blog post the seventh, in which no new characters are introduced, gil is ignored much to his chagrin, and i get a little trippy with causal claims.

i'm going to pick up where i left off last time with my exploration of the philosophical ramifications of information seeking behavior and the use of technology.

a summary of claims made thus far:

1. copies are good enough
2. the prevalence of copies is made possible due to technology
3. the prevalence of copies encourages this attitude

the philosophical connections i made:

1. satisfaction with the copy is a decidedly Continental position
2. using technology to obtain information is operating on Platonic assumptions

there is some conclusionary hay to be made here. But its going to be messy considering I've never made hay like this before, or at all for that matter.

I stopped this philosophical investigation off at the paradox last time. in part because I guess my main conclusion is that its just kind of funny that we behave both Platonically and Continentally. No judgment is implied for either side of the equation. In other words, I'm not saying we should gather information more Continentally or that we should treat our information more Platonically, though there is some precedent for both. I can't entirely envision what Continental information-seeking behavior might look like (it look something like considering what an operations diagram might look like if the perspective of the book is considered), but insofar as information is also artifact we treat it Platonically (i.e. the increased value given to a first edition of a major novel, the first draft of a novel in an author's handwriting). In the case of the Platonic treatment of information, the original source is more highly valued, though I should mention that to Plato a first edition or even an author's own writing is too far removed from the eidos to be of any significant value anyway. being bemused by the paradox of contradictory assumptions is, to me, an end in itself. but i'll do some more work to wrap this deal up.

astute reader that you are, you've probably noticed that #3 above does not have a corollary in the philosophical connections section. i'm going to go ahead with it but you should know that my corollary to #3 is a bit trippy, as if this whole enterprise isn't. philosophical connection #3 states that using technology (i.e. acting as a Platonist might with respect to technology) leads us to consider the product of technology in a Continental light. This is trippy because its a direct causal claim that links two disparate schools of thought. i'm probably inclined to such philosophical trippiness due to my preference for historical explanations over philosophical ones. anyways, despite the bold and trippy philosophical connection #3, which remember states that using technology Platonically leads us to consider the product of technology Continentally, the paradox remains, which quite honestly leaves me satisfied.

next time maybe i'll talk about that slim sliver of human experience that occurs when Joe Patron encounters new technology. i'll magnify it.