The Philosophy of Information and the Structure of Philosophical Revolutions

The Philosophy of Informa2on and the Structure of Philosophical Revolu2ons

Anthony F. Beavers, Ph.D. Professor of Philosophy

Seminar on the Philosophy of the Web The Sorbonne, 19 May 2012

The Philosophy of Informa2on and the Structure of Philosophical Revolu2ons


Based largely on two previous papers: •  Historicizing Floridi: The Ques2on of Method, The State of the Profession, and the Timeliness

of Floridi’s Philosophy of Informa2on. E<ca & Poli<ca 13.2 (2011), 255-‐275.

•  In the Beginning Was the Word and Then Four Revolu2ons in the History of Informa2on. In Luciano Floridi's Philosophy of Technology: Cri<cal Reflec<ons, edited by Hilmi Demir (Springer, Philosophy of Engineering and Technology Book Series, 2012), forthcoming.

Contents of Talk


Contents of Talk (Slightly More Linearly)


•  A Crisis of Relevance in Global Propor2on

•  Four Revolu2ons in the History of Informa2on

•  A Digress on the Metaphysics of Technology

•  Philosophical and Intellectual Co-‐incidence

•  What Unifies the Progress of Informa2on History?

•  1982: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?

•  What Does Philosophy Require in the Informa2on Age?

Seminar on the Philosophy of the Web The Sorbonne, 19 May 2012

A Crisis of Relevance in Global Propor2on


“A philosophy that is not 2mely but 2meless is not a philosophia perennis, which unreasonably claims unbounded validity over past and future intellectual posi2ons, but a stagnant philosophy, unable to contribute, keep track of, and interact with, the cultural evolu2on that philosophical reflec2on itself has helped to bring about, and hence to flourish.” (Floridi, 2011, p. 12)

Does this view imply rela2vism or relevance?



Provoca'on There once was a philosopher not to be named, who betrayed his teacher and in so doing made a mess of “the profession.” This master remarked that no great philosopher was wrong, but that each reported on how we stood in rela2on to being during his historical epoch. While naming him may lead to immediate dismissal, he nonetheless s2rred the pot and in so doing tried to revitalize a profession that was languishing in his midst. This man was no rela2vist, but one who sought only to make philosophy relevant again. For what could make the history of philosophy more relevant than to read it as a record of human transforma2on rather than a compe22on to find the one truth that could stand s2ll for all 2me? That man was part poet, part philosopher, part provocateur; and with that insight, he managed to uncover more than most previous philosophers covered over in a life2me.



Concep'on Any philosophy of import (and let us not forget that those with no import are also not remembered) …

1)  … is embodied in the ethos of a 2me and 2)  set to answer ques2ons that are pressing for its day. 3)  Consequently, genuine philosophy changes over 2me.

If it does not, it gets stuck in sedimented thought, bickers over triviali2es, risks irrelevance and loses its ability to transform the world.

Does philosophy today find itself in this predicament?



Diagnosis Philosophy today is scholas2c. “It manifests itself as a pedan2c and ocen intolerant adherence to some discourse (teachings, methods, values, viewpoints, canons of authors, posi2ons, theories, or selec2ons of problems etc.), set by a par2cular group (a philosopher, a school of thought, a movement, a trend, a fashion), at the expense of other alterna2ves, which are ignored or opposed. It fixes, as permanently and objec2vely as possible, a toolbox of philosophical concepts and vocabulary suitable for standardizing its discourse (its special isms) and the research agenda of the community. In this way, scholas2cism favours the professionaliza2on of philosophy: scholas2cs are ‘lovers’ who detest the idea of being amateurs and wish to become professional.” (Floridi, 2011, p. 9)

Are we therefore at the end of philosophy as a discipline?



Prognosis •  Philosophy is today in a very precarious posi2on. It must either adapt or die. •  (Adapta2on, however, cannot be unduly forced. That is, it must be both

appropriate and 2mely. Is it the right 2me?) •  We have been in this situa2on before and have managed to survive to become

relevant once again. So, there may be cause for hope … maybe.

When? •  Just acer the epoch of Medieval Scholas2cism, when new mathema2cal methods

and changes in the informa2on environment created the necessity of squaring a dying ins2tu2on of philosophy with new scien2fic discoveries. But there is much more to this story … to be outlined in a moment.



