Allow me to record two things that happened in my life this week that revolve around the questions posed in the title of this post:
Event 1: I was walking through Barnes and Noble the other day and overheard a couple of college-aged guys talking about the universe. I only heard about 15 seconds of the conversation, but that 15 seconds said quite a lot:
‘The universe is like a computer program, if you think about it,’ said one guy. ‘Everything is kinda programmed to be the way it is.’
They kept walking, and I was left to my own brooding (and a sigh and a facepalm!).
Event 2: I am talking to a college student about his summer Literature class on a regular basis. He tells me he’s using Spark Notes. I detest Spark Notes. I tell him that Spark Notes are not only bad tools for learning, but that they give the wrong impression of literature in general. This leads to a discussion of how technology and our methods of learning inform the way that we look at the world.
‘If technology informs the way we look at the world, then what does the world look like to someone who is constantly on an iPhone?’ I ask. ‘Maybe a picture? Maybe a network? Maybe, at best, a conversation?’ Maybe a gadget?’
‘Now,’ I say, ‘what is the world to someone who is a lover of literature?’ He responds: ‘I don’t know?’ ‘Okay,’ I say, ‘If a computer aficionado sees the world as a computer program, what does a book aficionado see the world as?’
His answer? – ‘Information.’ Information!
‘Wrong,’ I say, ‘Not information – it’s a story. Life is a story! You’ve proven my whole point. I’m trying to tell you that Spark Notes makes you think that books are only means of obtaining information! You think that books are like antique versions of Google! No wonder you don’t like them!’
I haven’t stopped him from using Spark Notes, but I’m trying.
That all leads to this. I read an interesting post on Mars Hill Audio’s blog yesterday pointing to an article by Stephen Talbott on the fallacy of seeing the world in mechanistic terms. He certainly says it better than I can. So let me encourage you to check it out HERE. He really gives a compelling argument against the viewpoint I described in Event 1. The world is not like a computer program.
Reblogged this on CoffeeCultureArt.
Yeesh. That is all very yucky.
I often like to point out to people that we cannot know each other by simply abstracting. I like to challenge that you would (hopefully) never dream of dating a girl that way. You wouldn’t sit down for dinner and say “let’s cut to the chase here, no stories, no life experience. Let me summarize for you (in Spark Notes tradition) everything you need to know about me: I’m smart, funny, creative, and sensitive. Now that you have the overview data- are you interested in marriage or not?” With any luck, she would slap you and leave….
That’s a great analogy! I may try to use that the next time I talk to him.