Philosophy of Technology: Chapter 47 (Albert Borgmann)

"Information and Reality at the Turn of the Century" (1995)

Background information:

• born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana
• In Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life (1984), he introduced the notion of the device paradigm to explain what constitutes technologies essence as opposed to Heidegger's Gestel (enframing)
• In Crossing the Postmodern Divide (1992), describes as a techno-religious book characterized in terms of hyperreality and hyperactivity, he describes hyperactivity as a pathological syndrome of the child and workaholics. He applies hyperactivity to society as a whole, and defines it as "a state of mobilization where the richness and variety of social and cultural pursuits, and the natural pace of daily life, have been suspended to serve a higher, urgent cause"--in other words, the salvation of mankind is a return to the Christian god
• an interesting interview: www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2901
  

Reading response:
In this article, Borgmann suggests there are 3 types of information, the first two old, and the third new:

1. information about reality (which requires comprehension and makes the work more perspicuous). This information informs us of the faraway, but does not transport it into our midst. It is a part of our background and informs our ways of life. The emblem Borgmann offers of this information is the Internet.
   
2. information for reality (which requires translation and realization and makes the world richer and more prosperous). This information requires discipline and skill/competency, and it engenders community and intimacy. This information combines ideas with tangible ingredients from reality. The emblem Borgmann give for this information is a Boeing 777.
3. information as reality (which emerged from our culture of technology, and really includes information as virtual reality--rivaling reality itself). This information serves both utility and consumption and erases the distance between near and far, quantity (signal) and quality (message).

Borgman calls for a turn from information as reality to information and reality. By this he means that information in the Internet age weakens people and attenuates things. He suggests a return to nature to regain the "actuality of people" (577). He seems very much against virtual reality and the realism it can provide.