Fall quarter I became obsessed with the idea of distributed knowledge, the idea that we no longer just have knowledge in our heads, but also what is constantly or near-constantly at our hands (on the internet, via the cell phone, over IM, etc.) because we can access and apply this knowledge almost as quickly as if we already knew it. It’s like we’re all accessing a huge pool of shared knowledge. Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?
Or so I thought, and perhaps so I still think. I am working this out in my mind. In Ethics of Diversity this week, we read “The Moral Insight” by Josiah Royce, in which Royce argues that all too often we see others, not as real human beings with their own hopes, fears, desires, joys, and sorrows, but rather as someone there to meet our needs. Royce writes:
What then is thy neighbor? He too is a mass of states, of experiences, thoguths, and desires, just as real as thou are, no more but yet no less present to thy experience now than is they future Self. He is not that face that frowns or smiles at thee, although often thou thinkest him as only that. He is not the arm that strikes or defends thee, not the voice that speaks to thee, not that machine that gives thee what thou desirest when thou movest it with the offer of moeny. To be sure, thou dost often think of him as if he were that automaton younder, that answers thee when thous speakest to it. But no, they neighbor is as actual, as concrete, as thou art. (57, emphasis added)
And this complicates/problematizes my conception of distributed knowledge. Is it ethical to view it as such; is it ethical to view everyone else and the world wide web as an extension of oneself? As a source of knowledge? As a place where I can ask questions and receive answers simultaneously? Is it ethical to log into an instant messenger client and ask and question and then say goodbye? Perhaps once. But consistantly?
Is it ethical to call up someone to merely ask them a question and then say goodbye?
Are we not just using other human beings, ignoring the fact that they have hopes, dreams, fears, desires, sorrows, and joys, and instead focusing on them as an extension of ourselves?
