Everything that makes America great, on steroids!

The most significant consequence of the information revolution involves the ease with which information can be shared. Like all good Americans I believe in the purity of the free market (to some extent). A free market in information shares one amazing quality with a free market in pricing- efficiency!
At any given time scholars all around the world are seeking answers to the same questions. As I type a blog pondering collaboration in information synthesis at 10pm in New York, someone is learning about it in a classroom on the other side of the world in their 10am class. The idea that they can instantaneously take advantage of my epiphany is the marvel that is facilitating technological advance faster than anytime in history. In an analogy the advantage of the United States has been to recruit diversity from around the world (e.g. Albert Einstein). Information collaboration achieves this same advantage exponentially. Essentially, information collaboration is everything that makes America great, on steroids.

My life changing experience due to globalization

In 2003 while earning my first degree I studied abroad at Stockholm University School of Business in Stockholm, Sweden. In the context of globalization or any other this was one of the most profound experiences of my life. It provided me a new outlook on America. It provided my an new outlook on being a black man. In the social democracy of Sweden I learned a radical new way of looking at social responsibilty and adopted a philosophy of social existentialism. As a journalist and business major I gained an understanding of the tax system and a mindset where people did not resent their taxes being used to support the less fortunate. I was there at when the people of Sweden voted overwhemingly not to adopt the Euro. During that period I had the opportunity to travel extensively across Europe (by rail) and found that most people even in countries with the Euro did not agree with Europe's movement away from social responsibility in an effort to compete with the United States.

I would have never received such an opportunity if not for globalization in tertiary education that facillitated me to earn credits in a foreign institution that would count toward graduation from Baruch, CUNY.

Revealing (or aletheiea)

Revealing (or aletheiea)

Revealing may be looked at as synonymous with truth, or more accurately a way of looking at the truth. Technology is a way of exposing truth in the world. With every technology we learn something new about the world. That means something new is revealed about the world. The way it is revealed determines what we will learn and how we will view the technology. Therefore, we should not look at technology as only gadgets, tools and toys. Instead technology reveals things about the natural world, human beings, and the interaction of human beings in the world. The importance of revealing has to do with how we view technology and the meaning we attach to technology. If we fixate on one way of looking at technology we will miss all of the wonderful things it might possibly reveal.

Man in the crosshairs of technology!

Passage VII P. 126
"Similar comparisons could be made with all the other historical forms of the ethics of contemporaneity and immediacy."

The above line which begins Section VII wraps up his critique of Kant and all other theories of developing ethics as fixed forms that focus on present populations. He then goes on to state that his formulation requires foresight and responsibility. First and foremost I definitely agree that ethical behavior requires foresight and responsibility. It is not enough to say 'I did not know'. The question is always 'should you have known?' This principle is encompassed in a legal doctrine most people have heard that colloquially states that 'ignorance is no defense.' Foresight requires us to actively consider the consequences of our actions and is part and parcel with responsibility. The people that do not end up in jail are those who learn this lesson. The scientists that do not end up jail should be those who learn the same. In a later section he also points out that in the absence of wisdom to act, ignorance is a reason to restrain action. This is a principle I believe in and why I am a critic of ‘reflexivity’.
The majority of Section VII is a provocative discourse in which he notes that “man himself has been added to the objects of technology[!]” By placing man in the crosshairs he may serve to convince a few others that there must be a limit. He notes “[s]omewhere along the line of increasing social manageability at the price of individual autonomy, the question of worthwhileness of the human enterprise must pose itself (128).”
While some of Jonas’ writing might be looked at as hyperbole and rhetoric, I found it hard hitting and interesting. I did not find it nearly as difficult as last weeks reading.