On the Internet
$17.05
- ISBN13: 9780415775168
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Can the internet solve the problem of mass education, and bring human beings to a new level of community? Drawing on a diverse array of thinkers from Plato to Kierkegaard, On the Internet argues that there is much in common between the disembodied, free floating web and Descartes’ separation of mind and body. Hubert Dreyfus also shows how Kierkegaard’s insights into the origins of a media-obsessed public anticipate the web surfer, blogger and chat room. Drawing on s… More >>
Dreyfus’ understanding of distance learning is quite limited. On page 39 of this book he defines distance learning as “the correspondence-course model of anonymous information consumers.” Distance learning has a lot more going for it than that, I have found that there is a lot of interactivity in online courses and a high level of communication with the professors. I took one of Dreyfus’ classes at Berkeley as an undergraduate and I never got to talk to him, there was no face to face learning. If you feel that the lecture method is the only way to learn, then the internet is not for you. If you want to feel like a “disembodied presence” go take a class at Berkeley as an undergrad.
Rating: 1 / 5
The Internet Book raises the following questions: Can we leave our vulnerable bodies while preserving relevance, learning, reality, and meaning? The latest book of Hubert Dreyfus will examine in complete details the various perspectives -of the Net through the eyes of a Philosopher -the attraction of life on the Internet as a way of achieving Plato’s dream of overcoming space and time as well as bodily finitude (as Plato said Learning takes place independent of Time and Space in Mind). Drawing on philosophers such as Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Hubert Dreyfus discussed and seriously criticised the Net. In his criticism, he explained -that, in spite of its attraction, the more one lives one’s life through the Net the more loses a sense of what is relevant, and so faces the problem of finding the information one is seeking. Also, in spite of economic attraction of distance learning, such learning by substituting telepresence for real presence (how much presence is delivered by the telepresence?), leaves no place for risk-taking an apprenticeship which plays a crucial role in all types of skill acquisition. Furthermore, without a sense of bodily vulnerability, one looses a sense of reality of the physical world and one’s sense that one can trust other people. Finally, he discussed while the anonymity of the Net makes possible experimentation, the overall effect of the NET is to undermine commitment (what Kierkegaard spelled out in The Present Age) thus to deprive life of any serious meaning.
In the above book-the author tried to give answers in greater depth to the questions, which is important in field of humanities and Philosophy -that why reach beyond ourselves and our humanity? Why seek to become posthuman? Why not accept our human limits and renounce transcendence?
In my view, the book On the Internet discussed in greater depth the important question How does the Dreyfus’s Skill developmental model and his non-representational learning relate to the Internet-facilitated education!
The book is divided into four chapters:
Chapter 1. Hyperlinks -In this chapter The hype about hyper-links Professor Dreyfus discussed the hope for intelligent information retrieval and the failure of AI. He raised one good question, how the actual shape and movement of our bodies plays a crucial role in grounding meaning so that loss of embodiment leads to loss of relevance.
Chapter 2. Distance-Learning -In this chapter, How far is Distance Learning from Education? Hubert Dreyfus discussed the importance of mattering and attunement for teaching and learning skills and phenomenology of skill acquisition. Apprenticeship and the need for imitation. Without involvement and presence -he said we cannot acquire skills.
Chapter 3. Telepresence -The chapter, Disembodied Telepresence and the remoteness of the Real will let us know about -the body as source of our presence of causal embedding and attunement to mood. Hubert Dreyfus has raised a question, how loss of background coping and attunement leads to loss of sense of reality of people and things. (I see something like you, but I don’t see you and I hear something like you, but I don’t hear you)
Chapter 4. Nihilism -The last chapter (most important), Nihilism on the Information Highway: Anonymity vs. commitment in the Present Age discussed in details about the meaning, requires commitment and real commitment requires real risks. The anonymity and safety of virtual commitments on-line, leads to loss of meaning. In this chapter, Prof. Dreyfus translated the Soren Kierkegaardian view of The Present Age to the Net.
The book is highly recommended to educators, techno philosophers and techno enthusiasts. Thank you.
