13
September
2013
|
04:12 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Neil Postman Is A True Futurist…Great Interview From 1995


Superb interview here with Neil Postman about technology and the Faustian bargain we make with it. He manages to predict the issues that we face today with social networks, online education, and who benefits from technology.

For example, he says that schools help socialize people and how to learn in a group environment, which is essential if people are to become effective in business and in society as a whole.

He also says that with every technology we should ask the question, what problem is this solving? Whose problem is it solving? Which is especially apt with all the web services from Google to Facebook, that are solving a problem for marketers wanting to know more about us. 

There's lots more in this nearly 20 year old interview.(Hat tip Adam Thierer.)

Neil Postman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 – October 5, 2003) was an American author, media theorist and cultural critic, who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. For more than forty years, he was associated with New York University. Postman was a humanist, who believed that "new technology can never substitute for human values."


Neil Postman, 72, Mass Media Critic, Dies - NYTimes.com