Thomas Sowell once wrote: “There have always been ignorant people, but they haven't always had college degrees to make them unaware of their ignorance. Some people imagine that they are well informed because they have memorized a whole galaxy of trendy dogmas and fashionable attitudes.1” I do not quote that comfortably. I teach at a … Continue reading Credentialed and Unprepared: Systems, Persistence, and the Slow Education of a Practitioner
Category: Technology and Modernity
Essays examining how modern technologies shape society, culture, and human behavior.
The Mail Still Runs. The System Does Not.
Every December, the explanation arrives on schedule. Delays are blamed on an “unprecedented” surge in holiday packages, as though Christmas were a rogue variable rather than a fixed feature of the calendar. The language is familiar—seasonal strain, temporary disruption, short-term overload. Reassuring in tone, managerial in posture. The problem is not that these explanations are … Continue reading The Mail Still Runs. The System Does Not.
Man and the Computer: What Kemeny Saw Coming—and Where His Vision Bent a Little
I ended up down a rabbit hole a few months ago while reading about the early days of the BASIC programming language. That trail pointed straight to John G. Kemeny, and then to his 1972 book Man and the Computer. It’s a slim volume, written at a moment when mainframes hummed like industrial dragons and … Continue reading Man and the Computer: What Kemeny Saw Coming—and Where His Vision Bent a Little
Is a Degree Worth It? Part III
In this third installment, I want to take a look at the decade that has passed and the events in my life that have refined my view. When I wrote the first piece in this series, I was reflecting on my own long, winding journey through higher education — working full-time while finishing my Bachelor … Continue reading Is a Degree Worth It? Part III
Facebook doesn’t care about your community: why local newspapers still matter
If you live in a small town like I do, you probably know exactly when the weekly paper arrives. In my case it comes once a week in the mail: the Northwest Alabamian. By the time it arrives, much of the information in it is technically “old news.” The same stories have often already appeared in … Continue reading Facebook doesn’t care about your community: why local newspapers still matter
Nothing New Under the Sun
[N.B. I originally posted this article on the Society of Southern Gentlemen blog. I don't plan to maintain that site, so I am merging all the posts there onto this site, but keeping the original timestamps.] That which has been is what will be, that which is done is what will be done, and there … Continue reading Nothing New Under the Sun
DDoS as a violation of the 1st Amendment
I have serious issues with this: Anonymous Files Petition To Make DDoS Legal Form of Protest: hypnosec writes "Anonymous has filed a petition with the U.S. Government asking the Obama administration to make Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks a legal form of protest. Anonymous has argued that because of advancements in internet technology, there … Continue reading DDoS as a violation of the 1st Amendment
