Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
I have all my classes read this one-page article that’s 40 years old, but still seems relevant. It might be less related to this course and more relevant to the cultural studies courses I teach. I still think it’s important for education in general, so I’m assigning it.
The great Isaac Asimov is a major figure in science fiction. He wrote more than science fiction (he was quite prolific), including popular press articles of which “A Cult of Ignorance” is one. Unfortunately, when doing cultural studies analyses, we often uncover bad or unsettling aspects of our culture. Many people deride cultural studies for this, but it’s important to understand that not everything about our system has benefited everyone else. Fortunately, because American culture is based (in part) on freedom of speech, we’re free to critique the system without fear of repercussions…that’s a system I’m glad to live under!
But Asimov doesn’t think Americans think critically enough. In fact, in 1980, he told us we didn’t read enough, so we couldn’t possibly have a right to know because we put no effort into knowing.
Consider the following themes of Asimov’s short article:
- Anti-intellectualism
- What might be contemporary examples of this? Consider the anti-vaccination and COVID-19 quarantine protester crowds.
- For further information, beyond the scope of this class, check out evidence that the public trust in higher education has fallen.
- Elites
- Who are the elites? What’s the difference between economic and intellectual elites?
- Right to know
- With great rights come even greater responsibility…
- What’s Asimov’s point about the public’s assumption they have the right to know?
- Credibility and trust
- What are credible sources? Who are credible people?
- How might you rank the following people in terms of credibility?
- Teacher
- Politician
- Parent
- Veteran
- Celebrity
- Scientist
- Uber/Lyft Driver
- Hedge Fund Manager
- Asimov claims reading scores have dropped, but he doesn’t provide any evidence
- The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has been tracking reading (and math) scores since 1971.
- This NAEP graph (pdf) shows some improvement for particular age groups, but is it significant improvement, or does it look pretty much the same since 1971.
- Drop in magazine readership
- Consider Asimov writing in 1980…the internet wasn’t in anyone’s home, so newspapers, magazines, and network (not cable) news was how people got their information.
- Although debatable, one could get news information from more media these days (although not necessarily in-depth reporting), there are a good portion of Americans who don’t read books.
- Ignorance vs willful ignorance
- Consider “ignorance” in the non-pejorative sense to mean “not knowing.” We are all ignorant in that we don’t know everything. I’m extremely ignorant on nuclear physics, organic chemistry, fishing, among other things.
- The problem is willful ignorance or celebrating your ignorance as a badge of honor. Willfully ignoring the facts because they don’t fit one’s worldview is beyond ignorant; it’s just plain stupid.
- “true concept of democracy”
- Asimov is claiming at the end of his article that, without striving to learn, without having an educated citizenry who doesn’t celebrate their ignorance, we don’t have a true democracy or rule be the people.
- Oh well, what does he know. He’s just a sci-fi writer.* It’s not like he can predict the future…
*For those of you who don’t know me, this bullet point needs to be read in a sarcastic tone.
Why not trust the experts? Also, what’s wrong with highway signs having pictures instead of words?
Questions about Technology
This page is an introduction to thinking broadly about technology and beyond technologies’ uses. We’re moving towards an understanding of technology as a product of the culture from which it comes and in which it’s used. Again, this is an introduction, so, if it’s confusing at first, don’t let that confound you. We’ll revisit this throughout the semester.
Consider the following when you’re reading:
- How would I define my/our culture?
- What constitutes cultural norms, values, ideologies?
- Is there any validity to the term “conventional wisdom”?
- What do the products I use say about the person I am in regard to my social place?
- What makes the Internet uniquely…
American…
Western…
Global…
Capitalist…
Individualistic? - What do nuclear weapons say about society?
We must understand the impact science and technology have on our world. But to do that, we have to understand the social and cultural values that created sciences and technologies.
Below are a few terms that will help us think about technologies critically–think about their meaning beyond just use.
- Ideology: prevailing cultural/institutional attitudes, beliefs, norms, attributes, practices, and myths that are said to drive a society.
- Hegemony: the ways or results of a dominant group’s (the hegemon) influence over other groups in a society or region. The dominant group dictates, consciously or unconsciously, how society must be structured and how other groups must “buy into” the structure. For example, the former Soviet Union was the hegemonic power influencing the communist countries of Eastern Europe during the Cold War.
{Of course, hegemony isn’t just between nations. What hegemonic values are prevailing in American culture?} - Systemic: (adjective) pertaining to an entire system, institution, or object; something ‘systemic’ cannot be removed from the system.