Rating: 5 / 5
Hubert L. Dreyfus outlines a deep philosophical analysis regarding the repercussions of the Internet on our culture in this essayistic book. His comments are usually very illuminating and perceptive, using his philosophical background to criticize a force of great social change. Dreyfus illustrates the world of the net – uncontrollable, unsystematic, and incomprehensible. His criticisms range from the ineffective nature of distance learning to the uncommitted opinions formulated from the vast amount of accessible knowledge. Essentially, Dreyfus is pointion towards the perils of this disembodied space, where human connection, vulnerability, and meaning are significantly desensitized.
His dissection of this cyber-reality is extremely engaging and vital in any critical discussion of the net. However, at times Dreyfus’ criticism feels inappropriate and outdated. Rather than criticize the massive size of the net, Dreyfus should first explain our unhealthy relationship to it and then guide us towards a healthy one. His philosophical reflections are often purely intellectually driven rather than constructively reflective.
This is the one aspect that may irke some viewers, his dependence upon philosophy in a discussion that should not be abstracted. Though I find this approach to be a very engaging element in Dreyfus’ arguments. Often times discussions regarding current events and present-day cultural shifts don’t receive any kind of deep introspective analysis foreseeing important sociological and psychological effects. Instead book are factual and concrete, and only visionary to certain extent. Dreyfus is looking past the momentary issues about the net and seeing something bigger. As he calls it in his first sentences, “The Internet is not just a new technological innovation; it is a new type of technological innovation.” Dreyfus is very perceptive in his breakdown of this new (and mysterious) type of technology.
Who would of thought that surfing the web could be penetrating my primordial belief in reality? Not I, until reading this book.
Rating: 4 / 5
Flat out: this is a short read that should be required of anyone attempting to understand the society/technology interface. Even if you disagree with Dreyfus’ theories, On the Internet provides an approachable exposition of what he considers some of the most egregious claims.
Dreyfus’ basic phenomenological context is similar to his arguments in What Computers Still Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason: humans are more than heuristic programs running on carbon-based computers. The essence of a human being (dasein) is more than the sum of it’s parts. No matter how you disassemble those parts and digitize them, the end result is far from human – be it simulated intelligence, distance learning, or tele-presence.
The book is broken into four chapters, each of which can easily be ready independent of the others. The first chapter deconstructs the most atomic element of what makes the World Wide Web unique: the hyperlink. According to Dreyfus, the hyperlink is a flat connection that cannot convey the semantics intended by the person creating the link. This is, in some ways, a real problem but efforts to enrich hyperlinks with meaning haven’t taken off to the degree that the meaningless hyperlink has. Interestingly, this flatness forms the basis of Google’s search engine which attempts to identify relative meaning without actually understanding the meaning. I really wish Dreyfus would take up this idea, either in a revision of this book or a new edition of What Computers Still Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason.
After hyperlinks, Dreyfus takes up the issue of Distance Learning. This chapter was especially interesting to me because I completed my Masters degree through an entirely online program. I find I agree almost wholly with Dreyfus’ critique except that he failed to mention how large university lectures aren’t much better!
I am currently pursuing my PhD in a traditional residence-based program. The PhD requires essentially apprenticing with ones advisor. As Dreyfus points out, it is this apprenticeship that results in expertise and eventual mastery. But the master’s degree involves more focused project work. The online courses I took focused on project work – encouraging the student to seek out local mentors. I think the future of education will be a blend of distance and local education. The student will work with a local advisor or mentor but will be able to complete “coursework” through online means. In fact, I used Dreyfus’ excellent lectures on Heidegger he makes available in MP3 to help me better understand the subject.
After learning, Dreyfus takes on tele-presence. This, again, is a subject close to my own heart. I mostly work via telecommuting. I defended my master’s thesis via a web conferencing system. But I “cheated”. Even though most of thesis committee was across the country, I had an audience in front of me. I was able to gain the bodily cues of the people in the room in front of me. As an advantage, my family in two other states got to watch my defense. But I also find in-person work to be more productive when collaboration is important. To this end, I probably travel about one week out of every month. The net result, Dreyfus is right: telepresence will never really substitute for in-body experiences.
Finally, Dreyfus takes on identity in the digital world. There was a great New Yorker cartoon that showed two dogs at a computer, one saying: “On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog!” What Dreyfus expounds upon here is not new or even particularly original. It’s probably the low point of the book. What Dreyfus should have done was turn the argument inside-out and consider how the struggle with digital identity has impacted the world around us. People are much more aware of the challenge of identity than they were 20 years ago. But, at the same time, identity in the real world has developed new challenges: identity theft, terrorism, etc. I think these real world problems are much more interesting.
