strong cynicism about the state of
> information/truth/coherent-culture.
>
> - Steve
>
> On 11/19/19 9:24 AM, glen∈ℂ wrote:
> > To contribute to my spam score, I'll try again to suss out what is
> > meant by owning the means of production. Here it is again:
> >
> > The collapse of the information ecosystem poses profound risks for
> > humanity
> >
> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/19/the-collapse-of-the-information-ecosystem-poses-profound-risks-for-humanity
> >
> >
> >> William Randolph Hearst owned the means of production and was free to
> >> publish made up stories to sell papers and stoke the Spanish-American
> >> war. Today, everyone is free to be their own propagandist.
> >
> > Is this a proper use of the concept of "ownership of the means of
> > production"? I know I'm simple-minded. But while it's clear to me what
> > it means to own, say, a screwdriver, it's not at all clear to me what
> > it means to *own* the process/tools by which one produces propaganda.
> > It reminds me of being "owned" (or "pwned") in some trashtalk context
> > like before a boxing match or an argument on 4chan. It's a stretched,
> > poetically licensed, sense of ownership and actually means domination
> > or humiliation, not at all like owning a hammer or printing press.
> >
> > But this concept of pwning does seem closer to the sense I was getting
> > from both Marcus' and Steve's explanations, that seemed to target
> > exploitation, asymmetric power, or some sort of inappropriate hoarding
> > or market monopoly. If so, I would maintain my skepticism that using
> > the words "ownership" and "production" is *conflating* things that
> > could be better analyzed in another way. I just don't know what way
> > that is.
> >
> > But thanks to y'all for changing my mind. The phrase no longer
> > irritates me now that I have a sense that those using it are simply
> > trying to describe something they are ill-equipped to describe.
> >
> >
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>
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