TEC154 2010S, Class 12: The Development of Writing (Discussion)

Overview:
*  Large Group: Lenses from Lalonde.
*  Small Group: Previous Lenses, Revisited.
*  Large Group (Recitation): Applying Lenses to The Evolution of Writing.

Admin:
*  Congratulations to JR for finishing his representation.
*  Readings for Monday: Mesthene: The Role of Technology in Society; McDermott: Technology: The Opiate of the Intellectuals..
*  Readings for Wednesday: Joy: Why The Future Doesn't Need Us; Brown and Duguid: A Response to Bill Joy.
*  Readings for Friday: Schumacher: Buddhist Economics; Goodman: Can Technology Be Humane?; Sclove: Technological Politics as if Democracy Really Mattered.
*  EC [Support] for Saturday's Jimmy Buffet Day.
*  EC [Support] for Tuesday's Postville Panel (6pm in JRC 101).
*  EC [Support] for Tuesday's Presidential Search Debriefing (8pm in JRC 101).
*  EC [Academic] for Wednesday's Open Information Culture Panel (4:30 pm in Burling).
*  EC [Academic] for Thursday's convocation (Catherine Keller).
*  Thanks to BD for taking and to GT for transcribing these notes.

Questions
  * What did we learn?
    * Looked at hieroglyphics and the history of translating and writing 
    * Writing serves to preserve history/information
    * Alphabets let us communicate with other civilizations 
    * Do not need an alphabet to communicate 
      * Chinese and Japanese written languages 
      * Has its own set of advantages (not inferior)
        * It is not tied to speaking; the characters denote no spoken word
          * Only written value
    * Alphabets have fewer symbols that need to be memorized
      * More convenient
      * Words just spring up and are created by anybody
        * Within Chinese, people must agree to create a new symbol
  * Criticism of symbolic languages (or advantages) and alphabets
    * Less democratic (symbolic)
    * Alphabets do not account for all the sounds we make
      * The same letters can represent many different sounds
      * Rules are arbitrary and may not always be the same
      * Has fallen behind the spoken word
        * Pronunciation has changed, but the written form is still the same
      * Sometimes many different letters have the same sound
    * Said non-alphabetic language could not come up with philosophy
* May have been saying it was a combination of spoken and written language that allowed for philosophy
    * Punctuation and spacing in alphabets allows for quicker reading
* Lens
  * How does the tech control us?