What's The Point?

As information and communication technologies (ICTs) become more important to our lives, many societies now live in a "hyperhistory." Hyperhistory is the next stage of history where people aren't just using technology to augment their lives, but living lifestyles that are wholly dependent on ICTs. This theory defines the world we're headed toward - the world that current students will operate and lead in the future.

PDF link to published article.

Bullet Summary

• Information and communication technologies have changed the way we live:
  1. Pre-history: No ICTs or recorded documents. There are societies that still exist in pre-history (such as uncontacted tribes in the Amazon)
  2. History: Rely of ICTs to record and transmit data, but ICTs have not overtaken other technologies yet (claims the majority of people today still live in history societies). Other technologies are necessary for vital activities and resources, such as energy.
  3. Hyperhistory: ICTs (and data processing) are essential for "further development of social welfare, personal well-being, as well as intellectual flourishing." Information, obtained via ICTs, becomes a fundamental resource.
• We only made the transition between Pre-history and History when humans became conscious of their growth—Floridi describes this as "Lamarckian rather than Darwinian" (51).
• Because our current philosophical views are intertwined with the realities of history, hyperhistory is causing us to reevaluate them. Some views affected by "bottom-up changes:"
  • Weltanschauung, or world view
  • Iindividuality
  • Interactions between us and the world
  • Interpersonal interactions
• As a result, our philosophies from history will change to focus on:
  • "New philosophy of nature"
  • "New philosophical anthropology
  • "Synthetic environments as a bridge between us and the world"
  • "New philosophy of politics among us"

Seems structuralist → the structure of ICTs is impacting our philosophy as humans.

Notable Quotes

"We are reminded of such deep technological debt when we divide human life into prehistory and history." (51)

"Prehistory and history work like adverbs: they tell us how people live, not when or where." (51)

"Human evolution may be visualised as a three-stage rocket: in prehistory, there are no ICTs; in history, there are ICTs, they record and transmit data, but human societies depend mainly on other kinds of technologies concerning primary resources and energy; in hyperhistory, there are ICTs, they record, transmit and, above all, process data, increasingly autonomously, and human societies become vitally dependent on them and on information as a fundamental resource." (52)

"I described this state in terms of 'building the raft while swimming,' hacking Neurath’s famous analogy. We are finding our new balance by shaping and adapting to hyperhistorical conditions that have not yet sedimented into a mature age." (53-54)