Course Reflection: On Digital Pessimism

“Knowledge is the antidote to fear” (Ralph Emerson, 1971, pg. 132). 

I entered this course wielding a heavily critical, and admittedly, fearful perspective regarding the impact of developing technologies on society. However, the course content washed away some of my hopelessness when it came to the direction of technological advancements and their role in shaping the future of industry, community, and humanity at-large. 

As a government professional, communication is a huge part of my work - and I have been apprehensive about the possibility of AI affecting the way I do my job, or even threatening the existence of my position altogether. Yet, this course advocates that while AI can enhance writing with the help of human guidance, that the limitations of AI still necessitate a centering of human intelligence as the foundation of written work (Wu et al., 2021). In addition, analyzing how attitudes towards AI are often influenced by dramaticic narratives in popular media guided my attention away from dystopian worst-case scenarios and towards genuine current issues that I can help influence (Benson, 2022). This reinforced a sense of agency, helping me reject notions of AI’s inevitable demise into crimes against humanity while reminding me to ground my online practices into current ethical considerations such as AI algorithm bias (Gunter, 2023). 

Keeping with the theme of dismantling negative perceptions of digital advancement, I was also deeply inspired by the logic underlying Sue Thomas’ concept of technobiophilia, which recognizes that the digital world is not opposition to the natural world, but merely an extension of biological life (Thomas, 2018). Ultimately, this allowed me to approach the digital world with less hesitation and more appreciation for the wonder and possibility that comes with technological advancement. 

This newfound optimism has allowed me to better appreciate how to integrate this course into my professional work. I was most called to action through the development of my knowledge and skills related to transliteracy, which was introduced early on as an exploration of what aspects of human communication are lost or gained as we move through different mediums (Thomas, 2008). This course actively coaxed the theory of transliteracy into practice as assignments required contemplation of how to translate messages across different forms of sharing such as word clouds, blog posts, AI selfies, and videos - while still taking paise to consider the aspects like visuality or ephemerality. This is something I will continue to contemplate as a policy enthusiast who uses a variety of formats to communicate different ideas and plans -  in analyzing how to best extrapolate the benefits of each medium to suit the information, audience, and intentions of sharing, I can better my work. Further, I am forced to develop and maintain an understanding that aligns with the implications of transliteracy; the notion that communication as a practice is shaped by technological development, and the reality that I have an opportunity to participate in the evolution of information transmission.

References

Benson, D. (2022). AI in fiction and the future of war. The Strategy Bridge. https://thestrategybridge.org/the-bridge/2022/6/3/ai-in-fiction-and-the-future-of-war

Emerson, R. W. (1971). The collected works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Society and solitude (p. 132). Harvard University Press.

Gunter, D. (2023). AI, the new frontier - opportunities and challenges: Artificial intelligence is the future for all industries - especially scholarly publishing. Research Information, 4–6.

Thomas, S. (2011, July 7). Transliteracy lecture by Sue Thomas [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r02W5aTmJgI

Thomas, S. (2018). Nature and wellbeing in the digital age: How to feel better without logging off.https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B06XS85C26/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=technobiop08b-21&linkId=212ce712bbeec36f26677071ec9f8907

Wu, J., Ouyang, L., Ziegler, D. M., Stiennon, N., Lowe, R., Leike, J., & Christiano, P. (2021). Recursively summarizing books with human feedback. arXiv preprint arXiv:2109.10862. https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.10862