Plato, Allegory of the

Cave (Republic, Bk VII)

Reality and appearance, original and copy

Remakes, in the allegory Outside the cave

  Reality, real things

 Original, model

  Being in the light, enlightened (sun)

  Truth—universal, unchanging truths

Inside the cave

 Appearances

 Copy, imitation, shadow

  Being in the dark, unenlightened (or with some light, but not much--fire)

  Illusion (or at least, not the same as universal truths)

The Allegory of the Cave

The Allegory of the Cave

Ejbsf, “Texting (27 Jan 10),” Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejbsf/4312589663/ Licensed CC-BY-NC-ND: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Nicholas Smale, “Watching the Match in Malt,” Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholassmale/4737894341/ Licensed CC-BY: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

How does Google give you search results?

  “PageRank”: (from About.com) http://is.gd/Mohvmr -- but this isn’t all Google uses to rank pages

  Personalized search: This page explains clearly; it’s an ad for another search engine, though—not endorsing that here. http://dontbubble.us/

  Eli Pariser’s TED talk on internet “filter bubbles”: http://is.gd/1ufqJz

How does Facebook determine what to show in your news feed

& search results?   “What is EdgeRank and why does it matter?”

from Mashable.com: http://is.gd/l6eoru

  “Facebook Graph Search Promotes Network Thinking in a Bubble,” from Nodus Labs: http://is.gd/scUH1N