The 4th revolution : how the infosphere is reshaping human reality

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Title:

Author:

Floridi, Luciano, 1964- author.

ISBN:

9780199606726

9780191667695

9780198743934

Personal Author:

Floridi, Luciano, 1964- author.

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

xvi, 248 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Contents:

Time : hyperhistory -- Space : infosphere -- Identity: onlife -- Self-understanding : the four revolutions -- Privacy: informational friction -- Intelligence: inscribing the world -- Agency : enveloping the world -- Politics : the rise of the multi-agent systems -- Environment : the digital gambit -- Ethics : e-nvironmentalism.

Abstract:

"Floridi argues that we must expand our ecological and ethical approach to cover both natural and man-made realities, putting the 'e' in an environmentalism that can deal successfully with the new challenges posed by our digital technologies and information society."--Provided by publisher.

"Is the informational world of smartphones and social media changing who we are and how we relate to others and the environment? Are we becoming informational organisms or 'inforgs', deeply enmeshed in a globe-spanning 'infosphere'? Luciano Floridi thinks so. In this exciting and provocative book, he considers the deeper implications of a future--almost upon us even now--in which we are always online, and the barriers between reality and the virtual world we inhabit when we switch on our computers finally dissolve. We are in the midst of a fourth revolution, he argues, as profound as those produced by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud: a revolution set to change our sense of self, our relationships, society, politics, wars, and our management of the environment. We need to understand these changes and revise our ethics to reap the benefits and avoid the risks of this brave, new world."--Jacket.

Subject Term:

Information society.

Internet -- Social aspects.

Information technology -- Social aspects.

Computers and civilization.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025835485	303.4833 F637F 2014	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi, one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy, argues that the explosive developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions. As the boundaries between life online and offline break down, and we become seamlessly connected to each other and 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, and Freud, this metaphysical shift represents nothing less than a fourth revolution."Onlife" defines more and 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, and politics; even the way we conduct war. In every department of life, ICTs have become environmental forces which are creating and transforming our realities. How can we ensure that we shall reap their benefits? What are the implicit risks? Are our technologies going to enable and empower us, or constrain us? Floridi argues that we must expand our ecological and ethical approach to cover both natural and man-made realities, putting the 'e' in an environmentalism that can deal successfully with the new challenges posed by our digital technologies and information society.