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vgaffney's picture

Herzog and Chorost

 I think this quote by Herzog is really interesting, and, like you, I’m not sure I entirely agree with him. Nevertheless, your initial response to the quote reminded me of our discussion with Michael Chorost and the readings from his book. The notion that “psychology and self-reflection” is a catastrophic mistake for humans reminded me of Chorost’s World Wide Web of interconnecting minds. Herzog’s notion of illuminating the “dark corners” and, consequently, perhaps knowing or realizing too much evokes my initial response to Chorost’s idea of an interconnected web of minds via the internet. In a similar sense, I’m still wary of such interconnectivity, and think—as Herzog does in terms of “psychology” and “self-reflection”—that perhaps such a web of interaction—such an increase in our knowledge of these “dark corners—would be deleterious to humanity. Chorost does claim that we will never be able to “experience the world exactly the way another brain does”, yet I feel myself resisting the extent of the knowledge that such access—albeit limited—would give us to others’ thoughts and emotions. There are, perhaps, positive aspects of such interaction, but I do think that Herzog’s quote interestingly evokes some of the potential negative aspects of communication.

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