The Fourth Revolution: How The Infosphere Is Reshaping Human Reality

Product Description

Who are we & how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy argues that the explosive developments in Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions As the boundaries between life online & offline break down & we become seamlessly connected to each other & surrounded by smart responsive objects we are all becoming integrated into an "infosphere" Personas we adopt in social media for example feed into our 'real' lives so that we begin to live as Floridi puts in "onlife" Following those led by Copernicus Darwin & Freud this metaphysical shift represents nothing less than a fourth revolution " Onlife" defines more & more of our daily activity
- the way we shop work learn care for our health entertain ourselves conduct our relationships; the way we interact with the worlds of law finance & politics; even the way we conduct war In every department of life ICTs have become environmental forces which are creating & transforming our realities How can we ensure that we shall reap their benefits? What are the implicit risks? Are our technologies going to enable & empower us or constrain us? Floridi argues that we must expand our ecological & ethical approach to cover both natural & man-made realities putting the 'e' in an environmentalism that can deal successfully with the new challenges posed by our digital technologies & information society