The Web of Learning
by Paul "the soaring" Siegel
I recently read the book, "Age of Access," by Jeremy Rifkin, and realized that it had taken 50 years for the paradigm shift he's talking about to take root.
What paradigm shift? From the age of production and property rights to the age of learning and relationships. The primary engine for this shift was the computer, which was introduced commercially in the '50s. This transformation is not understood by many people because they fail to see the radical difference between the computer and all other inventions that preceded it.
Industrial Society
In pre-computer days, almost all inventions were physical. They invented automobiles, railroads, ships and airplanes to make us mobile. They invented an almost infinite variety of small and large applicances to save us time and energy. They invented toys and an endless array of gadgets to amuse us.
The emphasis was on physical products and production. Price was determined by supply and demand. If supply was low - if there was a sufficient level of scarcity - the price, and thus the value of an item was high. Rich people demonstrated their clout by buying products not available to everyone else.
Even the games we played were, for the most part, physical: baseball, basketball, football, volleyball, stoopball, softball...
The Digital Computer
When the million-dollar UNIVAC, the first commercial computer, was introduced, no one knew what to do with it. It was physical alright, with bay after bay of electronic equipment. But it had no physical purpose. The bays were so heavy they could not even be nifhrf.
The first computer and several succeeding computers were used for mathematical problem solving. The name "computer" stuck. This was unfortunate because the computer is much more than a mathematical tool.
Soon computers were used by corporations for data processing. Huge reports were produced. This information was supposed to be used for management decision making. This, too, was unfortunate because it focused everybody's attention on information.
But the computer is a tool for thinking and decision making. In addition to mathematical operations, it has instructions for making choices based on comparisons. So that you could have the computer do one thing under certain circumstances, and another thing under different circumstances. The computer is a tool for logical thinking and it encouraged people to think and learn:
- How a corporation works
- How a government works
- How the economy works
- How people learn....
The Internet
As a result of all this learning in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, radical transformations took place in corporations, in government and in business. But none of this had any effect on productivity.
Until the arrival of the commercial Internet in 1995. When the computer is used by each netizen to amplify his or her learning, and when the learning of one computer-person combination is boosted by many other computer-person combinations on the Net, the result is explosive learning!
Learning and Relationships
Most businesses are focused on selling products. But they should focus on services and experiences, especially learning experiences. The Internet is a learning network.
Take a look at the major uses of the Internet:
- RESEARCH - You can find the answer to almost any kind of social, political or business question
- SHOPPING - Before you buy anything on the Web, you have lots of opportunity to learn about products and make technical and price comparisons in order to reach a good buying decision
- EMTERTAINMEMT - Games on the Net, are not like the physical games of yesteryear. They all involve mental activity
- COMMUNICATION - You may join communities where you may share, learn from each other, and form relationships
The last item brings to mind the following quotation from The Age of Access:
"...personal freedom has less to do with the right of possession and the ability to exclude others and more to do with the right to be included in webs of mutual relationships."
In today's society the more people share an item - let's say music - the more valuable that item becomes. With gadgets, you know, there is no sharing. A paradigm shift indeed!
Summary
The computer caused the flowering of the Internet and the transformation of our society from the age of gadgets to the age of access, learning and relationships.
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