Virtual Literacy

 
Web-grandad
Tantum cognitio mutare potest vitae
lectures contact
history theory practice donation
Announcements of the fourth cycle of lectures on the foundations of virtual literacy

features
of information
systems
of humankind

Scribes and programmers
Virtual scientific devices
Egyptian pyramids of Virtual World
Virtual slavery
Crisis of modern sciences consequence crisis of writing
Virtual property
Modern virtual currencies
Information usefulness threshold
Future history of Earth
Pictures
Social pyramid of Ancient Egypt
Byzantine military treatises

Literacy change professions

What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun!
Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
Book of Ecclesiastes (1,9.10)

In ancient times, there were many occupations for those who knew how to speak:

  • The military gave commands to soldiers in battle.
  • The barkers shouted about the goods and prices.
  • The storyteller told tales.
  • The herald read the decrees of the rulers.
  • The priests exhorted the believers.
  • The mourners wailing for the dead.
  • Gossipmonger carried the news and gossip.
  • The poets recited poems.
  • The singers sang songs.
  • The orators urged the crowd.
  • The actors played on the stage.
  • The Judges passed sentences.

Each of these professions requires the ability to speak in a special way, differently than ordinary people. And for this need to be specially and long to learn.

But none of these professions requires knowledge of writing. In those distant times, only a caste of scribes is knew the writing, for all other people, this knowledge was absolutely useless. Ancient people were sure, that the real literacy, this only is the skill to speak correctly. The ability to read and write then it was just another craft the same, as weaving or making pottery.

When with the advent of the alphabet in schools began to teach to read and write:

  • the military wrote field manuals of army,
  • the priests wrote the Holy books,
  • the gossipmonger became a journalist,
  • the heralds began to hang out the written decrees in the city squares,
  • the barkers hanged a sign with the name of a shop and billboard at the entrance to it,
  • the poets replaced the rhyme on prose,
  • the judges have written laws,
  • the orators became publicists,
  • and the place of scribes was taken up by programmers.

What same, virtual information system will give for these ancient professions?

  • The military is already with might and main using the virtual means of orienteering and transfer of orders in battle.
  • The heralds placed a decrees on the administration's website.
  • The gossipmongers became the podcasters.
  • The barkers is engaged in the promotion of sites.
  • The orators do blogs
  • The judges publish verdicts on the website of the district or regional court.
  • The priests write messages on the Internet.
  • The poets and writers are still undecided, although some of them already write scenarios for virtual quests.

As can see, except for the military, all the other professions, though and started the virtual activity, but are still using only written or oral skills.

Military, they have always been like that, looks, as a blunt martinet, but all a new perceives faster civilian.

For understand and example, consider the history of military in more detail:

In ancient times, almost immediately after the appearance of writing, the military began to use maps of the terrain. And instead of messengers with oral instructions, began to send couriers with written prescriptions. But the real revolution, in military affairs occurred after the military wrote "Field Manuals" for army.

A small Byzantine army (the eastern part of the Roman Empire), not possessing in armament no technical advantages over the enemies, 10 centuries was the winner, in endless wars, thanks to its military statutes. And Byzantium, on 1000 years, survived the Western Roman Empire.

The army, as we know it now, was established in the 17th century, by statutes and precepts of the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf. In the Swedish army of Gustav II, as an officers could serve, only Swedish noblemen, who were well trained of the writing literacy. In the armies of other countries, the officers were semi-literate foreign mercenaries. Swedish officers, on a hundred years, turned the small Sweden into a Great European power, until the Russian Tsar Peter I, having trained his officers a writing literacy, not defeated the Swedish army near Poltava.

To read maps and send couriers with written prescriptions, in the army enough a few scribes and a one general, which knows how to read a map. For writing the military statutes, it is necessary that all the officers in the army could read and write, that is, would have finished not an oral, but a written military school.

And although today, progress in the field of military affairs is ahead of all other spheres of human activity, but the virtual revolution in the modern army is very much slows down due to the virtual illiteracy of most of its officers.

Having studied the peculiarities of the transition from oral unto written profession, will be easier to prepare and survive the transition from written unto virtual profession.

The Virtual Information System in thousands of times faster, than a Written System, changes the all aspects of life and human activities. And only the training of schoolboys of virtual literacy will allow humanity also to quickly adapt to them.

Lectures on topic of this announcement
How will disappear professional journalists and writers   Listener - reader - user
Human society is product of dominant information system   What breaks and what creates, each new information system of mankind
Oral team - written law - ???   The crisis of written science and prospects for development of virtual science

Friends instead neighbors

Virtual slavery of users

Yandex College

Human being knowledgeable

Intelligence quotient

Virtual textbook

Museums of books

Virtual private property

Information usefulness threshold

Stages of Development

Training in virtual literacy

Knowledge sharing systems

The main instrument of cognition

Scribes and programmers

User's desktop

Web agency Matex. The publication of materials on other websites and blogs is allowed only with a link to this website.