The Information Railroad (original) (raw)
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The Information Revolution in the Post-Industrial Society: Dangers in Political Processes
Postmodern Openings, 2022
The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the information and computer revolution has made it possible to create and include in the system of social circulation such information flows, which are currently sufficient to ensure the most rational use of nature, demographic, economic, industrial, agricultural and spiritual and cultural development of mankind. The phenomenon of the information revolution is the result of two parallel processes that can develop throughout history: an increase in the role and volume of information necessary to ensure the full existence of society, and improvement in the technology of information accumulation and dissemination. Information technology has been integrated into the current social and economic space. The use of computers and telecommunications has influenced an unprecedented intensity of communicative interactions. These processes affect the stages of social development. The article analyzes the current understanding of the fourth and fifth information revolution. The problems of economics, management and post-industrial society are considered. An attempt is made to synthesize the models of foreign and domestic researchers. The article considers the existing theoretical approaches to the explication of political security, highlighted such its component as information and political security, and this author's interpretation of the latter. The limits of the information-political security, allowing to separate it from other types of security, depending on the information are established. The influence of information on the formation of information and political threats affecting the information and political security of the country is considered.
Towards an Information Democracy: A Research Agenda
2007
People, organisations and societies need knowledge to satisfy their needs so they can survive and develop themselves and move forward in time and space. Knowledge on themselves, their social and their physical surrounding. Those who are better than others capable to satisfy their information needs in an effective and efficient way, and participate in the relevant information networks are more capable to survive and develop themselves than those with less advantageous traits. However, there are barriers that complicate or can even block the successful access to needed information and to the information economy. Four types of potential barriers that are based on interdependencies between people: economic, political, affective and cognitive are described.
The debate over the contribution of the Internet to democracy is far from settled. Some point to the empowering effects of online discussion and fund raising on recent electoral campaigns in the US to argue that the Internet will restore the public sphere. Others claim that the Internet is just a virtual mall, a final extension of global capitalism into every corner of our lives. This paper argues for the democratic thesis with some qualifications. The most important contribution of the Internet to democracy is not necessarily its effects on the electoral process but rather its ability to assemble a public around technical networks that enroll individuals scattered over wide geographical areas. Medical patients, video game players, musical performers, and many other publics have emerged on the Internet with surprising consequences.
Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 2024
What is the state of democracy today? In the Western world, people often take the meaning of this term for granted, but do they genuinely know what democracy is? In this sense, how can we define democracy in today’s digitalized world? What is the relationship between democracy and information? Furthermore, do we really live in a democratic world? In Infocracy: Digitalization and the Crisis of Democracy—the 2022 translation of the original German book Infokratie. Digitalisierung und die Krise der Demokratie, published in 2021 by MSB Matthes & Seitz Berlin Verlagsgesellschaft mbH—Byung-Chul Han reflects on these and other related issues. Han’s analysis of the current political, social, and technological situation indicates that a profound democratic crisis is emerging. The loss of interest in truth, the end of grand narratives, the replacement of reason with data analysis (even in philosophy), the fragmentation of the population due to digitalization, and the predominant role of information in everyday life are all symptoms of a radical transformation underway in Western society, with severe consequences for democratic stability. In these terms, Han’s vision, at times excessively pessimistic, orients us on the crucial issues of our time.
The Internet: Simulacrum of Democracy?
2007
This chapter argues that depending on what criteria is used to evaluate the Internet's democratizing potential, one can easily arrive at disparate assessments of the medium's impact on society. If the Internet is assumed to be a tool that inherently enhances freedom of communication and social mobilization, then the medium will likely be evaluated positively. Essentially, technology per se does not foster nor hamper participatory democratic culture. Instead, users of the technology determine if the civic and democratizing potential of interactive communication technology can be realized. Therefore, the Internet is only a tool that enables users to disseminate their ideas and opinions, ideally 'without fear or favour', and to freely seek and receive information from global sources. The 'democratising' influence of the Internet is only as effective as allowed for by the country's communication, political, legal and institutional structures, the public discursive culture and the people's readiness to actively engage in the political process by using the Internet as the medium for this engagement.