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I think the creator may be better off conducting a through philosophical investigation in efforts of pinning down the concept. You would be much better off givi
by voidhorse 9y ago
I think the creator may be better off conducting a through philosophical investigation in efforts of pinning down the concept. You would be much better off giving full citations to Foucault and Deleuze, and full analysis into the Snowden incident and the fallout rather than a sort of half nod to, what I think, are the foundation beams of this concept.
This page kind of assumes the audience is already willing to admit social cooling as a legitimate phenomena, and if not, will be convinced to do so after a few short bullets and very little in the way of actual analysis (ironically, this sort of approach leverages one of the modern patterns the piece could tackle--short bursts of information, instant delivery, decreased skepticism and amounts of reflective thought).
Also, I'd highly recommend avoiding the global warming comparison. It does a disservice to your cause. It basically comes off, at least to me, as saying "our problem isn't a substantial thing in its own right so lets compare it to this other big problem people already care about and hope the very loose and forced analogy strings them along"
All this being stated, ya'll should check out Horkheimer's essay "The Concept of Man." He wrote it in ~1952(might've been 53 or 57, I'm forgetting the exact date)--and it's crazy how prophetic that essay turned out to be. It shows how all our innovation really just led to an amplification of social structures and patterns that were already emerging during the dawn of automation and mechanization. I think it's relevant to your project.
- socialcooling 9y agoAuthor here: Being trained as a media theorist I understand your criticism (and am going to check out Horkheimer's essay, thanks for the tip!). But this website purposefully tries to keep things accessible in order to reach a wider audience. I often see how academics have a deep understanding of what's going on, but just aren't as good at spreading that insight to a wider audience, like the startup community.
- voidhorse 9y agoAh, that is a fair concern, and this approach makes sense if that is your goal. Still, I think it's useful to point to some of the academic backing--like you already do with Foucault, just perhaps in greater depth. Maybe add some of that academic/conceptual source material to the further reading section--then again, might just distract from the main point. You know your target audience better than I do, I only have my particular reaction (which is probably a bit idiosyncratic and outside of the scope of your intended audience). In any case this is a cool project and a noble effort. Hope you stick with it.
- Mikushi 9y ago> All this being stated, ya'll should check out Horkheimer's essay "The Concept of Man." He wrote it in ~1952(might've been 53 or 57, I'm forgetting the exact date)--and it's crazy how prophetic that essay turned out to be. It shows how all our innovation really just led to an amplification of social structures and patterns that were already emerging during the dawn of automation and mechanization. I think it's relevant to your project. Do you mind sharing a link to it? A quick search didn't return anything close to that title written by Horkheimer.
- socialcooling 9y agoI had the same problem.
- voidhorse 9y agoSorry--might not be out there as an individual piece--should have mentioned that. I read it in the Verso edition of Critique of Instrumental Reason https://www.versobooks.com/books/1138-critique-of-instrumental-reason https://www.versobooks.com/books/1138-critique-of-instrument...
- karllager 9y agoI read a lot of both Horkheimer and Adorno. It has shaped my view on capitalism and society in a profound way. Be careful, reading them is like choosing the red pill.
- snowcrshd 9y agoThat essay sounds really interesting. How much background knowledge would I need to take advantage of it? I'm utterly ignorant of such matters, but I'm trying figure out how to go about learning this.
- voidhorse 9y agoUnfortunately you will need some philosophical and historical background to fully comprehend the essay--Horkheimer writes, for instance, about the "Kantian Hope" which is a centerpiece of the short text--he also draws quite a bit on Nietzsche and some of his own previous work with Adorno. I'd say Kant and Nietzsche are the most important fellas to understand as far as comprehension of this essay is concerned. Chances are you'll still be able to get the gist of what Horkheimer is trying to say even if you don't have any background in the history of philosophy, but you'll definitely understand the essay better if you first read a summary of the developments and history of philosophy from about Plato to Nietzsche (essentially the major figures of philosophy up until 1900). Alternatively, you can just dive in and look up what you don't understand as you read. The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy is a great resource for that sort of thing: https://plato.stanford.edu/ https://plato.stanford.edu/
- snowcrshd 9y agoThank you for the thorough response! I'm still starting my learning of philosophy, going through Plato's works. I'm keep Kant and Nietzsche in mind :) PS: That Stanford page is awesome.
- voidhorse 9y agoNo problem. I'm also always looking to keep my philosophical muscles fresh, so if you ever want to chat about philosophy in general feel free to shoot me an email. My email is on my HN profile.