RELATED TERMS: Collage, Montage, Assemblage and Bricolage; Large Language Models
Roger Berkowitz (2024) sets out a warning of the limitations of snippets if taken as a sole, self-contained method without a framing methodology. He says in an interview,
“if I wanna cite a quote about freedom I can just say “Google, find me a quote about freedom from Plato.” And it works. And I can also ask Chat GPT. And there’s an enormous power to that. The negative is I don’t have to read Plato to cite Plato. And that’s dangerous because people are then citing Plato without having tried to grapple with Plato and the fullness of his thought. And so you take snippets out, fit them into your argument, and you don’t actually understand Plato’s argument or Kant’s argument or Ralph Ellison’s argument, Du Bois’ argument… and I find that to be really problematic – I shouldn’t say problematic. I think it’s inhuman. And it’s unintellectual, anti-intellectual in the sense that we don’t encounter full arguments because we can find the snippets we need. Chat GPT is just the next level of that.” (Berkowitz, 2024)
While it is undoubtedly the case that one does not have to have read Plato to cite Plato, or indeed any other author, in the contemporary media technology landscape, it does however raise the question of how ‘full’ a ‘full argument’ ever is and can ever be; and the question of how ‘full’ one’s appreciation of an other’s thought ever is and can ever be. Apart from the reader’s intellectual capabilities and limitations in understanding an other, would not any reading still be selective, interpretive and partial? One alternative might seem to be ‘citing in full’ which, again in the contemporary media technology landscape, would be possible.
References
Berkowitz, R. (2024) Roger Berkowitz tells it like it is [Interview], Clocked Out Magazine, (01). Available at: https://clockedoutmagazine.com/roger-berkowitz-tells-it-like-it-is (Accessed: 6 November 2024).
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