I listened to Doug Rushkoff - Renaissance Prospects (via ITConversations) this morning on the commute. It was an eye-opening presentation, framing a bunch of concepts that have been bubbling beneath the surface, in the context of a "new renaissance".
He describes a renaissance as an era where we learn to deal with additional dimensions. In the Renaissance, artists learned to create perspective to provide the appearance of a third dimension. Explorers circumnavigated the globe, showing it was round and not flat. Contrast this with VR and navigable creations, and placing objects into orbit around the Earth (and sending people and probes away from it).
Interesting contrasts which Doug suggests are indicating this new renaissance:
- Economy (consume/acquire) vs. Ecology (connect and relate)
- Receive ("priests" broadcast the Word) vs. Interpret (everyone can read and form their own opinion) vs. Publish (internet as accelerator)
- Freud (self) vs. Jung (collective)
- Individual vs. Connected