Information and the World Stage

From Philosophy to Science, the World of Forms and Communications

Bernard Dugué

• Publisher: Wiley-ISTE
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781119452881
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy & Ethics in Science

Modern science is at a tipping point. A new page in the history of knowledge opens with the "information paradigm", a notion which is gradually supplanting the old mechanistic vision inherited from Galileo and Newton.

The author presents an overview of the place of information and communications in our time, explaining some reasons for focusing on these two notions. All areas of knowledge are concerned: philosophy, social sciences, biology, medicine, as well as physics, the so-called "queen of sciences", from quantum to cosmos.

This book is intended for scientific scholars as well as those with just a general interest who are anxious to understand the major evolutions that are taking shape in fields of knowledge in the 21st Century.

1
A Presentation of the Paradigm of Information in the 21st Century

Ever since the birth of philosophy, scholars have been working out fundamental problems and attempting to provide insight into things, man and their relationships. Science has not changed. Although some aspects of science (mainly specialized) drive us away from philosophy, a substantial part of it draws us closer to it. The accumulation of contemporary scientific results requires us to think about the scheme of things in our existence, all the more so as the emerging vision of nature is quite clearly facing a turning point. Information is becoming more and more central in relation to all kinds of knowledge. This is what this first chapter, which will lead us from technology and philosophy to biology and sociology on the basis of the notion of information as well as communication, aims to make clear.

1.1. After technology, the philosophy of information

1.1.1. Information, issues and paradigms of the 21st Century

Every age adopts a certain worldview, to use Heidegger’s language, or a set of paradigms. In this case, we are in line with an epistemological perspective delineated by Kuhn. Some paradigms cover several fields. This was the case for the mechanistic paradigm, which brought together physical and biological sciences in the modern age. The 1970s saw an even broader paradigm, covering physics, biology, sociology and politics take shape. These were the years of the systems theory. The thinkers of “globality” became quite well known. Prigogine and his new alliance, Edgar Morin and his method, or Varela and autopoiesis are only some examples. These scientists gathered for a famous symposium held in Cerisy in 1981, namely a kind of scientific council supposed to provide a universal doctrine based on self-organization, which, however, failed [DUP 83].

Since 1980, scientific subjects have made progress, with some notable developments in the 1990s, but overall the key issues have remained unsolved and scientific debates are still stuck on the same concepts that have determined the traditional controversies of the last decades. However, a new paradigm has been taking shape over the last few years. It bases reflections on Information and this time with universal Information in mind, as Information is not only the social issue of the 21st Century but also the central scientific and philosophical question that brings together quantum physics, statistical physics, cosmology, chemistry, biology and all the humanities. This paradigm revolves around some notions: information, communication, arrangement, Time, disorder, order and, without any doubt, the issue of Being.

The paradigm of self-organization was, on the one hand, in line with mechanistic philosophy and, on the other hand, relied on the theory of dissipative systems developed by Prigogine, as well as on the system theories elaborated since the 1950s. The paradigm of Information concerns all the branches of physics and plays a prominent role in quantum dynamics as well as cosmology, interpreting Gravity as the uncovering of an informational order in the universe. The great journey toward the universe of Information has begun, but it is facing a major turning point at the start of the 21st Century. All of science will be disrupted, without taking into consideration philosophy and theology.

Nothing can illustrate this paradigm shift more effectively than a reference to the cultural facts related to technological progress. The 18th Century was defined by the figure of the great watchmaker situated outside of the human sphere, whereas, here on earth, people were fascinated by automata, simulacra supposed to represent life entering matter. Automata seem alive, as they are animated, just like animals. The hallmark of the 21st Century is the great computer, which organizes information in the universe. However, here on earth, people are fascinated by robots, which, as we should point out, incorporate an information-processing system unlike the purely mechanical automata of the Enlightenment. Moreover, computers have become simulacra supposed to embody awareness, just as automata represented life. As we can clearly see, a computer will never be aware, but this belief aptly illustrates how we have moved from a technological and mechanical era on to the age of information and the processing devoted to this information, which is artificial in machines that carry out calculations by using digital information and natural in the systems of nature that use what our understanding still cannot grasp, namely natural information.

Google, another symbol, has become the largest market capitalization ahead of Apple, without forgetting giants like Microsoft or Facebook. All these companies are linked to the dissemination of information, the way it is processed, the objects connected, and so on. We are now in 2017. Half a century ago, commodities and mechanical industries were the most important factors. It was the peak of the era of machines, energy and military–industrial complexes.

