Year 2200: Deafness goes Extinct; but ASL Survives!
Jay Krieger presents his first vMeditation. He talks about what he thinks will happen to the Deaf community in Year 2200, why he thinks that would be so, and what things he believes we could do now. He also covers the separation of social issues from language to help us move forward.
(TIP! Clicking on each vLog Section below will bring up a new Window. Close that window when done viewing and return back here to select your next vLog Section.)
Introduction (2:50)
Contents (1:15)
Need to Fix It (2:56)
Kurzweil's Singularity (2:56)
The Past (2:23)
The Present (2:59)
The Future: Singularity! (1:52)
Back to the Present (3:05)
Conclusion (1:02)
Appendix: An Experiment (3:24)
Appendix: Vloggers, How I did this (1:42)
This vMeditation in PowerPoint (0:46 - use Pause Button)
NOTE: This vMeditation is completely an independent opinion of his own using his own personal observations, philosophies, and beliefs. Jay emphasizes that he is no linguist, sociologist, xxx-ist, etc., but rather a rambling layman. He hopes this vMeditation leads us toward a positive and learning debate environment where anybody can express their agreements or disagreements.
15 comments:
Hope you don't mind if I leave a comment here and there as I go through the video.
I like this format very much! I'll sheepishly admit to viewing roughly 1-2 minutes worth of video and cutting off the rest. I guess I've been afflicted with the MTV attention span 'disease'! :) You may well have struck gold with this 'vMediation' idea.
Anyway, I've just finished watching the Kurzweil's Singularity video clip. Something tells me you'll like the novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electrip Sheep'. Alternatively, you can watch the much more well-known movie, 'Blade Runner'.
At any rate, there's the Turing Test that will always set the human race so far ahead of the machine. :)
Now, I'm gonna go back and watch a couple more!
Finally watched it all. Generally speaking, much of what you say may well become a reality. I even discussed this topic in an AllDeaf.com thread called, 'Future Shock', sometime in Sept. 2005. In particular, I want to direct your attention to reply #13 of that particular thread.
I think you're being a tad bit too optimistic with your 2200 projection. I think that Deafness will largely be eradicated in the industrialized world by 2100. Sure, even by year 2100, there'll be Deaf people, but the incidence figures will be so miniscule to warrant serious attention.
The $64,000 question, as implied in this vMediation, is how will ASL survive? I think that once the Deaf community disappears in vast numbers, ASL and other SL's will also disappear from general use. ASL will still always find an anthropoligical niche among academica, though.
What does this leave us right now? We are arguably at the very pinnacle of Deaf culture and we might as well as enjoy it and enjoy life as a Deaf SL-using person. Because in less than a century, pretty much of it will probably be nonexistent.
I, for one, choose to enjoy Deaf life in America. There is no other better time. I've already went to a Deaf school, attended Gallaudet, worked at Deaf services agencies, worked as a Teacher of the Deaf, and networked with countless other Deaf friends all over.
Thank you for providing much needed discussion on this admittedly sensitive subject. I, for one, will look forward to reading more discussion along those lines, and more importantly, how to deal with such 'culture' change in a graceful and dignified manner.
Wow that was interesting! You put this in a very thoughtful and precise way. I wonder about other countries who will be lagging behind us -- there are some countries that still have rubella outbreak and they do not have enough vaccines to go around and there are children who become deaf or disabled. Will this kind of singularity concept catch up with other countries who are lagging behind or would we have to step in and help them reach to the highest potential. Would other countries be accepting or resisting of this? Just wondering. I am not very familiar and I have not read any of these stuff so this is very new to me and I learned a lot from watching you. Thanks for introducing this concept.
Pinnacle of deaf culture?
Wow, how unnerving!
:) But I liked your vMeditations. Fascinating prediction!
Jay, I think you have coined a new term "vMediationlog" and would appear in the Webster dictionary soon. I like your creative planning in producing the vMediationlog and I think the cutting the sections apart is good but backing up to ur vlog webpage to click the next section is more work to some ppl and when a section is done, automatically back up to select the next one, like you said, once the technology solve that issue, the gap narrows.
