Socrates & Second Thoughts About Books

I just ran across this brilliant bit about what Socrates thought about those new-fangled things someone invented for telling stories: books. This comes from Thomas West, Thinking Like Einstein: Returning to Our Visual Roots with the Emerging Revolution in Computer Information Visualization.

Each technology has its limits. Long ago, Socrates described some second thoughts he had about the new and questionable technology called a "book." He thought it had several weaknesses. A book could not adjust what it was saying, as a living person would, to what would be appropriate for certain listeners or specific times or places.

In addition, a book could not be interactive, as in a conversation or dialogue between persons. And finally, according to Socrates, in a book the written words "seem to talk to you as if they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say, from a desire to be instructed, they go on telling you just the same thing forever."

After more than two millennia, it now seems that a new kind of technology, with interactive multimedia capabilities, may be beginning to address some of Socrates' concerns.

In all truth I have not read Socrates, nor Thomas West's brilliant book. I found this passage in another book, Crazy Busy, by Dr. Edward Hallowell. More about that book later.

Comments

[Bud Bilanich]

Patsi:
You're right. Internet technology -- especially blogs -- allow for a conversation between an author and his or her audience.
Amazon.com has taken this one step further with their "plogs" idea. Plogs allow authors to write posts that are sent directly to people who have bought their book on Amazon. They are a great way to encourage interaction between a writer and his or her readers.
Bud Bilanich
The Common Sense Guy
www.CommonSenseGuy.com