Prescrip'on 1.  A willingness to confront the situa2on head on with no self-‐decep2on and some

much needed input from other fields; 2.  A grounded concep2on of the current geopoli2cal landscape and the

informa2onal circumstances that have brought it about; and 3.  A proper understanding of the movement of philosophy through history along

with the precipita2ng causes that have inspired its transforma2ons.

The remainder of this talk will start in the direc2on of number 3.

Four Revolu2ons in the History of Informa2on


1.   The Epigraphic Revolu'on – the inven2on of wri2ng; the spa2aliza2on of oral and temporal informa2on flow retemporalized in the act of reading; text; phoneme to grapheme, grapheme back to phoneme.

2.   The Prin'ng Revolu'on – the mass produc2on of wri2ng; the easy

transportability of text that allowed informa2on to flow quickly and efficiently along mul2ple routes simultaneously.

3.   The Mul'media Revolu'on – the industrializa2on of informa2on and its flow;

the decoupling of this flow from the exigencies of transporta2on technology; mass media and real-‐2me dissemina2on.

4.   The Digital Revolu'on – the reduc2on of informa2on itself, regardless of type,

to a common code; the smallest alphabet, a bit stream to carry all informa2on, allowing it to be transmijed, processed and stored using the same technologies.



1. The Epigraphic Revolu'on (c 3500 BCE – 1450 CE)

1.  Offline storage – extended mind and memory

2.  Transportability across space and 2me

3.  With the phone2c alphabet, immediate translatability from speech to text

During the epigraphic revolu2on, innova2on generally concerned portability and permanence; clay tables, papyrus, parchment, paper, the first copyists (scribes) and libraries.



2. The Prin'ng Revolu'on (c 1450 CE – 1830 CE)

1.  Everything from the Epigraphic Revolu2on, plus …

2.  The mass produc2on of text 3.  Increase in literacy by transla2on of

text into vernacular languages 4.  Private reading; the populariza2on of

books and pamphlets

With out a prin2ng press, there could have been no Reforma2on.



2. The Prin'ng Revolu'on (c 1450 CE – 1830 CE)

Deibert (1997) aptly describes the situa2on: "About 20 million books were printed before 1500 in Europe among a popula2on at the 2me of about 100 million. This number of books, produced in the first ficy years of prin2ng, eclipsed the en2re es2mated product of the previous thousand years" (p. 65). He goes on to note that "Febvre and Mar2n (1976) es2mate that 150 million to 200 million were then produced in the next hundred years.”



3. The Mul'media Revolu'on (c 1830 CE – 1980 CE)

1.  Everything from the Prin2ng Revolu2on, plus …

2.  The decoupling of informa2on from transporta2on

3.  Immediate dissemina2on of informa2on, (mostly in one direc2on)

4.  The emergence of global community and a developing awareness of world-‐wide concern

Ocen overlooked, the Mul2media Revolu2on made world war possible and brought with it new problems in cross-‐cultural understanding.




1836 – Telegraphy 1839 – Daguerreotype 1856 – Telegraphic Printer 1863 – Stock Ticker 1877 – Telephone 1878 – Phonograph 1880 – Light Bulb 1880 – Photophone 1881 – Wireless Telegraphy 1881 – Wax Cylinder 1891 – Mo2on Picture Camera 1898 – Rotary Telephone

1906 – Radio (the “wireless”) 1906 – Teletype 1914 – Telescribe 1926 – Television 1927 – Electric Phonograph 1928 – Na2onal Broadcas2ng System 1928 – Magne2c Tape 1948 – Cable Television 1958 – Casseje Tape 1963 – Touch Tone Phone 1966 – GE Color Television 1969 – Video Casseje Recorder All dates approximate




“What we might call the telephoniza2on of city life, for lack of a simpler word, has remarkably altered our manner of living from what it was in the days of Abraham Lincoln. It has enabled us to be more social and coopera2ve. It has literally abolished the isola2on of separate families, and has made us members of one great family. It has become so truly an organ of the social body that by telephone we now enter into

contracts, give evidence, try lawsuits, make speeches, propose marriage, confer degrees, appeal to voters, and do almost everything else that is a majer of speech.” (Casson, 1910, p. 199. N.B., the quote predates the inven2on of the television.)



4. The Digital Revolu'on (c 1980 CE – present)

1.  Everything from the Mul2media Revolu2on, plus …

2.  A common code for all informa2on to expedite its transmission

3.  The rapid emergence of a global informa2on environment with ubiquitous access to almost anything from almost anywhere

4.  The prolifera2on of informa2on beyond the scope of our understanding

Facebook, now in its 8th year, is the 3rd largest civic organiza2on on the planet and the largest social science database ever compiled in the history of the world.



