Abstract

This dissertation develops an account of human time based both on Paul Ricoeur's understanding of this notion in his work Time and Narrative and a conception of the rhythmic quality of experience. This idea of human time, founded on narrative and rhythm, is contrasted to one of technological time drawn primarily from the work of Jeremy Rifkin, Eviatar Zerubavel, and C. A. Bowers. My aim is to show how human time is threatened by our present understanding and structuration of time in a technological setting. I characterize technology after the manner of Albert Borgmann in his book, Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life. I examine how Borgmann's notion of the promise of technology is presently articulated in temporal terms. The coming Information Era promises what would amount to a 24-hour global world machine. Through this world machine humanity will be electronically united in a world where all human knowledge will be present; and through this world, it is claimed, communication, business, entertainment, and our understanding of the world and its history will be enhanced. I explore both how real the possibility is of moving into this world and whether or not it would be as is promised. Drawing on Ricoeur's account of appropriation, I show how our appropriation of and relationship to the world and others would be diminished by making this move. Finally, I show how the very things that provide the possibility of a reform of the temporal divisions the pattern of technology has wrought on our lives, namely rhythm and narrative, would be threatened by moving into the 24-hour world machine