Comment 31397

By Yakety Fax (anonymous) | Posted May 29, 2009 at 16:30:17

Yes, but so, what?

Human existence, civilization, everything we consider culture is all about communication. Civlization begins with stories told around the campfires, advances with drawings on the cave walls and as accompanied by the beat of a stick on a stretched animal skin and/or a plucked or bowed string, is documented on more elaborate artwork on tomb walls, clay tablets, scrolls hidden away in desert caves. What were they trying to tell each other, and us?

The industrial revolution begins with the invention of moveable type. It is not an accident that industry so thoroughly focused around the automobile and its assorted accessories, such as homes in the suburbs. Transportation is a slower, more direct and expensive form of communication. And it's no accident that the industrial age has given way to the information age. This is what we do. This is what it means to be human. Art, education, money: they are all communication.

Yes, different forms of communication each have their advantages and problems. It is good to understand the strengths and weaknesses of various media to participate in human life. We suffer an embarrassment of riches and are spoiled by that, but this is not the end of civilization. Just the opposite. Twitter isn't travel or face-time but it may be a good way to arrange a bed and a hot meal when you get where you're going.

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