Envisioning 21st Century Work
Have you ever thought about telecommuting and virtual teams? What about Instant Messaging as a collaboration tool?
Have any of you thought about the ways in which you’ll communicate in the future? How do you think collaboration will happen (and will it)? What’s the importance of collaboration and good communication in science, technology, and industry.
Interface Design and Imagination in Technical Communication
According to several journal responses I’ve gotten over the years, there appears to be no place for imagination in technical communication. Apparently, facts are facts and they’re unambiguous. Unfortunately, facts aren’t just given; they’re constructed and interpreted. One’s perception or a group’s adherence to “truth” (often called myth) can cause a person to misinterpret facts or misinterpret what is a fact.
Interfaces are perfect examples of hi-tech objects (screw ups) that rely on a user’s mental model (an individual thought process or ways of viewing the world from a subjective perspective). A growing concern in design these days deals with usability. Instead of having the tech experts decide what goes into an interface, the firm brings in users to test products or documentation for products to determine if the interface or documents are effective. In other words, can users get from Point A to Point B without issue?
Your Turn on Technology
Next week, I’ll have a Canvas prompt for you to do related to this topic. Below I have questions that I’d ask about specific technologies we’d discuss in class if we were face to face. For now, consider these questions, and I’ll address them below by commenting on mobile phones:
- What are the social values that appear embedded in the technology? In other words, if technology is mediated (comes to be) because of prevailing cultural values, from what cultural values does the technology come?
- What are the social implications of its design or use? Is it gendered?
- Is it systemic (meaning, a product of the ever-present “system” aka the man, the culture, ideologies)? Consider if it would “work” in another culture.
- What does your technology say about the culture that created it?
Mobile Phones from this Perspective
How can something as simple as a phone generate so much discussion? You will find that somewhat simple items can have enormous back stories. You could write a brief set of procedures for any number of goals users have for mobile communication devices; you could write articles on the latest devices, comparing them in fact; or you could write a history of communication where you identify the key players and contexts for mobile devices being created. Those are a bit beyond the scope of this class, but I wanted you to be introduced to the ways of thinking about these devices.
The basic thing to remember about critical technological awareness is that the concept asks you to look at technologies not for how to use them but to consider how they might use you. Although there are many approaches we could take to investigate this, I’m going to present two ways for now:
- We adopt technologies to conform to broader cultural norms;
- Technologies don’t change values, but they certainly affect behaviors and may alter certain practices.
Let’s stick with #2 for now. Cultural attitudes inform ways of doing things within a society and ways of accepting ideas—including technology. Technologies that don’t follow a culture’s values and practices most likely won’t get realized unless they alter the ideology (or in some cases are at least presented as being in accordance with social values and practices). For instance, mobile phones haven’t caused an instant communication craze; they simply fit into a world that already has a demand for it. Instant communication has been a part of Western society and much of the industrialized world long before mobile phones, but the popular phrase “wireless” has crept back into our vocabulary in the last 20 years. Besides certain companies with “wireless” in their names, connecting to the Internet via wireless network adapters is ubiquitous. Colleges, businesses, and homes have vast wireless “infrastructures,” allowing users to get online virtually anywhere. As with many technologies, wireless access has gone from a mere convenience (circa 2005) to an absolute “necessity” today.”
It’s important to remember, though, humans and their ancestors lived for hundreds of thousands of years without any means of wireless communication, but “I couldn’t live without my cell phone” or other “necessary” technologies is a common contemporary phrase. There are many behavioral changes related to mobile phone use, but consider the assumption we have as members of society: Prior to 2010, a perfectly valid question before getting someone’s contact information was, “do you have a cell phone”; now, that question is unthinkable, and one would state, “let me text you, so you have my number.”
That’s a subtle difference, but it identifies a major cultural change in practices. Think about this, in high school, when we called someone, we often asked, “what are you up to?” Now, you might text or call and ask, “where are you?”
What are some practices that you can think of that have changed or been influenced by the plethora of mobile communication devices out there? Growing up, science fiction narratives claimed we’d have flying cars and video phones by 2000. Well, it’s 2023, and we have all kinds of video calling capabilities…no flying cars, though.
Next Week
Make sure to get on Canvas and respond to the week’s prompt before Thursday, 1/12 at 11:00 pm. I won’t have a page up for Monday, 1/16, because it’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Read Ch. 1 and 2 in Tebeaux and Dragga.