Homo numericus : the coming 'civilization' / Daniel Cohen ; translated by Steven Rendall.
| Author/creator | Cohen, Daniel author. |
| Other author | Rendall, Steven, translator. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Cambridge : Polity Press, [2024] |
| Copyright Date | ©2024 |
| Description | viii, 175 pages ; 23 cm |
| Subjects |
| Uniform title | Homo numericus. English |
| Contents | Introduction -- Part I: The Digital Illusion -- Ch. 1 Body and mind--Terminator -- Reason and emotions -- Descartes' 'error' -- Artificial intelligence -- Ch. 2 Stultify and punish -- Wild thought -- Surveillance capitalism -- Ch. 3 Waiting for the robots -- The death of kings -- The industrialization of services -- The thinking robot -- The stake of the century -- Ch. 4 Political anomie -- Impoverishing growth -- Working-Class suicide -- A political revolution -- Vox populi -- Part II: The Return to reality -- Ch. 5 Social ties -- The law of 150 friends -- Bonobos and chimpanzees -- Four possible societies -- The secular age -- The triumph of endogamy -- The postmodern mentality -- Ch. 6 Winter is coming -- The crises of the Twenty-First century -- The climatic clock -- The society of addiction Ch. 7 In a hundred years -- The society of abundance -- Back to science fiction -- By way of conclusion. |
| Abstract | "From Amazon to Tinder, from Google to Deliveroo, there is no facet of human life that the digital revolution has not streamlined and dematerialized. Its objective was to reduce costs by forgoing face-to-face interactions, and it was a direct result of the free-market shock of the 1980s, which sought to expand the marketplace seamlessly in every possible dimension. Today, we can be algorithmically entertained, educated, cared for, and courted in a way that was impossible in the old industrial society, where institutions structured the social world. Today, these institutions have been replaced by monetized virtual contact. As the industrial revolution did in the past, the digital revolution is creating a new economy and a new sensibility, bringing about a radical revaluation of society and its representations. While obsessed with the search for an efficient management of human relations, the new digital capitalism gives rise to an irrational and impulsive Homo numericus prone to an array of addictive behaviours and subjected to intensive forms of surveillance. Far from producing a new agora, social media produce a radicalization of public debate in which hate-filled speech directed against adversaries becomes the norm. But these outcomes are not inevitable. The digital revolution also offers an exciting path, one that leads to a world in which everyone deserves to be listened to and respected. It explores a new way of living that is historically unprecedented, that of a society based neither on individualism nor on the hierarchical model of earlier civilizations. Are we able to seize the new opportunities opened up by the digital revolution without succumbing to its dark side?"--Amazon.com. |
| General note | Translation of: Homo numericus : la 'civilisation' qui vient. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Language | Translated from the French. |
| ISBN | 9781509560219 |
| ISBN | 1509560211 hardback |