![[📜flusser87_writing_future_poster.svg]] ## 📖 Basic Information | Field | Value | |-------|-------| | **Title** | Does Writing Have a Future? | | **Author** | Vilém Flusser | | **Original Publication** | 1987 (German: "Die Schrift. Hat Schreiben Zukunft?") | | **English Translation** | 2011 (Nancy Ann Roth, trans.) | | **Publisher** | University of Minnesota Press | | **Series** | Electronic Mediations (Book 33) | | **Introduction by** | Mark Poster | --- ## 🐢 기(起) PHENOMENON: The Crisis of Alphabetic Culture ### Central Question Flusser87 asks what will happen to thought and communication as written communication gives way, inevitably, to digital expression. ### The Provocative Thesis > "In his introduction, Flusser proposes that writing does not, in fact, have a future because everything that is now conveyed in writing—and much that cannot be—can be recorded and transmitted by other means." ### Historical Context: Three Phases of Consciousness | Phase | Mode | Consciousness Type | Characteristics | |-------|------|-------------------|-----------------| | **Pre-History** | Pictorial/Mythical | Circular | Images, myths, magical thinking | | **History** | Alphabetic | Linear | Writing, logic, critical inquiry, progress | | **Post-History** | Digital | Networked/Quantized | Technical images, computation, systems thinking | ### 📚 Intellectual Lineage - **McLuhan64**: "The medium is the message" — media shapes thought structures - **Kittler86**: Discourse networks — writing as technical system - **Baudrillard81**: Simulacra — reality increasingly mediated by signs - **Ong82**: Orality and Literacy — cognitive restructuring through writing technology - **Virilio77**: Speed and technology — transformation of perception --- ## 🐅 승(承) THEORY: Writing as Historical Consciousness ### Core Propositions **P1: Writing Enables Logical Thought** > "Only one who writes can think logically, calculate, criticize, pursue knowledge, philosophize—and conduct himself appropriately. Before that one turned in circles." **P2: Writing Creates History** > "History is a function of writing and the consciousness that expresses itself in writing." **P3: Programming Supersedes Writing** > "Now programming is rising up from alphanumeric code, becoming independent and separating itself from spoken language." **P4: Thought Detaches from Language** > "For spoken language would lose its position as mediator between thinking and writing...thought will have detached itself from language." ### Writing's Four Functions (Being Superseded) | Function | Traditional Medium | Digital Replacement | |----------|-------------------|---------------------| | **Storage** | Books, libraries | Digital memory, cloud | | **Transmission** | Letters, newspapers | Electronic media, internet | | **Processing** | Human calculation | AI, computational systems | | **Expression** | Manuscripts, poetry | Technical images, multimedia | ### The Linearity Problem Flusser argues that alphabetic writing imposes a linear structure on thought: - Goal-oriented: directed toward a reader - Sequential: A → B → C progression - Limited: cannot express non-linear, networked relationships Digital codes transcend these limitations, enabling: - Non-linear navigation - Simultaneous multi-dimensional representation - Computational recombination --- ## 🐙 전(轉) ANALYSIS: Material Conditions of Writing ### The Writing Apparatus Flusser examines the material infrastructure of writing: | Element | Description | Status | |---------|-------------|--------| | **Stationery** | "Poor means of writing" — pen, paper | Obsolescing | | **Desk** | Private space for thought | Transformed (mobile) | | **Newspapers** | "Disappearance beyond question" | Declining | | **Books** | Linear constraint on expression | Evolving (e-books) | | **Scripts** | Manual gesture of inscription | Automated | ### The Prophetic Insight (1987) > "Machines write faster than human beings...They will possess a historical consciousness far superior to ours." This anticipates AI writing systems by nearly four decades. ### The Paradox of Secondary Illiteracy Digital codes are MORE CAPABLE than alphabetic writing, yet we risk losing: - Critical consciousness that writing enabled - Historical thinking and awareness of progress - The discipline of linear argumentation Flusser frames this as **"secondary illiteracy"** — functional capability without depth. ### Cognitive