Mario Radovan

ICT and Human Progress

Information and communication technology (ICT) has changed the lives of people at the operative level; it is less clear in what ways and to what extent it has changed the way people feel and develop as human beings. We create excellent means, but are we feeling better and getting better, and by what criteria should we evaluate our progress? Operative power is needed for the human progress, but it is not enough. In this article we consider the traditional values of knowledge, goodness (ethics), and beauty (aesthetics) as the criteria of human progress, and how our embrace of ICT has affected our advance toward these values. We round up our discussion with reflections on aspects of human nature that lead people along the ways of knowledge, goodness, and beauty, and also those that hinder such advancement.

Knowledge and skills: A critical view

The paper puts forward a critical view on knowledge and education in the present techno-economic culture. This culture stresses the importance of knowledge and education, but it promotes only the instrumental knowledge that the present techno-economy directly needs. Such practice displaces other dimensions of the human knowledge and cognitive abilities, which are needed for the progress of people and humanity. Business forces are raising the means to the level of the end, and shape education in the way that serves business aim, rather than the promotion of knowledge. Information technology has brought many excellent means and services to education , but it should not be used in the way that reduces people to automatons that perform prescribed procedures, without understanding or asking anything beyond that.

The Power and Appeal of Manipulation

Information technology has facilitated the creation of a virtual reality which differs from the reality in which we live. We preach sublime ideals, but our public discourse is reduced to manipulation. We extol freedom and democracy, but we live in a world of fears. We prise truth, but we preach and believe what serves our interests. Information technology allows and compels us to see how imperfect our behaviour has been. In this way it helps people in their efforts to face their weaknesses, and humanity to save itself from itself. However, information technology has also facilitated total surveillance and control over people, which leads towards a totalitarian world. The mythical struggle between Good and Evil has been taking place in people and between them. Technology is the means in this struggle, but its course and outcome depend more on human nature than on technology.

The information society: a sketch for portrait

We address the issues of public discourse, alienation, destructiveness, creativity and morality, considered in the context of the opportunities and limitations that information technology brings about. We put forward ten theses which can be conceived of as the co-ordinates of a referential system that should allow us to speak more precisely about the virtues and vices of the information age.