Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The end of the end: The FINAL PAPER

The Final Paper.
Can you believe it? We finally got to the end. Oh, but remember—it’s never really the end because it’s all about the process. And the process never ends. =]

Because we are on the brink of the digital knowledge revolution, I was interested in the transition between each of these types of knowledge. This idea in combination with the discussions we had today in class prompted me to write this subsequent essay. Enjoy.

       Knowledge from antiquity to modern times has been a slave to the institutions and mediums of each era. As folk knowledge, oral knowledge, written knowledge, print knowledge, and now digital knowledge have revolutionized the development and dissemination of information, there have been dynamic changes altering the very fabric of society.  Although each new medium of knowledge brings unalterable change, societies never truly abandon past mediums of knowledge because of their necessity and utility.

       New mediums of knowledge did enact great changes upon societies. As seen with religion, written scripture profoundly changed the way religion was practiced. Then when print was available, the dissemination of the Bible again altered institutions of religion. However, these innovations did not eliminate the need for elements of previous mediums.
      Even though modern societies are not strictly oral like their predecessors of old, there are many remnants of oral cultures found after the transition to pre-dominantly written societies. Religion remained a very important institution, and so in the oral culture, various ceremonies and rituals played a prominent role. Once written languages developed and after the initial skepticism of the medium passed, many religions caused sacred text to be recorded, creating a consistent and canonized scripture. This added a new dimension to religious observance, but the rituals and oral ceremonies remained. As seen in Rachel Olson’s blog post about the fear of writing for the Brahmins of ancient India, the Vedas were written down, but the ceremonies remained to be a prominent part of the culture. These rituals were maintained out of necessity because they could not be written down, and so written knowledge could not replace the experience of the oral tradition.
       The print revolution, started by Gutenberg with the printing press, again seriously altered the way information was understood and circulated, but remnants from written culture survived. At first, printed books still had illuminations and rubrications like the written manuscripts before. Even when this went away, the art of written knowledge never did. In the book Reinventing Knowledge, the chapter entitled “The Republic of Letters” explains the history of writing letters before, during, and after the printing revolution took place. Although the printing press was crucial to the wide dissemination of knowledge, it was not suited to the personal, private use like the medium of writing before it. There was still a necessity for writing, and so it continued to be an integral part of society.
       Even today, as the digital revolution is again changing the way people digest and receive knowledge, the need for print has not been completely done away with. The invention of eBooks on such devices as Kindles or Nooks has caused a revolution in the way people can read books, but printed books allow for the ability to scan and browse a book in the way that a digital eBook cannot. This utility can never be  replaced by digital versions, and so there will always be a need for printed books, bookstores, and libraries.
       With each new revolution in the way people experience information and knowledge, society adapts and adopts these new methods. The useful and irreplaceable components of each medium remain while the new medium only helps to improve and build upon the foundations of past mediums. These new methods may revolutionize the transmission and content of knowledge and eclipse older institutions, but there is never a complete abandonment of older mediums of knowledge.

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