The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data

by Michael P. Lynch

Overview

"An intelligent book that struggles honestly with important questions: Is the net turning us into passive knowers? Is it degrading our ability to reason? What can we do about this?" —David Weinberger, Los Angeles Review of Books

We used to say "seeing is believing"; now, googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world’s information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf in search of answers. We just open our browsers, type in a few keywords and wait for the information to come to us. Now firmly established as a pioneering work of modern philosophy, The Internet of Us has helped revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age. Indeed, demonstrating that knowledge based on reason plays an essential role in society and that there is more to “knowing” than just acquiring information, leading philosopher Michael P. Lynch shows how our digital way of life makes us value some ways of processing information over others, and thus risks distorting the greatest traits of mankind. Charting a path from Plato’s cave to Google Glass, the result is a necessary guide on how to navigate the philosophical quagmire that is the "Internet of Things."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631491863
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	03/17/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	995,931
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Michael P. Lynch is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. His previous books include True to Life and The Internet of Us.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

Part 1 The New Old Problems of Knowledge

1 Our Digital Form of Life 3

Neuromedia 3

Socrates on the Way to Larissa 12

Welcome to the Library 17

2 Google-Knowing 21

Easy Answers 21

Being Receptive: Downloading Facts 26

John Locke Agrees with Mom 31

Being Reasonable: Uploading Reasons 36

3 Fragmented Reasons: Is the Internet Making Us Less Reasonable? 41

The Abstract Society 41

When Fights Break Out in the Library 44

The Rationalist's Delusion 50

Democracy as a Space of Reasons 55

4 Truth, Lies and Social Media 65

Deleting the Truth 65

The Real as Virtual 67

Interlude: To SIM or Not to SIM 75

Falsehood, Fakes and the Noble Lie 77

Objectivity and Our Constructed World 83

Part II How We Know Now

5 Who Wants to Know: Privacy and Autonomy 89

Life in the Panopticon 89

The Values of Privacy 93

The Pool of Information 95

Privacy and the Concept of a Person 101

Transparency and Power 107

6 Who Does Know: Crowds, Clouds and Networks 111

Dead Metaphors 111

Knowledge Ain't Just in (Your) Head 113

The Knowing Crowd 116

The "Netography" of Knowledge 125

7 Who Gets to Know: The Political Economy of Knowledge 133

Knowledge Democratized? 133

Epistemic Equality 138

Walmarting the University 148

8 Understanding and the Digital Human 155

Big Knowledge 155

The End of Theory? 156

Understanding Understanding 163

Knowing How to Chuck 167

Coming to Understand as a Creative Act 174

9 The Internet of Us 179

Technology and Understanding 179

Information and the Ties That Bind 184

Acknowledgments 189

Notes 191

Bibliography 205

Index 215

Editorial Reviews

"In The Internet of Us, Michael P. Lynch begins by pointing out, rightly enough, that in the age of the Internet we seem simultaneously to know more and know less. This leads him, philosopher that he is, to ask some questions about what it means to say that we know something…Mr. Lynch’s basic argument is that if we understand better the conditions under which knowledge is produced and disseminated—conditions he explores clearly and cogently—then we will become more ‘responsible’ knowers."

Wall Street Journal - Alan Jacobs

"[Lynch] pursues his argument with commendable seriousness, clarity, and attunement to historical context….He has written an intelligent book that struggles honestly with important questions: Is the net turning us into passive knowers? Is it degrading our ability to reason? What can we do about this?"

David Weinberger

"To object to the internet would be like objecting to the atmosphere. But just as the atmosphere can be too warm, too toxic or can send violent storms our way, so, too, can the infosphere create many difficulties, not the least of which is the conflict between privacy and security. Luckily, there’s a new book out there by philosopher Michael P. Lynch. The Internet of Us shares my appreciation for what is less a new technology than a new way of knowing."

Hartford Courant - Robert M. Thorson

"Combing the sharp insights of a leading philosopher with the lucid, accessible style of a natural historian, Lynch shows us how, as ‘knowledge’ has become a manufactured—and controlled—commodity, genuine understanding and creativity are becoming dangerously scarce. Essential reading for educators, parents, policymakers and, one hopes, those pulling the levers in the knowledge economy."

