Schultze Preface

 Intro: Identifying the Techno-Moral Crisis

Schultze's stated goal sounds reasonable enough:

My goal is not so much to discard database and messaging technologies as much as to adapt them to venerable ways of life anchored in age-old virtues. Our search for the good life invariably will lead us to be critical of some of our communication habits and informational practices. History shows that every technological advance also delivers us to new moral quandaries.

"Adapt them". This is the cruz of the debate.  When does "adaptation" become "assimilation"?  And what is meant by "adapt them to venerable ways of life anchored in age-old virtues"?  I feel the coming of the advocacy of online usage as "information" and the suspicion of online relationship;  particularly when it comes to challenging the failures of the Church to speak to a "Wired" generation --- but for good ness sake,  it's just the preface!  Give the argument some due,  and wait to see what is said!  Even so,  I thought the pause at this point and the identifying of the call to "adapt" will be something I will return to again and again. It is closely related to how I see our Web development as offering "extensions" to the traditional,  rather than being seen as "threats" to it (but there is no doubt much for the traditionalists and the Church Luddites to be concerned about.  I haven't decided yet how much "Luddite" there is in Schultze;  I am basically preparing myself to defend the Web not as a "techno-utopian" but as a explorer.  

Intro: Identifying the Techno-Moral Crisis

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:38:51 PM.