I have been quite confused about knowledge
and such questions lately. Here's the latest:
What are the levels of abstraction that people are viewed through?
By this I mean different dynamics or systems. For example, an
individual, a group, a public, humanity and so on. I don't know
if it's my own bias, but it would seem that where there used to
be several levels of abstraction, now there are less. There used
to be family, friend group (often segregated by gender), school
class, work group, extended family, the public, the nation.
These different groups had different methods and functions of
interaction. There were set times and places of interaction
that are becoming increasingly rare. The multiplicity has been
flattened. Are there pubs any more in the sense of "public
spaces"? When do you have a meaningful conversation with a
stranger in real life? It doesn't seem to happen. There has to
be a reason to congregate, like a particular hobby or political
view or project.
Another question related to the above:
What difference does it make that the public is no longer
"active" part of the economic game but a resource to be mined?
There has to be something here that has a profound effect on the
practical philosophies people have about their lives. I don't
know if it has trickled through the society yet. There's
something dehumanising about it for sure. I suppose at least
it makes people think of others (and maybe themselves too) as
less individuals and more as a part of a vaguely statistical
mass of opinions and viewpoints. As long as you were part of the
old notion of the public, there was _some_ individuality left as
you were seen as a voter, but now that the "vote" is happening
all the time through likes, you are in some sense losing your
value. The vote has lost it's value. Whether you provide more or
less of datapoints doesn't matter as long as you provide enough
of them that you can be tied to someone semi-identical to
you who provides more of them.
