What is remarkable about information technology is both how pervasive it has become and how recent is its history. As Albert Borgmann reminds us, the contemporary use of the word information emerged only in the middle of the twentieth century. Prior to this information as a concept lived an obscure bookish life. With the rise of mechanistic and reductionist explanations of the function of the world as promulgated by physical, natural and social scientists, it became necessary to provide order to the world, to get "from atoms and molecules to patterns of landmarks that would order and guide our lives (Borgmann 1999, p. 10).
In the formal theories described by originators such as Claude Shannon, and later in the elaborate and elusive theories of thinkers such as Kantor (1977), the semantic and syntactic structures of energy and material flows were described as a kind of communication.
All information has a central structure: The relation of a sign, a thing and a person within a particular context. Information was that which lay at the base of all things, and an effective theory would account for how information flowed and how it could be used.
By the 1960s information became part of popular culture as something roughly synonymous with facts. With the rapid diffusion of digital computation, the basic digital bit became the building block of a new way of approaching reality: the age of information (Negroponte 1995). Proclamations were made about the radical changes that information would create for society, culture, economics, morality, and politics. It would seem that such warnings are coming true. We are moving through a time in which information is becoming common currency, literally and figuratively, abetted in large measure by the nearly pervasive use of microcomputers. Information is given exalted stature by our growing dependence on, and accessibility to, interconnected systems that provide information we want or need.
The basic issue is whether or not this shift to information technologies is having a salutary effect on society. Is the headlong rush to information technology bringing about enlightenment or allowing us to realize our potential? Are we better off with information technology? How can this be assessed?
Borgmann's monumental recent study of information and technology (1999) builds on his earlier theory of technology: the device paradigm. The device paradigm explains that technology is not really manifest in things-in-themselves, but in the distinctive patterns created by the interactions between people and devices. Devices are most appropriate when they are embedded in a rich social context that has sufficient strength to appropriate the device to socially-intended uses instead of device-driven uses.
Increasingly the context of use is eliminated or weakened such that the device is split into machinery and commodity (think of a stereo system where the machinery is the electronic equipment and the commodity is the recorded music; how does this differ from live performance?). The separation of commodity and machinery accords with a split between action and consequence. This means that we are becoming ever more disposed to see things disconnected from their means of production (think of how little we know about the sources of the food we buy at a grocery store!). The device paradigm deflects our attention from things that matter and this deflection corrodes community life, social interaction, and commitment to things enduring significance (how long is your next computer likely to last.....?).
Ursula Franklin (1999) agrees with Borgmann and presents a strong argument for investigating more carefully "the house that technology built." Neither Borgmann nor Franklin are hostile to technology. Both identify distinctive patterns that we ought to notice, and both suggest that we are sleep walking through technological change. It is important to maintain a critical vigilance over information technology and ask constantly whether it is fulfilling the aspects of our lives that are important.
One does not have to go far to find breathless proclamations about the revolutionary potential of information technologies: they will democratize politics, level the economic playing field, and expand our potential for freedom by providing all the information we need at our fingertips. Perhaps this is best summarized by advertisements that play on notions of freedom (a favourite genre are ads for sport-utility vehicles that promise an unbridled life merely at the cost of a vehicle; as the website for the new Nissan Xterra promises, "Now that you've got the wheels it's time to hit the road less traveled" http://www.xterra.com). We are bombarded by promises made for new products. What is less evident, much less so, are those who offer critical, not necessarily negative, observations.
There ought to be a balance, Borgmann argues, among natural, cultural and technological information. Natural information is described as "information about reality" and represents the ground state of information and reality. This informs us about the ancestral environment of the human family and pivots around the use of natural signs such as the clouds, slopes, rivers and embankments.
With the rise of literacy, our lives became mediated substantially by cultural information, what Borgmann describes as "information for reality." Cultural information is preceded by human culture and relies on conventional signs such as letters, texts, lines, graphs, notes and scores. An architectural drawing or a musical score are examples of this kind of information and that help to shape our reality in particular ways. The use of the "grid" or a "map" are examples of how particular cultural constructs have helped to frame our reality in certain spatial forms.
Contemporary information is predominantly technological information, or "information as reality. This information displaces natural and cultural information with a new form of computer mediated reality. Borgmann sees this displacement as a flood, where the rising waters of technology are submerging natural and cultural legacies. The heart of technological information lies in its ability to be digitized and then stored, copied, manipulated and transmitted at very high speeds. These characteristics provide the information with properties of permanence, perspicuity, and pliability, making phenomena such as virtual reality possible.
Virtual reality, a special and defining projection of technological information, comprises two opposing forces. First is the force that virtual reality exerts on the individual, or as Borgmann terms it, "vividness," and second, the force which the individual can exert on virtual reality, or "interactivity." By investigating virtual reality through these two opposing forces, we are better able to understand both its allure and corrosive properties. Virtual ambiguity occurs when there is significant divergence between virtual and actual realities. Such ambiguity threatens our hold on natural and cultural reality.
Borgmann wonders, then, whether technological information will nearly or entirely displace natural and cultural information, and this in turn will turn us away from given reality to created realities. Already this seems evident to us, although it is unclear what the long term effects will be. Certainly people are spending less time connecting deeply with natural things. Students are going of fewer field trips. There is less attention given to systematic studies of nature. Most of our information about nature comes from television or the internet. Outdoor recreational activities are increasingly technological. Witness the popularity of assault-style rock and mountain climbing; are such experiences really about engagement with the depth of natural things or the pursuit of a technologically or socially defined goal? Cultural information is slower to give way, but the rise of immersive computing environments is beginning to alter our perceptions of reality (Turkle 1995).
Franklin suggests that information technologies are reshaping our sense of space and time. The bitsphere is transcending the biosphere and we are losing grip on social conventions and habits of work and play that bring joy and contentment. She is very worried about the future and our capacity to make the information culture one that is socially just and ecologically sustainable.
For our background paper, Prof. Higgs decided to interview the famous Prof. Hoover.