College Lecture Series - Neil Postman - "The Surrender of Culture to Technology"

There's a related video from a March, 1997 lecture, in which Postman discusses the questions. Though I agree with much of what he says, I also feel he suffered from a bit of failure of imagination in conceiving of what the possible utility of information might be. [this video] Two bits, both in the Q&A, particularly stand out. First: the observation that as the hoi polloi are told they need to acquire technical skills, the ruling class retains its power by learning how to speak and write effectively. Second: "I feel very strongly about this: what is distracting us from solving some of the problems that you mention is a kind of a world view that's being promoted now by computer technology, that the main reason we have problems in the world is that we have insufficient information. If only we could get more information, easier to access, and get it faster, then we can solve this problem, or any of the others you mention. And I think this is an awesome conceit, and a terrible mis-judgement. Look, if there are children starving anyplace, it's not because we have insufficient information. if there's crime rampant in the streets in New York, Detroit, and Chicago, it's not because we have insufficient information. If the ozone layer is being depleted and the rainforest is disappearing, it's not because we have insufficient information. And if you can't get along with your own relatives, it's not because you have insufficient information. But we have come to believe that that is the sourc