Re: [microsound] Relevance returns?

[Owen Green <owen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jason,

As Kevin said, our actions and objects can't practically be separated 
from their context or consequences. For example, no-one now would argue 
that car use is neutral - in fact, regardless of /why/ one's using it 
it always has a negative consequence, particularly if you're unlucky 
enough to live near a major road.  There's no way of using a car as a 
mode of transport that gets around this - it's designed in.

Design decisions impose a limited range of possible actions with a 
device, and as those limits reflect choice they are value laden. The 
range of manoeuvre, limited though it may be, by and large goes beyond 
the device's intended function, so it is possible to subvert them.

Determinism isn't in the belief of a /possibility/ of progress, it's in 
the belief of the certainty of progress, and hence that any 
technological change must represent this progress; if you agree that 
this isn't the case, then it follows that technological design is value 
laden.

--
Owen


Jason Hollis wrote:
> I feel all of what you're saying, and appreciate greatly that someone 
> managed to work some _civility and relevance_ back into the thread.
>
> But I still fail to see how 'a tool is a tool' is anything but a purely 
> experimental expression -
> If you have an (x) and it suits your purposes, use it how you see fit, 
> hopefully to the benefit of all.
>
> We don't have the biggest claws or teeth or armor plating..
> We are tool using primates that use our minds and our technology to 
> survive and thrive, be it bone flutes or supercomputers.
> Just how it is.
>
> And whether it be good or bad is all in the choices we make with what we 
> have.
> If that's determinism, believing in the possibility of progress... 
> Determinism it is, I guess.



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