The new digital technologies offer unprecedented opportunities for communication and solidarity, enabling individuals to access information and engage in collective actions. However, these technological advancements also raise concerns about potential infringements on privacy and individual liberties, through the collection of personal data for control and discrimination purposes. The notion of universal progress through digital means is naive unless we consider the purposes of our individual and collective actions, exercising discernment and making informed choices. Education plays a crucial role in this regard, promoting democracy and social cohesion.
E. Krieger
There is not a single day without a self-proclaimed expert extolling the virtues of the digital realm, emphasizing how it facilitates exchanges and promotes new forms of solidarity. In the past, the media even attributed the Arab Spring to platforms like Twitter ‘now « X »), citing its vast potential for instant dissemination of information. However, subsequent events demonstrated that more traditional institutions exerted greater control over historical developments than crowds armed with simple smartphones.
Nevertheless, nothing will be the same as before, as information and its malevolent counterpart – misinformation – now circulate at the speed of light. The new technologies are capable of both the best and the worst outcomes, evident in the realms of life sciences and material sciences, which now converge on the nanometer scale.
Toward digital eugenics?
The digital sphere does not escape the reality that undeniable communication progress also brings simultaneous threats to individual and public liberties. For instance, a leader in automobile insurance offers contracts where significant discounts on annual premiums are granted on the condition that your driving behavior is monitored in real-time via your smartphone to assess if you are a « good risk » or a reckless driver.
Analogous developments are taking place in the field of health, where proposals exist to monitor our metabolism, providing us with seemingly altruistic advice on diet and physical activity. In the near future, they might offer competitively priced medical coverage to the most « virtuous » among us, akin to a banker handing you an umbrella when the weather is fine.
This form of digital eugenics is as concerning as the ideologies of transhumanists or post-humanists, who believe they belong to an elite group enjoying the benefits of progress without concern for the common people on the other side of the digital divide.
Panurgism or wisdom of the crowd?
However, recent digital revolutions allow a larger number of people to make informed choices and create new forms of solidarity, both on international and hyper-local levels. Educational technologies facilitate the sharing of knowledge at extremely reduced costs, supporting Jeremy Rifkin’s ideas on the « zero marginal cost society » and the potential to offer numerous services at negligible prices, thereby shattering outdated and unproductive monopolies.
The digital realm becomes a powerful catalyst for economic and social transformations, granting individuals and crowds an unprecedented capacity for mobilization and action. The present era is fascinating in many ways, yet we find ourselves dancing on a volcano, as the ideology of universal progress is as naive as the pursuit of the status quo. We continually oscillate between the proverbial wisdom of the crowd, amplified by digital crowdsourcing mechanisms, and phenomena of panurgism, where lack of discernment prevails.
The question of the purposes behind individual and collective actions must be continuously addressed, and education remains one of the primary ingredients for fostering democracy and cohesive societies.
Adapted from Krieger E. (2014) « Le numérique, démultiplicateur de l’action collective », La Revue du Cube #7, « Agir », Déc. 2014. Also published on: www.ikigai-colors.com/index.php/2023/07/28/le-numerique-demultiplicateur-de-laction-collective-2/
