The Contributory Revolution

Introduction

The digital revolution is systemic in nature. It is primarily epistemological, indeed gnoseological. It is bringing about a metamorphosis of science and technology as a cultural object. This metamorphosis is taking place at the heart of a fundamental duality of the human soul: the place/link duality. In addition, the new forms of potential released by science and technology are foundering on the ecological and anthropological challenges of their implementation. Perceived, according to one’s beliefs, either as salutary or apocalyptic, the outcome of the debate on the very nature of their development and their use is crucial today. It involves both a choice regarding the way of life and an orientation towards the continuation of our long process of humanization. It concerns the whole of humanity. All this contributes in the social and cultural field to a crisis of meaning and joy. This crisis, like any crisis in the living world, mobilizes forces for conservation against forces for alteration; against deconstruction, reconstruction emerges. The “third places” of this reconstruction are emerging everywhere. The levers of their effectiveness are known. It is up to us to activate them.

I.1. Tricky words relating to the transformation of the living world

Deconstruction, alteration, transformation and conservation are words often used to try to express what is transformed in the living world. The terms “alteration” and “conservation” are delicate. Alteration indicates ...