Hyperconnectivity and Digital Reality: Towards the Eutopia of Being Human

161 Pages·2019·2.53 MB·English

by  Kathrin Otrel-Cass

Kathrin Otrel-Cass Editor
Hyperconnectivity
and Digital Reality
Towards the Eutopia of Being Human
Hyperconnectivity and Digital Reality
Kathrin Otrel-Cass
Editor
Hyperconnectivity
and Digital Reality
Towards the Eutopia of Being Human
123
Editor
KathrinOtrel-Cass
Department ofPedagogical
Professionalisation
University of Graz
Graz,Austria
ISBN978-3-030-24142-1 ISBN978-3-030-24143-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24143-8
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019
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Contents
1 Hyperconnectivity and Digital Reality: An Introduction. . . . . . . . . . 1
Kathrin Otrel-Cass
2 Communicative Action in the Light of the Onlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Katarina Peović Vuković
3 Scaffolding the Self in Onlife. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Lars Botin
4 Onlife Attention: Attention in the Digital Age. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Galit Wellner
5 Consciousness in a Hyperconnected World: The Entanglements
of Human–Machine Cognition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Kathrin Otrel-Cass
6 Redistribution of Medical Responsibility in the Network
of the Hyper-connected Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Anna Schneider-Kamp and Dorthe Brogård Kristensen
7 Game on for Modernity? Educating Ph.D. Students Beyond
a Modern Conception of Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Ole Skovsmose and Ole Ravn
8 The Knight of Faith Encounters Mr. Robot—Digital Literacy
Revisited Through Deleuze and Guattari in Response
to the Onlife Manifesto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Lars Bang
v
vi Contents
9 Epilogue: Of Scales, Spaces, Meshworks, and Maps
of Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Kathrin Otrel-Cass
Author Index.. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 155
Subject Index.. .... .... .... ..... .... .... .... .... .... ..... .... 157
Editor and Contributors
About the Editor
Kathrin Otrel-Cass, Ph.D. is Professor at the Department of Pedagogical
ProfessionalisationattheUniversityofGraz,Austria,andProfessorMSOinscience
andtechnologyeducationandpracticeandvisualethnographyintheDepartmentof
LearningandPhilosophyatUniversityofAalborg,Denmark.Herresearchinterests
areoftenofinterdisciplinarynaturewithafocusondigitalvisualanthropologyanda
variety of qualitative, ethnographic methodologies appropriate to the study of dig-
ital cultureanddata-relatedpractices.Shemaybeworkingwithvariouspractitioners
and experts in environments where people are working with science/technology/
engineering practices or their knowledge products. Her research interest in visual
ethnography has led to the establishment of video research laboratories in both
AalborgandGrazwithafocusontheorganizedanalysisofvideo-recordeddata.She
is a member of the Techno-Anthropology Research Group, the ICT and Learning
Research Group,andtheDigitalDisruptionConsortiumatAalborgUniversityand
member of the interdisciplinary research group Human Factor in Digital
Transformations and leader of the research group in Innovation in Teaching and
Learning atthe University ofGraz.
Contributors
LarsBang DepartmentofLearningandPhilosophy,AalborgUniversity,Aalborg,
Denmark
Lars Botin Department of Planning, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Dorthe Brogård Kristensen Department of Marketing and Management,
University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
vii
viii EditorandContributors
KathrinOtrel-Cass DepartmentofPedagogicalProfessionalisation,Universityof
Graz, Graz, Austria;
Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark
Katarina Peović Vuković Faculty of Philosophy Rijeka, Cultural Studies
Department, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Ole Ravn Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Aalborg,
Denmark
Anna Schneider-Kamp Department of Marketing and Management, University
of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark
Ole Skovsmose Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University,
Aalborg, Denmark
Galit Wellner The NB School of Design, Haifa, Israel;
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Chapter 1
Hyperconnectivity and Digital Reality:
An Introduction
KathrinOtrel-Cass
In 2015, Luciano Floridi and 12 other scholars published “The Onlife Manifesto:
Being Human in a Hyperconnected Era”. The contributors shared their thinking
aboutthepossibleimpactandimaginableimplicationsofhyperconnectedinforma-
tionandcommunicationtechnologies(ICTs)onthehumancondition.Thebookwas
inspiredbyearlierworkcommissionedbyDGConnect,theEuropeanCommission
Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, and
a2012EuropeanCommissionresearchprojectentitled:TheOnlifeInitiative:Con-
