Comments on: Deep Reading and Responsible Communication (or, Wendy pulled a Stoopid) http://undergroundads.com/2008/07/11/deep-reading-and-responsible-communication-or-wendy-pulled-a-stoopid/ advertising, design & strategy for non-profits Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:06:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Steven Trull http://undergroundads.com/2008/07/11/deep-reading-and-responsible-communication-or-wendy-pulled-a-stoopid/#comment-2 Steven Trull Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:40:27 +0000 http://undergroundads.com/?p=15#comment-2 Paul Virilio has written that every technological innovation contains within it the potential for its own unique kind of accident. For example, when the airplane was invented, the airplane accident came into being. I don't believe that we have witnessed the kind of accident unique to the internet, or its widespread use. The tactics of distraction and the increase of speed of information have changed the ways that we read to a certain extent. However, distraction and speed have been with us for long time (e.g. in advertising, propaganda, war, etc.). The question I would ask is what harm will come to information, and the users of information, if information always constitutes a commodity? What are the effects of the commodification of information? For example, this screen on which I am writing is informing me that the word 'commodification' is not spelled correctly. In other words, the 'machine' is attempting to tell me that it 'knows' something about this word that I don't. That constitutes one of the dangers of the new technology, I suppose, one of its accidental properties. Especially, if we refuse to cultivate our curiosity and our capacity to question. Paul Virilio has written that every technological innovation contains within it the potential for its own unique kind of accident. For example, when the airplane was invented, the airplane accident came into being. I don’t believe that we have witnessed the kind of accident unique to the internet, or its widespread use. The tactics of distraction and the increase of speed of information have changed the ways that we read to a certain extent. However, distraction and speed have been with us for long time (e.g. in advertising, propaganda, war, etc.).

The question I would ask is what harm will come to information, and the users of information, if information always constitutes a commodity? What are the effects of the commodification of information? For example, this screen on which I am writing is informing me that the word ‘commodification’ is not spelled correctly. In other words, the ‘machine’ is attempting to tell me that it ‘knows’ something about this word that I don’t. That constitutes one of the dangers of the new technology, I suppose, one of its accidental properties. Especially, if we refuse to cultivate our curiosity and our capacity to question.

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