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We've always had to have conformity with the current view, disagree with the church, and you were punished as a heretic, with the political system as a revolutionary, with the scientific establishment as a charlatan, with the educational system as a failure. If you didn't fit the mould, you were rejected. But, ironically, the latest product of that way of doing things, is a new instrument, a new system, that while it could make conformity more rigid, more totalitarian than ever before in history, it could also blow everything wide open. Because with it, we could operate on the basis that values and standards and ethics and facts and truth all depend on what your view of the world is and that there may be as many views of that as there are people. And with this capable of keeping a tally on those millions of opinions voiced electronically, we might be able to lift the limitations of conforming to any centralised representational form of government, originally invented because there was no way for everybody's voice to be heard. You might be able to give everybody unhindered, untested access to knowledge-- You might with that and much more break the mould that has held us back since the beginning, in a future world [..] [..]An open society, tolerant of every view[..] [...] Utopia? Why? If, as I've said all along, the universe is, at any time, what you say say it is, then say. James Burke, Day the Universe Changed (1985) Play Mute sound Hide video Expand video Full screen

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We've always had to have conformity with the current view, disagree with the church, and you were punished as a heretic, with the political system as a revolutionary, with the scientific establishment as a charlatan, with the educational system as a failure. If you didn't fit the mould, you were rejected. But, ironically, the latest product of that way of doing things, is a new instrument, a new system, that while it could make conformity more rigid, more totalitarian than ever before in history, it could also blow everything wide open. Because with it, we could operate on the basis that values and standards and ethics and facts and truth all depend on what your view of the world is and that there may be as many views of that as there are people. And with this capable of keeping a tally on those millions of opinions voiced electronically, we might be able to lift the limitations of conforming to any centralised representational form of government, originally invented because there was no way for everybody's voice to be heard. You might be able to give everybody unhindered, untested access to knowledge-- You might with that and much more break the mould that has held us back since the beginning, in a future world [..] [..]An open society, tolerant of every view[..] [...] Utopia? Why? If, as I've said all along, the universe is, at any time, what you say say it is, then say. James Burke, Day the Universe Changed (1985) Play Mute sound Hide video Expand video Full screen

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Anthropy :verified_dragon: (anthropy@mastodon.derg.nz)'s status on Thursday, 10-Oct-2024 02:06:55 JST Anthropy :verified_dragon:

I just had to upload this myself so I could pin it.
I think it's a really important message beyond just the fact that computers and networks are an amazing gift to society, I think it's equally or more important to note that conformity is a curse.
We should all be able to have our own opinions and ways to view the world, without being resented for it, without being cast out for it.
It's diversity and inclusion that make this world a greater place; not some narrative that disagreement is wrong

In conversation about 2 months ago from mastodon.derg.nz permalink