ceptReengineeringforRethinkingSocietalConcernsintheDigitalTransition.The
projectresultedinaManifestoandaseriesofcommentaries,aswellaslongeressays
aimedtopositiontheManifesto.
The Onlife Manifesto book of collected writings is not necessarily widely
known: Google Scholar logs 144 citations in February 2019 (in contrast a book
published by Floridi on a related topic in 2014 retrieved 465 citations). How-
ever, the book and the associated activities (workshops, discussions, etc.) were
ofpoliticalsignificance,sinceFloridiwasthechairmanoftheEuropeanCommis-
sion’sOnlifeInitiativeand,inthe2013announcementofaEuropeanCommission
event (https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/onlife-initiative-concept-
reengineering-rethinking-societal-concerns-digital-transition), invites attendees for
“rethinking societal concerns in the digital transition”. The work was closely con-
nectedtotheEuropeanCommission’sambitionstoestablishdataeconomiesaspart
oftheDigitalSingleMarket(DSM).
InDecember2014,theEuropeanCommissionhostedathinktankdebatebetween
invitedguest,amongstthem,authorsoftheOnlifeManifesto(CharlesEss)andtech-
nologyphilosopher-ethicistPeter-PaulVerbeek,wherethethen-upcomingbookwas
madeavailableforfurthercomments.ThedebatewasmoderatedbyRobertMadelin,
Director-GeneralresponsiblefortheDigitalAgendaforEurope,whopointedoutthat
therewasaneedforphilosopherstovalidatepolitics,andtohelpthinkaboutnew
B
K.Otrel-Cass( )
DepartmentofPedagogicalProfessionalisation,UniversityofGraz,Graz,Austria
e-mail:[email protected]
©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2019 1
K.Otrel-Cass(ed.),HyperconnectivityandDigitalReality,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24143-8_1
2 K.Otrel-Cass
forms of public engagement and democracy to do with technoscientific develop-
ments.ThediscussionwaspublishedthroughtheEuropeanParliamentaryResearch
ServiceBlog(https://epthinktank.eu/2014/12/08/what-makes-us-human-in-a-hyper-
connected-era/)andwhilethereisadearthofresponsestotheblogposting,itisof
political significance because this event was organised by the Scientific Foresight
Unitwhodescribesitselfthatit“carriesoutinterdisciplinaryresearchandprovides
strategicadviceinthefieldofscienceandtechnologyoptionsassessment(STOA)
andscientificforesight.Itundertakesin-depthstudiesandorganisesworkshopson
developmentsinthesefields,andithoststheEuropeanScience-MediaHub(ESMH),
aplatformtopromotenetworking,training,andknowledgesharingbetweentheEP,
thescientificcommunityandthemedia”.
In 2015, the Techno-Anthropology Research Group (https://www.tant.aau.dk/)
invitedforadiscussionabouttheOnlifeManifestothatwassoonexpandedtoinvite
awidernetworkofresearchers.ItbecameclearthattheOnlifeManifestoactedfor
thisgroupasaspringboardforthoughtstodowiththechangessocietyisexperiencing
throughICTsanditspoliticalimplications.Asaresult,thegroupproceededtoprepare
aproposalforthisbook.
ThepresentbookHyperconnectivityandDigitalRealityexploresselectedargu-
ments that were put forward in the Onlife Manifesto and connects those to topics
thatintersectwithtechnoscience.Init,LucianoFloridicoinedtheterm“onlife”to
deliberately highlight the intertwined nature of technology and people’s lives. He
writes also that “This is only a beginning […]”, indicating how rapid the changes
areboth,ontechnologicalandsociallevels,butalsothatincreasinghyperconnectiv-
ityrequiresmoreanddeeperdiscussionstobehadaboutthetransformativepowers
of ICT. Since Hyperconnectivity and Digital Reality makes deliberate cross refer-
ences to the Onlife Manifesto, the following section presents a brief summary of
theOnlifeManifestofollowedbyanoverviewofthechapterspresentedinthebook
HyperconnectivityandDigitalReality.
TheOnlifeManifesto(Floridi,2015)isacollectionofargumentsandreflections
on how the development and widespread use of information and communication
technology(ICTs)impactthehumancondition.TheauthorsoftheOnlifeManifesto
representvariousfieldsofexpertiseincludingdigitalanthropology(StefanaBroad-
bent), advisor on societal issues to the Directorate General for Communications,
Networks,ContentandTechnologyoftheEuropeanCommissioncomputerscience
(NicoleDewandre),mediastudies(CharlesEss),philosophyandethicsofinforma-
tion (Luciano Floridi), computer science (Jean-Gabriel Ganascia), smart environ-
ments,dataprotectionandtheruleoflaw(MireilleHildebrandt),neuroscienceand
technology(YiannisLaouris),sociology(ClaireLobet-Maris),politicalcommunica-
tionanddemocratisation(SarahOates),jurisprudence(UgoPagallo),philosophyof
scienceandtechnology(JudithSimon),philosophy(MayThorseth),andphilosophy
oftechnology(Peter-Paul-Verbeek).
ReadingtheOnlifeManifestogivesanimpressionaboutthedifficultiestoforecast
whatdigitaltransitionswillmeanforoursocietiesandthevarietyofissueswehave
toconsider.Thecontributionsreadasiftheauthorsdeliberatelyintendednottoscare
theirreaders.Rather,theyurgetheirreaderstoseek(new)waysforwardtodealwith