Google Tech Talks
March, 5 2008
ABSTRACT
Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide We...
Google Tech Talks March, 5 2008
ABSTRACT
Vannevar Bush's 1945 article, "As We May Think," has been much celebrated as a central inspiration for the development of hypertext and the World Wide Web. Less attention, however, has been paid to Bush's motivation for imagining a new generation of information technologies; it was his hope that more powerful tools, by automating the routine aspects of information processing, would leave researchers and other professionals more time for creative thought. But now, more than sixty years later, it seems clear that the opposite has happened, that the use of the new technologies has contributed to an accelerated mode of working and living that leaves us less to think, not more. In this talk I will explore how this state of affairs has come about and what we can do about it.
Speaker: David M. Levy David Levy earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science at Stanford University in 1979 and a Diploma in Calligraphy and Bookbinding from the Roehampton Institute (London) in 1983. For more than fifteen years he was a researcher at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where his work, described in "Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age" (Arcade, 2001), centered on exploring the transition from paper and print to digital. During the year 2005-2006, he was the holder of the Papamarkou Chair in Education and Technology at the Library of Congress. A professor at the UW Information School since 2000-2001, he has been investigating how to restore contemplative balance to a world marked by information overload, fragmented attention, extreme busyness, and the acceleration of everyday life.
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18:50 simply looking, the truth presents itself as landscape presents itself to the eye! ------------------------------ ---- what if there is no certain truth unless the one we choose?
I'm a classical musician. In order to find the inner inspiration, one needs to stop time mentally. Ideas have to be tossed out the window as soon as they come up, and peace discovered. Then one takes the instrument and creates in art. If any prayer is made, it's to become a vehicle for divine expression; and that it's not about yourself, but maybe about the experiences which make up the person you call yourself. You have to get out of the way just as much as any ideas and concepts. He's right.
You don't have to work hard to make time for leisure, and isn't usually a means of production. Its the typically the description, or outline, of the mechanism for production.
"Creative work" is almost an oxymoron, more typical: "creative play".
Perhaps creativity seeks what's missing in what is here (the space for growth?). One preoccupied with work pops his head up and feels something essential is missing; one at play might equally feel unease in not working harder, more seriously. The whole talk somehow smacks of the neurotic structure it seeks to escape. The only suggestion: "balance" - a homeostatic term that belies the natural struggle.
Autoshare makes certain YouTube activities public on the services you choose. Select only the services you are comfortable with - like Facebook, Twitter, or Google Reader - to let your friends know what you like on YouTube. You can turn Autoshare off at any time.
simply looking,
the truth presents itself as landscape presents itself to the eye!
------------------------------ ----
what if there is no certain truth unless the one we choose?
Perhaps creativity seeks what's missing in what is here (the space for growth?). One preoccupied with work pops his head up and feels something essential is missing; one at play might equally feel unease in not working harder, more seriously. The whole talk somehow smacks of the neurotic structure it seeks to escape. The only suggestion: "balance" - a homeostatic term that belies the natural struggle.