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The (Im)Possible Grasp of Networked Realities: Disclosing Gregory Bateson’s Work for the Study of Technology

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Abstract

In a world that is becoming more ‘networked’ than ever, especially on the personal-everyday level—with for example digital media pervading our lives and the Internet of Things now being on the rise—we need to increasingly account for ‘networked realities’. But are we as human beings actually well-equipped enough, epistemologically speaking, to do so? Multiple approaches within the philosophy of technology suggest our usage of technologies to be in the first instance oriented towards efficiency and the achievement of goals. We thereby neglect the actual systemic, networked nature of technology, or its wider impacts. With regard to the pressing issue of how to cross the ‘gap’ between these two ‘modes,’ the paper at hand engages with the work of Gregory Bateson, reading him as a philosopher of technology. Bateson’s notions of “conscious purpose” and “learning” offer excellent tools to understand our predicament of living in a networked world but being partly unable to sufficiently grasp and come to terms with this situation. Moreover, as the article endeavors to demonstrate, Bateson’s thought is to be cast as a crucial addition to the body of theory being developed in the philosophy of technology.

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Notes

  1. For biographical details and/or overviews of his work, see Bateson 2001, Charlton 2008, Harries-Jones 1995, Lipset 1982.

  2. More precisely, Bateson enumerates six criteria for mental activity (2002: 83ff.).

  3. For a more detailed assessment of the concept in terms of its origins, development, and current applications, cf. Van Den Eede 2016.

  4. The attribution, however, is disputed, as there seems to exist no original source. See https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead.

  5. For a highly interesting and pertinent account of how Bateson’s analysis of paradox and most specifically his (earlier) theory of communication play out in the context of issues of ICT innovation and governance, see Mansell 2012.

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  1. Centre for Ethics and Humanism (ETHU), Culture, Emancipation, Media and Society (CEMESO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050, Brussels, Belgium

    Yoni Van Den Eede

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Van Den Eede, Y. The (Im)Possible Grasp of Networked Realities: Disclosing Gregory Bateson’s Work for the Study of Technology. Hum Stud 39, 601–620 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10746-016-9400-x

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