15-20 Minute Paper
Marcel O’Gorman
University of Waterloo
Abstract
In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates tells the story of the god Theuth, who offers writing as a gift, a pharmakon to King Thamus. This myth has become central to contemporary discourses about new media. Thamus’s refusal of the gift has buttressed the arguments of digital naysayers such as Bernard Stiegler, who view digital mnemotechnics as a recipe for “benumbing the soul.” On the other hand, since writing has obviously not transformed humans into “empty vessels,” digital dévotées view Plato’s myth as a rationale for the unencumbered progress of mnemotechnology. What is at play in this discourse on memory is the ambivalent nature of mnemotechnology—as pharmakon, it can both heal and kill—and its inscrutable impact on what we consider to be the human soul (Plato), psyche (Freud), or spirit (Stiegler). Today, we have our own mnemotechnical pharmaka in the shape of ubiquitous video recording, GPS tracking, hard drives, and networked databanks. My argument suggests that we must embrace mnemotechnical progress just as we must, as David Wills suggests, “reserve the right to hold back.” With this in mind, this presentation will explore the problematic concept of digital dementia, which emerges from our reliance on archival memory. I will engage not only in a philosophical discourse, but in a description of digital projects conducted by the Critical Media Lab in collaboration with the Murray Alzheimer’s Research and Education Program (MAREP) at the University of Waterloo. By demonstrating how the very technologies responsible for digital dementia might also be used as therapies for people living with Alzheimer’s, my hope is to encourage a broad therapeutics of digital care in age where mnemotechnnologies are viewed as a benchmark of progress.