Paul Roberts

"Lynch’s basic argument is that if we understand better the conditions under which knowledge is produced and disseminated—conditions he explores clearly and cogently—then we will become more ‘responsible' knowers."

Wall Street Journal

"Michael P. Lynch is a deep thinker and a wise soul. In his beautifully written The Internet of Us, he goes to the heart of a high-stakes existential drama in which nothing less than the fates of knowledge, education, democracy and what it means to be human are at stake."

Owen Flanagan

"In this age of ‘surf Google now,’ everyone is an expert by virtue of the instant ability to click for answers…Lynch’s treatise shows us that constantly forsaking the effort to dig and analyze in favor of quick information is a recipe for disaster that too often results in impulsive half-formed decisions…[T]his is a must read book."

Electric Review

"[A] fascinating new book…Lynch has been writing about this topic for a long time, and passionately."

The New Yorker - Jill Lepore

"A bracing challenge to Internet enthusiasts."

Booklist

10/15/2015
So much information comes at us these days, especially via the Internet, that we can barely absorb it all, much less work through it to some kind of understanding. That's bad news, argues rising-star philosopher Lynch; knowledge is more than just acquiring facts.

Library Journal

Dan Woren’s clear, straightforward narration warms what is otherwise a dry academic series of discussions that consider the impact of the Internet on humans’ ability to think and reason. Are people turning into passive entities who know little and care less beyond the instantaneous search for facts? Is our ability to reason and truly understand being negatively impacted? What is the difference between intelligent discussion of differing opinions and blatant online marketing based upon our digitally established online profile? While Woren assumes the persona of an old media anchorman, his enlivening style does provide some humanity that the words themselves lack. Precise enunciation and diction aid this philosophical examination of issues that plague our digital lives today. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile

Dan Woren’s clear, straightforward narration warms what is otherwise a dry academic series of discussions that consider the impact of the Internet on humans’ ability to think and reason. Are people turning into passive entities who know little and care less beyond the instantaneous search for facts? Is our ability to reason and truly understand being negatively impacted? What is the difference between intelligent discussion of differing opinions and blatant online marketing based upon our digitally established online profile? While Woren assumes the persona of an old media anchorman, his enlivening style does provide some humanity that the words themselves lack. Precise enunciation and diction aid this philosophical examination of issues that plague our digital lives today. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2017 - AudioFile

★ 2015-12-09
How the Internet and "Google-knowing" can aggravate our tendency to be unreasonable. Lynch (Philosophy, Director of the Humanities Institute/Univ. of Connecticut; In Praise of Reason: Why Rationality Matters For Democracy, 2012, etc.) takes issue with the widely accepted notion that the Internet is a net benefit because it makes more information available to more people more quickly and easily. He is concerned with the consequences of a growing confusion between our receptivity to information and informed understanding as well as the advantages taken by data companies based on surveillance and systematic invasions of privacy. Lynch fears the growing impact of rumors and false information through what he calls "information cascades." Social media and the Internet in general, he writes, "are particularly susceptible" to a phenomenon comparable to "mob mentality." After the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, a photograph of a man and wounded woman were circulated, along with the story that the man had been about to propose marriage. However, the story was made up. Lynch argues that the trust people give to their sources of information can be both misplaced and abused. The Internet gives us more to disagree about and more sources to choose from. Given that many people limit whom they talk to and trust, those they agree with and think are authorities, the author is concerned that the Internet is increasing group polarization and the emergence of what he calls "isolated tribes." For him, reasonableness can go by the wayside when people begin to discuss the different principles on which their views are based. However, the Internet did not cause people to act this way. Lynch effectively presents the case for rationality against factional loyalties and insists that there should be vigorous promotion of scientific methods and thinking in public discourse. This activity would encourage the positive habits of evaluating authority and sources. An excellent, much-needed contribution to the constant battle to sort truth from falsity.

Kirkus Reviews