1.1.2. Philosophizing means being concerned

What is philosophy and why do we need it? Etymologically, philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom, which attributes a purpose to it. However, is it wisdom that man looks for on earth? We are not that sure. Philosophy has become a type of knowledge. Why should not we then conceive philosophy as the production of a set of types of knowledge and learning, focusing on general, not to say generic, kinds of reality rather than on singular things? Moreover, these realities are not separate from man. Because these realities, which philosophy deals with, concern us. They “surround” us, envelop us and influence us, while we are involved in this existential theatre, where we represent the actors and the audience. In other words, we are interested in these things. Interest may mean two things: (1) a trivial and material thing and (2) a more spiritual thing, in keeping with its etymology – inter esse – an essence-to-essence relationship. We concern ourselves with and are interested in that which philosophy regards as knowable and deserving of sustained research.

Let us take a look at some previous eras. In Vedic India, sage philosophers were concerned with the cosmos. This is also the case for pre-Socratic Greece, before philosophy became particularly interested in Man after Pericles’ “Golden Age”. Outlining the themes that have concerned philosophers as well as society is nearly cliché. The topics that philosophy deals with are quite often very important, not too say critical, in a society, as philosophy enables the development of shared knowledge as well as the organization of human groups. We may think that philosophy predates the form of society, but if we believe the allegory of the owl of Minerva formulated by Hegel, philosophical knowledge arrives at nightfall, once historic events have taken place. Philosophers have concerned themselves with the cosmos, nature or “physis”, Man and then God in the Middle Ages, putting Man once again on stage in Europe after the Renaissance. Modern philosophers have had a keen interest in Man, leaving nature to scientists, without preventing the development of philosophies of nature in the Romantic age at the beginning of the 19th Century.

1.1.3. Technology affects us

It has taken centuries of mechanical development for philosophers to develop an interest in Technology, which is the issue of the 20th Century, according to Ellul. However, technology had been known since ancient times as techné, meaning the craftsman’s work. At the end of the Middle Ages, Europe had been invaded by water- and windmills, as these machines coupled with nature could generate enormous mechanical power for the time. The end of the Middle Ages saw the emergence of a new era that gave more importance to active rather than contemplative life. Men turned toward the temporal world. After Descartes, will became a key topic for modern philosophy.

It is after the turning point of 1820 that a new theme chosen by philosophy started taking shape. Technology became an important issue. It was examined by three philosophers who had significant influence on society: Hegel, Comte and Marx. However, for Hegel, it was more the anthropological aspect that was conceived in relation to work and the man concerned with the hammer. For Comte, man concerns himself with science and machines, whereas for Marx with machines and economics. This new philosophical situation is the result of an invention whose significance has not been assessed, despite the fact that it dates back to the end of the 18th Century. The steam engine represented a considerable breaking point in terms of generation of mechanical energy on two levels. First, in relation to its principle, with the use of heat converted into mechanical force, which differs from wind or waterways, whose energy is already mechanical. Heat can be converted into work. Second, the engine allows us to generate mechanical energy anywhere, independently of the presence of wind or a waterway. The steam engine generates a nomad form of energy, which will end up becoming a mode of transport with railways, steam-powered ships, cars and airplanes. With the invention of electricity, mechanical energy and even light energy is decentralized even more, reaching every household equipped with a network of electrical wires.

This mechanization of our existence led to a second stage in the philosophy of technology with great figures, who, from the 1930s onward, have analyzed this theme with unparalleled depth. Mumford, Spengler, Heidegger, Jünger and Ellul, followed by Habermas, left behind dazzling writings, which are, however, sometimes misunderstood and unfortunately forgotten, while the technological phenomenon plays a key role in our existences. The age defined by the philosophy of technology results from a rapid historical development that produces an unprecedented situation in history. Men have used machines, but if we think that they have taken hold of them, the opposite is equally true: machines have taken hold of men with their quasi-magical and captivating power. The same goes for war. We say that men take up arms, but also that men are conquered by arms. This allows us to bring together these two fields, war and technology, by means of a phrase by Gabor, the inventor of the laser: everything that can be done (from a technological point of view) will be done. Technology’s hold on men was Ellul’s central theory, according to which technology is no longer controlled by men and evolves autonomously as if it produced its own purposes independently of the goals established by human thinking. Heidegger’s famous phrase about science is quite apt in this context. I will gladly paraphrase it while also completing it: technology doesn’t think, it advances!

