#1466 The Faustian Bargain of Technological Advancement and Societal Degradation (Repost)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2023
⏱️ 61 minutes
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Summary
Original Air Date 1/15/2022
Today we take a look at tradeoffs that are becoming ever more evident between the advancement of mass communication and social media technologies and the ways in which those advancements contribute to the degradation of social cohesion.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: Re-musing Ourselves - On the Media - Air Date 3-3-06
The late media critic Neil Postman argued in his seminal book "Amusing Ourselves to Death," that as TV prevailed over the printed word, it impaired our ability to make sense of a world of information. Jay Rosen writes the blog, PressThink.
Ch. 2: Neil Postman Technopoly - C-Span Book TV - Air Date 7-10-92
Neil Postman, author of Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology published by Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, spoke on the theme of his book which noted the dependence of Americans on technological advances for their own security.
Ch. 3: Prescient Predictions 1984; Brave New World; and Network Part 1 - Future Tense - Air Date 7-7-19
The dystopian best-seller 1984 was published exactly seventy years ago. Its influence has been profound. But does it really speak to today’s politico-cultural environment? Scott Stephens believes Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World is a closer match.
Ch. 4: The Trouble With Reality - On The Media - Air Date 5-17-17
This is a conversation between Brooke Gladstone, author of "The Trouble with Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time," and WNYC morning show host Brian Lehrer.
Ch. 5: Prescient Predictions 1984; Brave New World; and Network Part 2 - Future Tense - Air Date 7-7-19
Ch. 6: Neil Postman on Cyberspace - The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour - Air Date 7-25-95
Charlene Hunter-Gault interviews media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman on PBS' The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in 1995. Postman discusses new media and the "Faustian bargain" of technological change in the context of the "Information Superhighway."
Ch. 7: Alexa, What's Amazon Doing Inside My Home? - Land of the Giants - Air Date 7-30-19
What’s the downside to letting Alexa run your entire home? And why is Amazon making a microwave oven powered by Alexa?
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 8: Final comments on Faustian Bargains
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.3 | a look at the trade-offs that are becoming ever more evident between the advancement of |
| 0:12.7 | mass communication and social media technologies and the ways in which those advancements contribute |
| 0:19.1 | to the degradation of social cohesion. |
| 0:22.5 | And I want to let you know that there are two clips in the show today from the mid-90s. |
| 0:27.8 | You'll be able to tell which those are because they sound like they're from the 90s. |
| 0:31.5 | They make references to things like cyberspace and the information superhighway. |
| 0:36.9 | So no, those aren't just really out-of-date terms. |
| 0:40.4 | They're really out-of-date clips, but they're all the more impressive to be heard today for their age. |
| 0:48.4 | Whereas the first clip we're going to hear is less obvious. |
| 0:51.2 | It's from 2006, a very special year. |
| 0:54.4 | By the way, the year Twitter was founded, the year Google bought YouTube, |
| 0:59.3 | the year Facebook introduced their newsfeed feature, |
| 1:03.6 | and the year Best of Left was launched. |
| 1:06.2 | Three events that have been threatening to destabilize society ever since, |
| 1:10.8 | and one that has been working to undo the damage. |
| 1:14.4 | I'll let you guess, which is which on those. |
| 1:17.1 | So as you hear this first clip, just know that none of those destabilizing events |
| 1:22.6 | were even on the radar yet, but the discussion still couldn't be more relevant to today. |
| 1:29.2 | So clips today are from On the Media, C-SPAN book TV, |
| 1:34.6 | Future Tense, The McNeil Lairer NewsHour, and Land of the Giants. |
| 1:45.9 | The late media critic Neil Postman argued in his seminal book, |
... |
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