The theology of wikipedia?
Wikipedia, the open-source knowledge base that has become the most-used encyclopedia in the world, has been in the news a lot of late, with a number of stories about the limits of open-sourcing knowledge. This article from today's New York Times is just the latest to mention some of the issues.
The idea behind wikipedia is open-source, a concept that works well in the software world, in which a software writer allows his or her product to be tinkered with and improved upon by anyone and everyone in an attempt to create the most usable product possible. Wiki just takes it one step further--rather than open-sourcing computer code, it open-sources knowledge. Why have a single editor when you can have millions of people responsible for the content of a shared knowledge base?
There are some major philosophical, and even theological issues, raised here. In many ways the wiki movement represents the apotheosis of modernity--we have shaken off the shackles of religious and political power concentration in the hands of the few, and now we set our sights on knowledge itself. Knowledge has become democratized. Wonderful.
But, as any number of stories in recent months have illustrated, this is not a failsafe system. Like any large organism, there are unwanted parts that impinge on the purity of the wiki enterprise. Not to mention the question of the individual user, who has to ask, "Do I trust some guy in Kansas City to tell me about the history of Rhodesia or the molecular composition of feldspar?" We presumably have to ask the same question about the editor at Brittanica, too, but someone's livelihood is at stake in that case, so presumably we can put more stock in what they have to say.
From a theological perspective, one wonders whether the Wiki phenomenon represents the fruition of the understanding of the Revelation at Sinai conveyed in the midrash: That God spoke to 600,000 people simultaneously, and yet everyone heard the voice of God in the voice appropriate for them--old people in the voice of old people, babies in the voice of babies, etc. Or, as the Talmud mentions, the notion that the voice of God was the voice of Moses. Does Wiki mark our entrance into a world in which the subjective and objective are joined? Where knowledge--which we have for so long thought of as objectively true or false--is still true or false, but dependent, and indeed the product of, thousands of human minds?
The benefit of believing in revelation, when it comes to stuff like this, is that it posits the existence of some absolute in which to ground our knowledge (and our morality). Does Wiki represent a step towards or away from God? Is it a a moment of Sinai, or a new incarnation of the Tower of Babel?
The idea behind wikipedia is open-source, a concept that works well in the software world, in which a software writer allows his or her product to be tinkered with and improved upon by anyone and everyone in an attempt to create the most usable product possible. Wiki just takes it one step further--rather than open-sourcing computer code, it open-sources knowledge. Why have a single editor when you can have millions of people responsible for the content of a shared knowledge base?
There are some major philosophical, and even theological issues, raised here. In many ways the wiki movement represents the apotheosis of modernity--we have shaken off the shackles of religious and political power concentration in the hands of the few, and now we set our sights on knowledge itself. Knowledge has become democratized. Wonderful.
But, as any number of stories in recent months have illustrated, this is not a failsafe system. Like any large organism, there are unwanted parts that impinge on the purity of the wiki enterprise. Not to mention the question of the individual user, who has to ask, "Do I trust some guy in Kansas City to tell me about the history of Rhodesia or the molecular composition of feldspar?" We presumably have to ask the same question about the editor at Brittanica, too, but someone's livelihood is at stake in that case, so presumably we can put more stock in what they have to say.
From a theological perspective, one wonders whether the Wiki phenomenon represents the fruition of the understanding of the Revelation at Sinai conveyed in the midrash: That God spoke to 600,000 people simultaneously, and yet everyone heard the voice of God in the voice appropriate for them--old people in the voice of old people, babies in the voice of babies, etc. Or, as the Talmud mentions, the notion that the voice of God was the voice of Moses. Does Wiki mark our entrance into a world in which the subjective and objective are joined? Where knowledge--which we have for so long thought of as objectively true or false--is still true or false, but dependent, and indeed the product of, thousands of human minds?
The benefit of believing in revelation, when it comes to stuff like this, is that it posits the existence of some absolute in which to ground our knowledge (and our morality). Does Wiki represent a step towards or away from God? Is it a a moment of Sinai, or a new incarnation of the Tower of Babel?
posted by Rabbi Josh Feigelson | 5:26 AM
1 Comments:
Josh,
I hope that your blogspot forwards your comments to email.
I enjoyed your discussion about the theology of wiki. In fact, I was searching online to see if anyone else had thought some of the things I have been thinking. I would like to discuss this more with you. Especially the part about wiki possibly being an incarnation of the "Tower of Babel."
If you would allow me, may I expand.
After watching Lou Dobbs' special "The War on the Middle Class" which appeared on CNN tonight, I had a strange idea. "Why is legislation and public policy not subjected to open-source?"
After spending an hour online searching through topics on wikipedia and google labeled "extreme democracy", "wikilaw", "open source governance", etc. I finaly found a page called LawGuru.com wiki...or something like that. As I searched through the information on the several laws and so forth, I realized that this was similar to the "Law of Moses."
Then I had a strange revelation, the wiki process must be similar to the Talmudic process. This imediately reminded me of another idea I had once about the Tower of Babel.
Hence, I googled "Talmud+wiki+tower of babel" and found your article.
Please respond.
michaelanthony.howard@gmail.com
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