RessourcesProspective
Arthur C.Clarke, scientifique et grand écrivain de science-fiction (2001 l’odyssée de l’espace), s’exprime à 86 ans sur la société de l’information. Morceaux choisis:
A propos de l’"invention" qui lui est attribuée de la communication par satellites (1945):
"But we as a species have a deep urge to communicate so if something is technologically feasible, we will accomplish it sooner rather than later. If you doubt this, just think of how fast the Internet has spread."
Sur la télévision et l’enseignement:
"The cathode ray tube and now the plasma screen – is a window to the world. Often it may be a very murky window, but Ive slowly come to the conclusion that, on balance, even bad TV is preferable to no TV at all."
Sur la censure:
"The Information Age has opened many doors for our eager minds to explore. Now the question is not so much What information do I want? as What information do I not want?. Never before in our history have we been able to enjoy such a tremendous amount of that simple human freedom – choice.
We are now faced with the responsibility of discernment. Just as our ancestors quickly realised that no one was going to force them to read the entire library of a thousand books, we are now overcoming the initial alarm at the sheer weight of available information and coming to understand that it is not the information itself that determines our future, only the use we can make of it"
Sur l’"information overload":
"Strangely, as history has shown, our species survived that earlier deluge of information (l’imprimerie), and some say, even advanced because of it. I am not so much concerned with the proliferation of information as the purpose for which it is used. Technology carries with it a responsibility that we are obliged to consider."
Sur la trop grande importance donnée aux outils par les décideurs:
"ICTs should be part of a wider solution that needs to be applied with care and caution. Information and communications technologies should be part of the solution, and not the only solution."
Sur les technologies de l’avenir:
"I see voice recognition as the next major step forward which will also overcome current limitations of literacy and make ICTs truly accessible to millions of people.
Voice recognition systems that are now coming into use enable users to bypass the keyboard and dictate inputs directly. But these systems still have some limitations: while they are very valuable for those working alone, imagine the chaos that a whole officeful of talkers could produce!"
Et encore:
"the ultimate input-output device would bypass all the bodys sense organs and provide signals directly into the brain. Exactly how this would be done I leave to biotechnicians to figure out, but in 3001: The Final Odyssey, I described precisely such a device, which I called the Braincap. One factor that might delay its general adoption is that the wearer would probably have to be completely bald to use the tightly fitting helmet." (voir post précédent)
Sur les modification que l’informatique a apporté au langage:
"Computers have introduced words and phrases into our language, which would have been utterly meaningless only a few decades ago. Could your grandparents have understood your anguished cry My laptop has crashed? And what would they have made of `megabytes, `hard drives, `back-ups or Googling?"