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RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
Subject:RE: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age? From:"Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com> To:"'Gene Kim-Eng'" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:52:28 -0700
Why should we need to understand how shrink wrap technology works? It
matters not at all to me *how* my car works, so long as it does. In a
specialized society, we have experts who know how this stuff works and how
to make it work again.
Most people have no idea how to construct clothing, for example. And why
should they?
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Gene Kim-Eng
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 7:25 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Have We Entered a Post-Literate Technological Age?
Nothing has changed.
The first portable timepiece was built in the 1600's, the pocket watch
followed
in the 1700's and by the 1800's watches had become sufficiently affordable
to be
common. Do you think the average watch owner of any of those periods could
have
explained how the mechanisms inside their watches kept time?
The earliest instance of something commonly used that could not be explained
technologically or scientifically by its average user was probably fire.
Gene Kim-Eng
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel Ng" <kjng -at- gprotechnologies -dot- com>
> When it comes to day to day communication about technology, for perfectly
> functional adults, people can use technology but find it hard to talk or
> describe how they use it. Most don't even know the program they use. As a
> person who writes and instructs about technology, this makes an
interesting
> read.
Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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