** I get a little weary of people who view every technological innovation as a further slide down the steep slope to perdition. Sure, every innovation brings an explosion of mediocrity, silliness and even disastrous mistakes. But it's all part of the chemicalization of thought when it must move from one stage to another of progress. Things get messy because the entrenched systems are rocked at their foundations.
But I believe that whatever is good is permanent, so whatever is good in an old system somehow gets preserved - though it may take a while for this to show up. This article from The Observer gives an example from the world of digital photography - but it can be applied to any situation where proponents of the "old" system argue that it is better. They tend to forget that every innovation was revolutionary in its time and was probably opposed for the same reasons today's innovations are opposed. Technology is only a way of doing something - ultimately getting at the truth or reality of things. The medum is defintely NOT the message -- it's only a tool to the message. Anyway, check out this article: Call that a photograph?
