The Music Hall's Innovation and Leadership Series to Welcome Author M.P. Lynch, 4/13

The Music Hall's Innovation and Leadership series will present leading philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch on Wednesday, April 13, 2016. Mr. Lynch will discuss his new book, THE INTERNET OF US: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, which asks the most provocative question of our age: even as we know more and process information faster, we reason, think, and understand less, shows how the modern Internet has distorted not only the way we learn and communicate but also the very essence of what it means to be human. With far-reaching implications, this urgent treatise promises to revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age.

The 7pm event includes an author presentation and moderated Q+A, plus post-event book signing and meet-and-greet. It will be held at the Music Hall Loft at 131 Congress Street, in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

While a wealth of literature has been devoted to life with the Internet, THE INTERNET OF US explores the deep philosophical implications of this seismic shift for the first time. Demonstrating that knowledge based on reason plays an essential role in society and that there is much more to "knowing" than just acquiring information, Lynch shows how our digital way of life makes us overvalue some ways of processing information over others, and thus risks distorting what it means to be human.

"We are thrilled to have cultural commentator and public philosopher Michael Patrick Lynch visit our Innovation + Leadership series," said Patricia Lynch, Executive Director of The Music Hall and also the evening's moderator. "In his new book, Lynch explores some of the most pressing concerns of the Internet Age, and the results are sure to change and deepen the way we think. We look forward to hearing from him!"

ABOUT THE BOOK

We used to say "seeing is believing"; now googling is believing. With 24/7 access to nearly all of the world's information at our fingertips, we no longer trek to the library or the encyclopedia shelf in search of answers. We just open our browsers, type in a few keywords and wait for the information to come to us. Indeed, the Internet has revolutionized the way we learn and know, as well as how we interact with each other. And yet this explosion of technological innovation has also produced a curious paradox: even as we know more, we seem to understand less.

With far-reaching implications, Lynch's argument charts a path from Plato's cave to Shannon's mathematical theory of information to Google Glass, illustrating that technology itself isn't the problem, nor is it the solution. Instead, it will be the way in which we adapt our minds to these new tools that will ultimately decide whether or not the "Internet of Things"-all those gadgets on our wrists, in our pockets and on our laps-will be a net gain for humanity. Along the way, Lynch uses a philosopher's lens to examine some of the most urgent issues facing digital life today, including how social media is revolutionizing the way we think about privacy; why a greater reliance on Wikipedia and Google doesn't necessarily make knowledge "more democratic"; and the perils of using "big data" alone to predict cultural trends.

Promising to modernize our understanding of what it means to be human in the digital age, THE INTERNET OF US builds on previous works by Nicholas Carr, James Gleick and Jaron Lanier to give us a necessary guide on how to navigate the philosophical quagmire that is the Information Age.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MICHAEL PATRICK LYNCH is a writer and professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, where he directs the Humanities Institute. He is the author or editor of seven books, including, most recently, In Praise of Reason: Why Rationality Matters for Democracy, as well as Truth as One and Many and the New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice True to Life. The recipient of the Medal for Research Excellence from the University of Connecticut's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Lynch has held grants from the John Templeton Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Bogliasco Foundation among others. A frequent contributor to the New York Times "The Stone" weblog, Lynch lectures widely, including at TEDx, Chautauqua, and South by Southwest. In 2013, he authored an amicus curiae brief on behalf of the ACLU's federal case against the NSA.

TICKETS

The ticket package for Innovation and Leadership: Michael Patrick Lynch on Wednesday, April 13, at 7pm is $42. In addition to a reserved seat, the package includes a copy of THE INTERNET OF US: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data ($25.95), a bar beverage, and book signing meet-and-greet. Packages can be purchased through The Music Hall Box Office, located at 28 Chestnut Street, Portsmouth, over the phone at 603.436.2400, or online at www.themusichall.org

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