Philosophies of Technologies

10Controlling Digital Technologies: Between Democratic Issues and Social Demand

10.1. Introduction

Technologies today are often made to serve capitalist ends. Interestingly, these technologies may have opened a new portal for individuals who are learning how to grasp them, thus resulting in possibilities that are not limited to the logic of consumption. However, to open up such perspectives, we need to be careful about which major trends we wish to promote in the evolution of our societies. While digital technologies can be a source of diversion, the socio-philosophical approach to them still faces a number of challenges. Overall, digital expertise is still very limited (Guichard 2019). The lack of terms and conditions in the digital environment is even having tremendous social consequences on the balance of social life. Public institutions tend to simplify their administrative procedures, and services are therefore often dematerialized; yet, these extended forms of services (i.e. the digital form of services) should be questioned from an ethical point of view. A quick example of this is that it may lead to new forms of vulnerabilities, such as social exclusion. How can we deal with this? What democratic impulses are likely to accompany the deployment of technology in our lives?

10.2. Dematerialization leads to an inability to act

When a number of public services are managed exclusively by virtual means, there is a significant risk that certain categories of the population ...