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May 24, 2010, 10 a.m.

David Weinberger: How information became the “dominant metaphor” of contemporary intellectual life

Every week, our friends at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society invite academics and other thinkers to discuss their work over lunch. Thankfully for us, they record the sessions. Over the next week or so, we’ll be passing along some of the talks over the past few months that are most relevant to the future of news.

First up: David Weinberger. The Cluetrain Manifesto author and Internet philosopher discusses information — as a paradigm, as an irony, as a way of comprehending ourselves and the world. Given the fact that we don’t understand, in any meaningful way, what information actually is, Weinberger says, it’s worth considering how it became the “dominant metaphor” of our intellectual life — and how the metaphor is changing as we enter the digital age.

If you don’t have time to watch, Ethan Zuckerman liveblogged the talk, and David posted an early draft outline of it.

POSTED     May 24, 2010, 10 a.m.
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