Xref: utzoo sci.lang:4426 comp.cog-eng:1067 sci.psychology:1764
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bbn!apple!voder!pyramid!prls!philabs!ttidca!hollombe
From: hollombe@ttidca.TTI.COM (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: sci.lang,comp.cog-eng,sci.psychology
Subject: Re: Effects of poor writing? (Long)
Message-ID: <4352@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Date: 2 May 89 19:11:58 GMT
References: <39131@bbn.COM> <1982@trantor.harris-atd.com> <2947@tank.uchicago.edu> <2970@tank.uchicago.edu> <357@itcatl.UUCP> <2000@trantor.harris-atd.com>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcb.tti.com (The Polymath)
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 36

In article <2000@trantor.harris-atd.com> chuck@trantor.harris-atd.com (Chuck Musciano) writes:
}In article <357@itcatl.UUCP> jonathan@itcatl.UUCP (Jonathan Peterson) writes:
}>	I think traditional "literacy" is falling more and more by the wayside 
}>as it becomes less important to human communication.  One can only assume
}>that natural language, speech recognition, and higher resolution communication
}>media (HDTV, ISDN) technologies will make literacy less important in the
}>workplace of the future.  Literacy is already outdated by TV, film and radio
}>for entertainment.  The industrial revolution made literacy a prerequisite for
}>success, the information revolution just beginning may well make literacy
}>unneeded again.

Sure.  And we're all working in paperless offices, right?

If anything, the information revolution has put a premium on literacy.
HDTV will finally allow decent presentation of high density text on video
screens.  Natural language processing and speech recognition have been ten
years in the future for the last 30 years.  Right now they're five years
in the future and I'll bet they stay there for the next 15 years.  Heck,
we're just barely beginning to get our act together on character text and
grammar recognition.

If you think the crap and pap that even the best of TV programming
presents can replace books, you must be pretty illiterate yourself.  Film
isn't significantly better and radio isn't even a visual medium.

}     An illiterate populace is an easily manipulated, I would even say
}stupid, populace.  Literacy is really a cornerstone of freedom.

Absolutely true.  Have you noticed who's been gutting state and federal
education programs for the last few decades?  Scary.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe@ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimati Nil
Citicorp(+)TTI                                                 Carborundum
3100 Ocean Park Blvd.   (213) 452-9191, x2483
Santa Monica, CA  90405 {csun|philabs|psivax}!ttidca!hollombe