Therefore, we are surrounded by this Technology, which has become not only a tool but also the specific feature of our anthropological environment, like a second nature superimposed on the cosmos and conceived as a technocosmos. This is why philosophy felt affected by this Technology, which evolves according to its own purposes. It is insofar as Technology brings about changes while also being the product of its change that we need to concern ourselves with this universal phenomenon that determines to a large extent our future. Technology seems diabolical in certain respects. It leads us to adapt ourselves, and it no longer necessarily produces progress in the sense established by the Enlightenment thinkers and those who have followed.

1.1.4. Information affects us

Technology has become second nature for us, but it still has not been completely understood in its philosophical sense, especially its metaphysical dimension. It took a long time for thinkers to concern themselves with Technology, occasionally making it the central theme of a work. The contemporary philosophy of technology began when Technology took hold of men, who do not know whether it will come to an end and, if this is the case, when we will be done with it. Philosophy is now concerned with another equally important issue, which, however, has not been at the center of deep thinking. The issue of the 20th Century is information, in every sense of the notion. Information goes hand in hand with communication!

Why does Information affect us now as much as Technology did a century ago? We could state this in a phrase. There was a time when men sent information and picked it up to make “good” use of it. Currently, the opposite has happened. We are picked up by Information. Information is an ingredient that drives our cognitive life, which is not related to the contemplative life of the past. In our age, communicating requires cerebral activity, even when this activity is passive, which is an oxymoron. Therefore, let us mention how man is mobilized by and for Information by recalling this TV manager’s famous phrase about how TV programs use our brain time. Besides being controlled by Technology, we are picked up by Information.

Man has manipulated information and talked and communicated with signs and languages for tens of thousands of years. Animals also communicate with natural communication instruments. The new Information situation relies on the way information is transmitted. For a long time, men have communicated by using material media, with paper and books used to disseminate texts and images, without forgetting the architectural works and artworks situated in public places. Consulting books or seeing artworks allows us to develop a thought or to access a sort of intuitive, not to say contemplative, knowledge. In our age, Information tends to become a consumer product just like any other. Receiving information has become an activity that is no longer chosen or specifically targeted but semiautomatic, like the inopportune use of Technology. As soon as a machine is available, we use it; as soon as a piece of information can be accessed by the brain, it is received; conversely, several pieces of information that reach the brain are disseminated publicly through flat-screen TVs, blogs, smartphones and social networks. Regardless of the content, it is the information sent that represents the message. The shift from analog to digital has enormously increased the possibility of communicating.

The expression “talk for talk’s sake” makes perfect sense in our age. Communicating and informing without sharing anything. Little by little, we are becoming a product of Technology as well as Information. Man seems like a machine of a communication system that has been left behind. Thus, the technological field has widened to include those technologies that transform information through digitization, as well as dissemination and calculation technologies. A digitized piece of information can be manipulated by a computer. Classic material media (books, vinyl records) now include digital tools, USB drives, digital CDs, hard drives, or RAM. The cables used to supply electricity to power machines and light bulbs in the 1900s are also used to transmit digital communication, which reaches households and is converted into analog information when we listen to a CD, read a text on our screen, stream a movie, and watch it on DTV or with a DVD player.

1.1.5. Where can we situate a philosophy of information?

As we have quickly explained, Information with a capital I represents an issue of a cultural and political order faced by the 21st Century, besides constituting a philosophical challenge. The idea of a philosophy of information is not very widespread, but it appeared on the radars of intellectual circles in the early 2000s. Luciano Floridi, a philosopher, was presented as a pioneer in this specialty. However, if we pay attention to this philosopher’s intentions, we can legitimately think that the philosophy ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Title
• Copyright
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 A Presentation of the Paradigm of Information in the 21st Century
• 2 Communication Influences the “Mechanisms” of the Living World and Society
• 3 Form, Information and Content
• 4 Mass, Charge, Gravity and Rays: Distinguishing Between the Two Kinds of Universal Physics
• 5 From Objects to Fields, Reinterpreted Contemporary Physics and the Path Toward Quantum Gravity
• 6 Physics in the 21st Century in Relation to Information and Arrangements
• Conclusion: Logos, Communication, and Communion
• Postface: A Step Towards Understanding Emergences and Morphogenetic Processes
• Bibliography
• Index
• End User License Agreement