The Digital Era 2

5 Towards a Post-industrial iconomy

Since 2010, we have lived in the digital era, a new episode in the historical and progressive deployment of computerization, this third industrial revolution which, over the last 40 years or so, has relied on advances in microelectronics, software and networks, in addition to giving rise to innovations that affect society as a whole, as is the case with the Internet.

Since the appearance of semiconductors and printed circuits, the electronic chip, mainframe, personal computer and digital communication industries have largely organized and supported all vital activities of our time. All our economic, social and political functions depend on it. It has also enabled a host of services, most of which are now accessible from anywhere thanks to the network of networks.

Artificial intelligence suggests that a computer could replace the human brain: it has given birth to a chimera, something that thinks, and inspires science fiction dreams. Attention has thus turned away from the possibilities and dangers involved in the augmented human being, a synthesis of the human brain and the programmable automaton, whose effects exhibit themselves in institutions, the productive system, markets and even in the family and personal life of each individual.

In order to shed light on the anthropological significance of computerization, it was necessary to revive the intuition of visionaries of the 1950s such as John von Neumann or John Licklider, and to enrich ...