Transformation | From (Alphabetic) | To (Digital) | |-------------------|--------------| | Goal-oriented | System-oriented | | Reader-directed | Network-distributed | | Linear processing | Quantized/parallel | | Discursive | Computational | --- ## 👾 결(結) IMPLICATIONS: Evolution, Not Extinction ### Flusser's Prophecies: Scorecard (1987 → 2025) **✅ Realized:** - Word processors as "writing machines" - "Web" and "Net" as dominant metaphors - AI systems writing faster than humans - Newspaper decline and transformation - Programming as independent language **⏳ Unfolding:** - Thought detaching from natural language (GPT, multimodal AI) - "Global brain" consciousness (networked society) - Secondary illiteracy crisis (attention fragmentation) - Post-historical society debates ### The Resolution > "While the text as a cultural form may ultimately become superfluous, the art of writing will not so much disappear but rather evolve into new kinds of thought and expression." **Key insight**: Distinguish between: - **Writing as Form**: Alphabetic inscription on physical media → Being superseded - **Writing as Function**: Structured externalization of thought → Evolving into new modalities --- ## 🎯 Relevance to Dissertation: Strategic Ambiguity ### Connection Points 1. **Communication Medium Shapes Message Precision** - Linear text forces commitment and clarity - Digital/visual media enable strategic vagueness - Entrepreneurs can leverage medium choice for ambiguity 2. **Evolution of Pitch Communication** - Traditional: Written business plans (linear, explicit) - Contemporary: Pitch decks, demos, prototypes (visual, flexible) - Emerging: AI-mediated, dynamic presentations 3. **"Technical Images" as Coordination Mechanism** - Flusser's concept of images that "compute" meaning - Prototypes and demos as "technical images" in entrepreneurship - Enable stakeholder interpretation flexibility 4. **Historical Consciousness and Commitment** - Writing creates commitment through permanence - Digital enables revision and strategic repositioning - "Promise precision" varies by communication medium ### Theoretical Integration | Flusser87 Concept | Thesis Application | |-------------------|-------------------| | Linear → Networked thought | Explicit → Ambiguous value propositions | | Writing enables history | Commitment enables trajectory | | Digital enables non-linear | Ambiguity preserves optionality | | Secondary illiteracy | Stakeholder interpretation variance | --- ## 📚 Must Read Companions | Work | Author | Relevance | |------|--------|-----------| | *Understanding Media* | McLuhan64 | Foundation: medium shapes message | | *Orality and Literacy* | Ong82 | Writing transforms consciousness | | *Discourse Networks* | Kittler86 | Technical systems of inscription | | *Into the Universe of Technical Images* | Flusser85 | Companion volume on image culture | | Introduction to this volume | Poster11 | Contextualizes Flusser in media theory | --- ## 💬 Quotable Passages > "All writing is 'right': it is a gesture of setting up and ordering written signs. And written signs are, directly or indirectly, signs for ideas. So writing is a gesture that aligns and arranges ideas." > "The level of consciousness that prevailed before history is articulated pictorially, the historical alphabetically, the new digitally...Each alphabetic attempt to bridge the abyss in the direction of the digital will fail because it will carry its own linear, goal-oriented structure into the digital, covering the digital up." > "At least two things characterize this relearning of thought: first, that we think images and only images, for everything we called perceptions—whether external or internal—are nothing but images computed in the brain; second, that thinking is not a continuous, discursive process—thinking 'quantizes.'" --- ## 🔗 Cross-References - [[📜mcluhan64_understanding_media]] - Medium theory foundation - [[📜ong82_orality_literacy]] - Writing and cognition - [[📜eisenberg84_ambiguity]] - Strategic ambiguity in organizations - [[📜ghemawat91_commitment]] - Commitment and strategic choices --- ## 📝 Personal Notes Flusser87의 핵심 통찰은 **매체(medium)가 메시지의 구조를 결정한다**는 McLuhan적 관점을 글쓰기의 역사적 진화에 적용한 것. 1987년에 쓰였지만 AI 글쓰기 시대를 예견한 놀라운 선견지명. 논문 관련성: - 창업자의 "가치 제안(value proposition)" 커뮤니케이션 방식이 매체에 따라 달라짐 - 서면 사업계획서 vs. 프레젠테이션 덱 vs. 프로토타입의 정밀도 차이 - "전략적 모호성"은 디지털/시각 매체에서 더 효과적으로 구현 가능 --- *Last updated: 2025-12-14*