I see your point where you think deafness and it's companion, deaf social ills exhaust itself within 200 years or so. It's possible but again, who knows? If America achieve singularity, what about other counties? Some are behind us, some are way far behind and even some are moving backwards away from us.
Perhaps in 100-200 years, deafness goes away but a bit longer in others, I believe.
You mentioned that MSD is considering accept and enroll KODA children. That's a surprise but not unpredicted for this approach since deaf schools are struggling to survive and getting creative by finding ways. I wonder if those KODA children would fare well in the ever changing world as compared to hearing children attending regular public/private schools.
I think that ASL definitely will be preserved for centuries to come, look at hieroglypics carved by the Egyptians, cunniforms carved by the Babyloyians, and even in some schools, there' Latin classes to understand the "dead" language.
I look foward to witness your mediation evoultion and perhaps see the 'vMediationlog' in the Webster in five years from now! Keep it up!
ASL will be gone before deafness goes. Anyone who thingks the other way, has to be kidding!
Richard Roehm
I want to make a suggestion that might this easier for your readers.
Don't click on the links.
Rather, right-click and depending on the version of your browser, it would ask you either "open in new tab" or "open in new window".
That way, your readers are still on your blog, but can view the videos in a separate tab/window.
Hope that helps!
I'll come back and comment when I'm finished!
wacky taz and iammine,
Thanks for pointing out the inconvience and tip, I have added iammine's tip in red above the links for other readers.
I will look into html and find the code to auto-open into a new window when clicked.
I have fixed the HTML code so that when you click on a vLog Section, it will fire up a new window. It should help improve your viewing experience.
Hey, Jay - I have some comments to share, but it's quite long.
So, I'm thinking MAYBE I'd respond in a private vlog that you can see my comments (but don't post it, please).
If it's a worth discussion, you could perhaps summarize what I said.
I'm very bad at keeping my comments short. hehe.
I didn't see any email contact here, so that's why I'm asking.
I might do it sometime today.
By the way, I just tried the HTML code to test to see if it would accept pop up windows and the blog said it cannot accept the attribute "target" and it's not allowed.
"target" is an attribute code that creates a new window (pop up).
Darn.
Ahh, so now it works. :)
Guess you are the only one who has that power, not the commenters.
:)
Thanks for making it easier!
This may seem crazy, but you know what I like to think will happen way ahead in the future: we humans will be able to read each other's minds. Honesty will predominate our interactions, paving the way for peace, because there is no longer anything to hide and because we understand each other so much more fully.
Your thoughts on the separation of language (ASL) and social issues (w/ regards to d/Deaf, if I understand you correctly) are useful and, I think, important to the discourse on deafhood, be it personal or on the wider scope.
Belle
iammine,
My email address is in my profile.
I saw your most of your video clips yesterday and they leave me thinking a lot through this day. I see nothing to dispute your ideas about how things can happen except I hate to agree that ASL language will most likely vanish as the demand dwindles.
The most striking part is Todd's comment, "..more importantly, how to deal with such 'culture' change in a graceful and dignified manner". That is exactly the same thing what I said to an audiology class in my university department (Speech Language Hearing Sciences) last fall. I said," Well, we cannot stop evolution and changes that are bound to happen yet all we are really asking is that the society continue to support us and also all other minority groups to live well with justice, dignity, and respect".
I even told students that attempts to fix deafness is in a way like asking someone to stop celebrating Christmas despite the proper intention. We are now starting to experience a utter paradox of beaverment..
I watched the third link and had to stop because one vital thing is missing - where is our Father in all this? We tend to forget that He is in charge, and that he made the world. He knew the the end before the world was created. Should we meditate as if He doesn't exist? That is my concern. We are here only for a short time, I think it is important to acknowledge Him in all our thoughts and actions. That is my belief, I hope you don't mind me sharing.
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