{"id":41,"date":"2024-12-16T12:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T09:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/?p=41"},"modified":"2024-12-16T12:38:08","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T09:38:08","slug":"challenging-cultural-orthodoxy-unpacking-the-myth-of-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/2024\/12\/16\/challenging-cultural-orthodoxy-unpacking-the-myth-of-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenging Cultural Orthodoxy: Unpacking The Myth of Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

The whole headlong run into faster\/more powerful\/more complicated is rooted in something larger than gaming. The concept\u00a0of innovation and progress have become so ingrained in us as a people, that we tend to view it as a natural given, like gravity. We expect it, and consider it an irresistible force. This has turned us into a bunch of neophiles - people obsessed with novelty.<\/p>\n

This obsession was folded into marketing and advertising, creating a steady drumbeat that makes people anticipate the \u201cnext thing,\u201d\u00a0and fear being \u201cleft behind.\u201d\u00a0Many products have generated revenue off of this fear and expectation, without actually bringing anything really compelling to the latest iteration. We just expect it, like a pack of Pavlovian dogs.<\/p>\n

This drumbeat of progress tells us that the new thing is naturally better. Sometimes it really is an innovation, and sometimes it\u2019s a bunch of hype. But we\u2019ve been on this ride for so long, that now it\u2019s just part of how we look at things. The idea of inevitable forward motion in all things - progress - has take on mythic proportions, and shapes culture in\u00a0ways that can be hard to recognize because they are so familiar to us. This mythic quality doesn\u2019t mean that progress doesn\u2019t exist, because of course, it does. What it means is that the way our expectation has been trained, and the way in which we relate to the new through that expectation, has distorted the way we evaluate whether something is or is not actual progress.<\/p>\n

Another important consideration is that we\u2019ve been so trained to excitedly run to the next thing, and the pace of cultural change has so increased, that we do a lot less reflection and long-term follow-up evaluation than\u00a0we should. New steps are very often follow-ons to previous changes that we haven\u2019t really evaluated. We end up with a pile of poorly-examined premises we\u2019re building on.<\/p>\n

This elevation of change also\u00a0trains people to look upon the past with derision. Look around, and you\u2019ll see this kind of past-deriding everywhere. It\u2019s a common-enough formula in viral social media posts -\u00a0get some yuks by laughing at how silly that old stuff was!<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0It shows up in advertising all the time, especially when tech is being advertised.\u00a0It\u2019s not\u00a0just the speed and power of our silicon and software, but the paradigms that shape its purpose and use.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Unfortunately, our reflexive derision of the past makes us less likely to revisit it and re-evaluate the paths we\u2019ve taken.<\/p>\n

Yes - there are many ways in which newer things are demonstrably better. They help us perform some task more accurately, or efficiently. But that leads me to the crux of this thing:<\/p>\n

How are we defining \u201cbetter?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What happens when we realize the yardstick we\u2019ve been using to measure\u00a0\u201cbetter\u201d<\/em>\u00a0is not what we thought it was? When we realize that\u00a0this particular measure<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0of overall improvement is only partial, and at times arbitrary? Even some of our tried and true \u201cobjective standards,\u201d\u00a0like the ones I mentioned above:\u00a0accuracy<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0efficiency<\/strong><\/em>\u2026 They measure specific aspects of an experience, but do they objectively hold a lock on the definition of\u00a0better? If they do, why are vinyl records so popular right now? Clearly, even these sacred measurements are imperfect. Vinyl lovers have decided that records are better in some key ways, in spite of\u00a0(and also because of)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0not being more accurate (in sound fidelity) or efficient (as a means of playback). Alternate criteria for \u201cbetter\u201d\u00a0in this case include things like having a physical object, the \u201critual\u201d\u00a0aspect of getting a record out, cleaning it, placing the tone arm, flipping to the other side... Even the primitive method of record grooves mechanically recreating vibrations in a stylus, is part of the charm. We just like it that way.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s at this point that we realize that this headlong run into an arbitrary future defined by narrow focuses, can put the blinders on us. We need to look around and ask not if something is \u201cbetter\u201d\u00a0according to the criteria marketed to us,\u00a0but according to more considered criteria that involve overall quality of experience, and by extension, life.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a novel idea. Giants of the tech world, such as\u00a0Jaron Lanier<\/a>\u00a0(founding\u00a0father of virtual reality\u00a0and Silicon Valley insider)\u00a0have been actively questioning various aspects of tech world \u201cprogress\u201d\u00a0for years now -\u00a0questioning fundamental choices, and how \u201cIn Tech We Trust\u201d\u00a0has directed cultural trajectories in negative directions.<\/a><\/p>\n

