Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 37, No. 450.
        Department of Digital Humanities, University of Cologne
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        Date: 2024-02-15 09:55:24+00:00
        From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty@mccarty.org.uk>
        Subject: a new heaven and a new earth?

For those here who may be interested in the proposition that
digital technologies have improved things without qualification 
might want to consider Rebeca Solnit's "In the Shadow of Silicon Valley", 
London Review of Books 46.3 (8 February). A warning for those who 
at one time or another left their hearts in San Francisco: sadness awaits
if not sharper emotions. Solnit dilates much further than the fate of
that beautiful city (second only in my mind to Sydney) to the doings of
those who have made their billions from the Valley and failed to temper 
if not simply let loose deleterious social effects of social media. 

In a forthcoming article in the next issue of Interdisciplinary Science
Reviews, Cambridge philosopher Nicholas Jardine asks, “How far does our
self-fulfilment through acquisition of pure knowledge license our
setting aside or downplaying of personal, civil and educational
responsibilities?” Those of us who retreat from the dangerous playground 
of the bad boys and girls (as I have always tried to do) can't really do so in
good conscience, it seems.

Comments?

Yours,
WM
--
Willard McCarty,
Professor emeritus, King's College London;
Editor, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews;  Humanist
www.mccarty.org.uk


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