But now that you’ve read my take, get the book and read Dreyfus’. Like I said: even if you disagree, it’s an easy ready and well-founded in classical philosophy.
Rating: 5 / 5
“On the internet”,written by H.L Dreyfus a professor at Berkley is one of the very few books on the market approaching the “net” from a philosophical point of view rather than a technical one.
This approach itself promises for some interesting questions and some very intriguing answers or theories.
Dreyfus touches both the obvious and the not so-obvious sides of the “information superhighway”. He emphasizes the fact that while the internet is basically the biggest storage of information we’ve invented so far, it doesnt possess artificial intelligence (yet?) and thus it is hopelessly still relying on humans to sort this information out, divide it into “important” and “unimportnat” information, and even then, it’s furthermore relying on the person looking for the information who has to know what he/she’s looking for and how to get it (evaluating the information for example)…
He points out the flaws as he tackles the weaknesses of the search engines which look for key words and not meaning and predicts that we’re not exactly close to solving this critical problem.
On probably the most interesting -and simoultaneously most controversial- chapter of the book, learning through online courses, Dreyfus argues that without personal involvement we might acquire the factual knowledge but not the skill since we are not physically “there” to interact with a teacher and to mimic what he/she does as far as the subject of learning is concerned, since, as he claims, this is one of the basics of learning.
He adds a rather strong argument on that, when he says that the fundamental way we “understand” reality is ba having a handle on it. He then goes on to conclude that the internet takes away exactly that: our connection to reality, and reasons that learning online compared to the traditional ways of learning is limited and inadequate, it inhibits proficiency.
With a world rapidly moving on to a digital existence, to functioning through the internet, a digital concious as it may, Dreyfus warns of the dangers. Predictably, alienation and new dimensions of loneliness are central themes of those warnings. We can talk to 10s of people online from different parts of the world without having any relationship with them. The passion is not there he claims, and that is probably the one indisputable point of his book.
Keeping in mind that the internet is still a relatively new medium, any conclusions we might hurry to make might be very flawed themselves. Dreyfus points this out himself when he reminds us of Plato (who seems to be a favorite of his) who 2.500 years ago warned the Athenians of the dangers of the written word. Yet, Dreyfus believes that the inetrnet is a more clear-czt case where we can see the dangers more clearly.
I disagree. We do not know how the internet will develop yet and to what direction. In Europe only a small fraction of the population actually uses it, other than to send or receive an email. This is far below the net’s capabilities and it doesn’t provide us with enough data about its influence on human societies yet. Most of Dreyfus’s observations come undoubtedly from the american usage of the internet (which is pioneering in that sector) but as more and more cultures get involved with the medium we are bound to see the medium take on more changes and uses.
When it comes to online learning i would have to agree with Dreyfus’s opinions with one main objection: up until recently learning the traditional way, whether in universities or schools, was going unquestioned and uncriticized. But especially in the 90s voices started abounding , especially from educators, that even that form of learning contains disembodiment. The west alone is filled with people with degrees who carry data but do not carry meaning in their data either exactly what Dreyfus is “accusing” the internet and its online courses of doing.
Learning in a school might provide with the all important human contact but how much of it is meaningful contact and to who’s interest is one big open question.
Schooling (universities included) distribute dogma and the process of learning in them is basically limited on absorbing the dogma proficiently. It would be a blatant lie to claim that this type of learning is “better” than the online courses. It would also be an interesting question and discussion what type of learning is then the most proficient one? Dreyfus doesn’t touch that question, indeed he seems to believe with no restrictions that the learning he’s involved in (in university) is “ok”..
I beg to differ.
All this, with objections and questions included, doesn’t mean that “On the internet” is not reccomendable. It’s in fact filled with interesting points and at worst it’s food for thought. As i said above , alone the fact that it’s a philosophical approach on the issue makes it intriguing enough.
But we shouldn’t be hasty. In 10-20 years time this book might seem terribly outdated and flawed. In fact, some might claim (and they might be right) that it already is…
Rating: 4 / 5