Popular Linux insider\u00a0and spokesperson Bryan Lunduke\u00a0has done informal self-experiments, such as the one where\u00a0he decided to do all of his computing for a month according to the paradigms of 1989.<\/a>\u00a0He emerged with some interesting insights, and found himself overall happier, and more relaxed. His takeaway was that he liked the idea of going back to certain ways of thinking about and relating to technology, and wanted to bring those reclaimed values into the present.<\/p>\n

Once we prick this mythic bubble, we can stop being so focused on short-sighted understandings, look around, and see a much bigger world around us. It\u2019s a world composed of entire cultural histories waiting to be explored, and their discarded benefits reclaimed.\u00a0I believe our best future requires key ingredients we need to retrieve from our past.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In addition to accuracy and efficiency, another of the criteria we have been sold on is the idea of\u00a0sophistication.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0We love that our entertainments have become so big, so richly envisioned, so\u00a0epic!<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0We\u2019re at a point now where digital entertainment (gaming especially) has become\u00a0so immersive and rich, it can nearly replace your real life.<\/a>\u00a0We need to recognize that right now, it is a well-documented fact that\u00a0modern tech has deployed an army of psychological manipulators against us<\/a>\u00a0- from the macro to the micro -\u00a0making their offerings both addictive and manipulative.<\/a><\/p>\n

Consider also that\u00a0we know smartphones, apps, and social media are intentionally designed to be addictive<\/a>\u00a0- not just enjoyable, but inducing compulsive behavior.\u00a0Facebook, the masters of addictive manipulation,<\/a>\u00a0are\u00a0pushing hard on VR gaming.<\/a>\u00a0Surely, some future entertainment mashing up\u00a0VR, AI, and addictive manipulations is being cooked up into a culmination that everyone will have been trained to find irresistible.<\/p>\n

Is that really the future we want?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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And we need to ask - is sophistication even the direction we want to keep traveling? We\u2019re in such an info-deluge in all areas of life.\u00a0Everything<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0has become so much more complicated. We\u2019ve become addicted to distraction, hyper-connection, and the virtual over the actual. Maybe that dull state of agitation and dissatisfaction we often feel is telling us that we need to cultivate the opposite - simplicity, focus, and presence. Maybe bucking the trend and re-engaging the past is not some personal, nostalgic self-indulgence, but it\u2019s part of a larger counter-cultural move that says ENOUGH!\u00a0and starts seeking out\u00a0antidotes to this addiction we\u2019ve gotten ourselves into.<\/p>\n

Are we free to redefine\u00a0better,<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0or do we stay stuck\u00a0on the trajectory\u00a0we\u2019re on? Which future will win?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s game on, man.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

retrogamestart<\/p>\n

https:\/\/retrogamestart.com\/answers\/why-retro-video-gaming-so-popular-its-much-more-than-nostalgia<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The whole headlong run into faster\/more powerful\/more complicated is rooted in something larger than gaming. The concept\u00a0of innovation and progress have become so ingrained in us as a people, that we tend to view it as a natural given, like gravity. We expect it, and consider it an irresistible force. This has turned us into … Continue reading Challenging Cultural Orthodoxy: Unpacking The Myth of Progress<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794685,"featured_media":6,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/794685"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.e-me.edu.gr\/a855072\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}