Re: <nettime> Dominique Wolton: "Internet is not a Media"

[Max Herman <Nmherman@aol.com>]

In a message dated 8/26/99 8:39:23 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
patrice@xs4all.nl writes:

> Patrick Thomas, a young research fellow at Montpellier
>  university. Thomas (expectedly) accuses Wolton of being an exponent of the
>  traditionalist top-down culture and contrasts the mass media with the
>  'self-media' made possible by the Net. Quote: 
>  
>  "The changes for the better that may be expected from the development of
>  these self-media are numerous: a catharsis, and thus a civilisatory
>  effect, which stems from being able to handle a mean of expression as a
>  remedy against social violence; a mending of the gap between generation,
>  and more specifically between the school system (which is largelly
>  text-based) and the youth (the Lego, zapping generation); development of
>  new forms of knowledge which enable a getter understanding of the rational
>  and the relational; dissemination of a world-wide culture and language
>  that for once, would be a collective creation, and not that of one caste." 

I agree with Thomas on this.  Moreover, doesn't he imply the end of the 
individual genius, master analyst, or solitary discoverer as the fount of all 
knowledge and creativity?  The culture of the expert has nearly exhausted 
itself; it has little or no energy or vision to shape the HUGE future of 
digital media.  It can only reiterate itself, an act that drives another nail 
in the coffin with each repetition.

Max Herman
The Genius 2000 Project
Video Available Online
www.geocities.com/~genius-2000

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