Evolution der Kulturtechniken:

1. M. Donalds Perspektive (Donald 1993): "Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition": zentrale Bedeutung der Schrift als kognitives Medium:

Donald, M. 1993 (272ff): "graphic invention, external memory, and theory construction" als die wesentlichen Punkte der "third transition" ("from mythic to theoretic culture", 274) der kulturellen und neuronalen Evolution:

Auf der dritten Stufe der kulturellen Evolution entstehen qualitativ andere "kognitive Phänomene": "graphic invention, external memory, and theory construction". (Donald 1993; 272) "Combining the three variables just mentioned, the governing cognitive structures of the most human recent cultures must be very different from those of simple mythic cultures. They exist mostly outside of the individual mind, in external symbolic memory representations, which are dependent on visuographic invention, and they culminate in governing theories." (Donald 1993; 274) "Reading, for example, is a very distinctive mode of knowing, one that raises disturbing questions about the true locus of human memory." (Donald 1993; 274)

"The critical innovation underlying theoretic culture is visuographic invention, or the symbolic use of graphic devices." (Donald 1993; 275)

The "different modes of visual symbolic invention": "pictorial, ideographic, and phonological"(Donald 1993; 278ff). "The three modes are quite distiinct in the type of thinking they allow." (Donald 1993; 279) Der dritte Modus: "The invention of the phonetic alphabet reduced the memory load imposed by reading skill and allowed a much wider diffusion of literacy. (...) The main advantage of the alphabet was the economy and precision with which it allowed the reader to map visual displays of symbols onnto spoken language." (Donald 1993; 297) Aber: gleichwohl besteht eine "autonomy of writing from speech, at least in a society with an alphabetic writing system." (Donald 1993; 299) "Alphabetic reading (...) utilizes rapid, direct links between visual words and their conceptual referents (...). (Donald 1993; 301)  

2. ... und der ebenso große Bedeutung der Digitalisierung, der "electronic media and global computer networks" (Donald 1993; 358) für den Wandel der "cognitive architecture", für die visuographic, die alphabetisierte "hybrid modern mind" (Donald 1993; 355ff):

"Our modern minds are thus hybridizations, highhly plastic combinations of all the previous elements in human cognitive evolution, permuted, combined, and recombined." (Donald 1993; 356) Fakten: "growth of the external memory system", "thenew cognitive architecture", "the symbiosis of biological and external memory" ((Donald 1993; 356); "the result" - "quite literally, a system of parallel representational channels of mind that can process the world concurrently" (Donald 1993; 357)

"Visuographic invention and the resulting growth of external symbolic memory media have altered the nature of working memory and the role of biological memory in humans. The major locus of working memory, fpr theoretic endeavor, is now external, and the major slave systems of working memory are also external (...). This is because permanent external devices allow an iterative, interactive thoought process to operate repetitively on its own products; and, more importantly, the thought process itself can be largely externalized and instutionalized." (Donald 1993; 358)

"The curricular focus has moved from speech to scripts; from overall narrative structure to the intricate thought skills embedded in grammar, logic, and induction; and from extended narrative model building to the construction of increasingly specialized theoretic products." "The resulting cognitive architecture is a hybrid structure of great internal and external complexity, very far removed from our closest genetiv relatives." (Donald 1993; 358)

"The very recent combination of this new architecture with electronic media and global computer networks has changed the rulse of the game even further. Cognitive architecture has again changed, although the degree of change will not be known for some time." (Donald 1993; 358) "The computer extends human cognitive opertions into new realms (...)." (Donald 1993; 359)

"The globalization of electronic media provides cognitive scientists with a great future challenge: to track and describe, in useful ways, what is happening to the individual mind." (Donald 1993; 359) The "role of the individual mind is changing, not in trivial ways but in its essence." (Donald 1993; 360)

Entscheidende Frage: Wie verändern sich dabei (oder dann) die Techniken, Praktiken, Stilen des Lesens und der Lektüre - und macht es überhaupt Sinn, von den technisierten Medien (und Werkzeugen: Suchmaschinen, z.B.) noch absehen zu wollen?