we need to re:think
There is a lot of hoopla out there concerning the use of “Web 2.0″ as a “buzzword”. There is also a lot of dialogue within the philosophic community in regards to the effect that the relations created by community is having on today’s society. Obvious examples comes to mind: Myspace, YouTube, Digg, Del.icio.us, Wikipedia. I can guarantee that there is a PhD student right now, somewhere, working on a thesis concerned with such matters.
Although I am interested, I certainly cannot consider myself an authority or even remotely qualified to tackle the philosophical questions that have been raised by the so-called “Web 2.0″. Where my area of future expertise is interested is in the growing “metaphysics” of the web - the “collective consciousness 2.0″ if you will. Problems of identity within this new consciousness are all too apparent and come up in the crudest of places - such as in the legal troubles of copyright or the existentialist issue of “internet schizophrenia”.
I was recently talking to a friend of mine over concerns he had, as a fledging musician, with copyright infringement and the internet. This, of course, is nothing new, but there is a lot more at stake here than just legalities and royalties. One famous metaphor, often used in first-year logic courses, comes to mind. Consider a wooden boat, built in the late-1700s. 50 years go by and some of the planks that make the boat start to rot and are in need of some serious repair. However, the industrial revolution has encouraged the use of metal and so the owner starts replacing some sections of the wooden boat with metal. The boat, of course, is still the same boat. As time goes on, it takes its toll on the boat - more wooden sections must be replaced, and it is done so with the same metal as before. This goes on over the next couple of years. Eventually the boat is entirely made of metal. Is it the same boat? This same question arises, albeit in extremely complicated ways, when “art” or “culture” is involved.
I found the following video today which tackles some of the things I have been thinking about recently. Take a look. (Kudos to Michael Wesch of Kansas State University)
