Abstract

The argument that public intellectuals have disappeared into the academy is compounded by the threatened disappearance of the professoriat. Tenure and tenure-track positions are eroding, giving way to the cheap labor of part-time faculty. Even more troubling is increasing reliance on computers and "virtual" or "distance" education. In his influential "report on knowledge," The Post-Modern Condition, Jean-François Lyotard argued that the computer meant "the death-knell of the age of the professor." This essay examines the relations among public intellectuals, professors, and information technology. It ponders the epistemological consequences of substituting computerized information especially for the forms of critique expected of public intellectuals. It also surveys arguments about the speeding-up and increasing power of computers, especially in regard to higher education. It concludes that there is little if any reason to be optimistic about the futures of either public intellectuals or professors under the relentless impact of the computerization and commodification of knowledge and education.