Mostly no. This center power being ultimate importance basically ignores the large populations of the world and concentrates on wealth and power for a centered few. How is that good for the world.
I loved how the liberal arts majors are incidental if not irrelevant in the world where Silicon Valley and Venture capital intersect. It’s a world where history, literature, the social sciences and philosophy are irrelevant, and instead, the current dominant world view emanating from Silicon Valley appears to have raised efficiencies and speed as the only aspects of life to have value. This is dangerous. Instead of placing technology and its creations into a wider context of how we see the world, it has become the end game, the only thing that is important. Leaving out, if not holding in contempt, a world that studies other modes of thought, whether it be through the prism of history, the beauty and meaning that literature can hold, the examination of how politics and societies are constructed and function through the social sciences, or finally, what is the ultimate purpose of human life as seen through philosophy, we are losing much in how human society can evolve into a better place for a larger number of people. In essence, we are in danger of losing perspective, of taking those moments through the study of the humanities to look at ourselves in ways that can perhaps help us create what we long for: a better world. If it becomes merely a more efficient one where transactional relationships are the only ones viewed to have value, then many will be left behind.
Thank you for reading so much and so quickly. I have to read it all more carefully to understand and to see if the lesson of Aaron Swartz’s tragic suicide is contemplated in your work or Baker’s. If not, it really needs to be.
Reading your review of the book was enough! It sounds utterly exhausting and, at the end of the day, do you think we actually know anything we didn't know already - that some of the richest Schools in the USA have been corrupted by huge commercial interests, and that addressing the bigger philosophical issues - the ones that ultimately matter to the survival of our humanity and our planet - comes so far down the agenda you'd have thought that really wasn't part of the purpose of a 'university'? But I do wish Theo Baker well, now his eyes are opened.
These are people who are used to thinking of themselves as the smartest one(s) in the room. But intellectual brilliance is no substitute for a well-developed conscience. On that scale, some of them fall into the lower quartile. That’s not a permanent condition, but it is a signal that there needs to be some sort of counter-balance present when decisions of an epic scale are being made. Perhaps they should invite a few of the disregarded liberal arts majors, people who might actually read books, into the conversation.
Mostly no. This center power being ultimate importance basically ignores the large populations of the world and concentrates on wealth and power for a centered few. How is that good for the world.
I loved how the liberal arts majors are incidental if not irrelevant in the world where Silicon Valley and Venture capital intersect. It’s a world where history, literature, the social sciences and philosophy are irrelevant, and instead, the current dominant world view emanating from Silicon Valley appears to have raised efficiencies and speed as the only aspects of life to have value. This is dangerous. Instead of placing technology and its creations into a wider context of how we see the world, it has become the end game, the only thing that is important. Leaving out, if not holding in contempt, a world that studies other modes of thought, whether it be through the prism of history, the beauty and meaning that literature can hold, the examination of how politics and societies are constructed and function through the social sciences, or finally, what is the ultimate purpose of human life as seen through philosophy, we are losing much in how human society can evolve into a better place for a larger number of people. In essence, we are in danger of losing perspective, of taking those moments through the study of the humanities to look at ourselves in ways that can perhaps help us create what we long for: a better world. If it becomes merely a more efficient one where transactional relationships are the only ones viewed to have value, then many will be left behind.
Thank you for reading so much and so quickly. I have to read it all more carefully to understand and to see if the lesson of Aaron Swartz’s tragic suicide is contemplated in your work or Baker’s. If not, it really needs to be.
Reading your review of the book was enough! It sounds utterly exhausting and, at the end of the day, do you think we actually know anything we didn't know already - that some of the richest Schools in the USA have been corrupted by huge commercial interests, and that addressing the bigger philosophical issues - the ones that ultimately matter to the survival of our humanity and our planet - comes so far down the agenda you'd have thought that really wasn't part of the purpose of a 'university'? But I do wish Theo Baker well, now his eyes are opened.
These are people who are used to thinking of themselves as the smartest one(s) in the room. But intellectual brilliance is no substitute for a well-developed conscience. On that scale, some of them fall into the lower quartile. That’s not a permanent condition, but it is a signal that there needs to be some sort of counter-balance present when decisions of an epic scale are being made. Perhaps they should invite a few of the disregarded liberal arts majors, people who might actually read books, into the conversation.