In this interview with Neil Postman at Calvin College, he discusses that the human dilemma is that the "technological changes of this era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages". Hes saying that with all the advancements in technology that our society is making today, the knowledge acquired by past generations is becoming irrelevant. This statement relates to what Postman says in Amusing Ourselves to Death that "this change- over had dramatically irreversibly shifted the content and meaning of public discourse". In these two statements Postman is trying to convey that the changes that society today has gone through are completely changing what has been learned from past generations in how we act and speak to one another.
Later in the interview Postman talks about how today people are okay with talking to telephone answering machines. He states that people adapt to what is going on around them and we "adapt ourselves to talking to machines rather than people, and we may end up preferring it". This statement relates to what Postman says in Amusing Ourselves to Death that 'he uses the word 'converstion' metaphorically to refer not only to speech but to all techniques and technologies" that are used to communicate today. These two statements relate in that Postman is trying to get the reader/hearer to understand that we are relying too much on technology today that we are losing communications through speech.
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