4. The Digital Revolu'on (c 1980 CE – present)

In a recent study, researchers at Berkeley's School of Informa2on Management and Systems es2mated that humanity had accumulated approximately 12 exabytes of data in the course of its en2re history un2l the commodifica2on of computers, but that it had produced more than 5 exabytes of data just in 2002 …. Five exabytes of informa2on is equivalent in size to the informa2on contained in 37,000 new libraries the size of the Library of Congress book collec2ons’ (Lyman and Varian [2003]). In 2002, this was almost 800 MB of recorded data produced per person. It is like saying that every newborn baby came into the world with a burden of 30 feet of books, the equivalent of 800 MB of data on paper. This exponen2al escala2on has been relentless: ‘between 2006 and 2010 [...] the digital universe will increase more than six fold from 161 exabytes to 988 exabytes.’ (Floridi, 2009, p. 154)

Digress on the Metaphysics of Technology


Enabling Causes & Necessary Condi'ons

P -‐> Q | P || Q ~Q -‐> ~P | ~P || ~Q

A philosophical quandary is involved in how to read “-‐>”. On the one hand, and in both examples, it represents logical entailment. In fact, the two expressions are logically equivalent. But can we provide a causal reading to the “-‐>” connector? “P causes Q” means that in the presence of P, Q will occur. Can we therefore say that the absence of Q “causes” the absence of P, since in the absence of Q, P cannot occur? If so, what kind of causa2on is represented by a necessary condi2on? Borrowing a term from Deacon (Norton, 2011), it seems that we need to speak of “specific absences” when considering technological causes.



The Logic of Specific Absences I Causally (and counterfactually), to say that P -‐> Q is to say that ~P -‐> ~Q and not ~Q -‐> ~P, as logical entailment requires. There are plenty of examples: To say that “the fire caused the house to burn down” is not to say that “the house not burning down caused the fire not to occur” (nonsense), but that “if there had been no fire, the house would not have burned down.” Thus, the “-‐>” cannot be read simultaneously as indica2ng logical entailment and causal rela2on. But this does not mean that an expression in the nega2ve form of ~Q -‐> ~P is causally inert, since some2mes expressions of this sort can be true and some2mes false.



The Logic of Specific Absences II Consider ~Q -‐> ~P again. Whether we agree or disagree over the content, the no2on of specific absences as causes is not nonsense. Case 1: The absence of industrialized communica2on caused (i.e., posi2vely inhibited) informa2on from being transmijed apart from the transporta2on industry. Case 2: The absence of Mar2ans on earth caused (i.e., posi2vely inhibited) informa2on from being transmijed apart from the transporta2on industry. The first seems true (though perhaps within limits); the second is obviously false. If truth and falsity can be applied to such nega2ve causa2on, then a logic of specific absence seems possible.



Specific Absences and Technological Causes I Generally, technological causes operate as enabling condi2ons that answer to specific absences that address pressing needs. The problem needing a solu2on can then be thought of as negated consequent and its poten2al solu2on as a negated antecedent in a condi2onal statement. Thus, let X represent the solu2on that will solve the problem of world hunger and Y represent the world being fed. ~X -‐> ~Y means the absence of X causes the absence of Y, and that finding X is to solve the problem represented by ~Y, that is, this is to say that X causes Y.



Specific Absences and Technological Causes II In other words the absence of specific technologies are inhibitory causes in cases where a problem is present that is awai2ng a solu2on and a specific technology offers the needed solu2on. Ques'ons Concerning Informa'on Technology •  Given the persistent historical development of informa2on and communica2on

technologies, what are the persistent problems to which they provide an answer? •  Does the presence of one technological solu2on create an absence that causes

other problems, thereby necessita2ng other informa2on-‐technological solu2ons? •  Can this be formalized into a causal logic of informa2on-‐technological change?

Philosophical and Intellectual Co-‐Incidence


1. The Epigraphic Revolu'on & Ancient Philosophy

“Both wri2ng and prin2ng favor and encourage an abstract, ra2onal cogni2ve orienta2on by arres2ng the flow of oral conversa2on, permi{ng the comparison and juxtaposi2on of words and documents, and detaching the content of com-‐munica2on from place, 2me, and personality.” (Deibert, 1997, p. 84) “Schools of oratory grew up to teach the art of speech making (really, speech wri2ng), the most famous of which was perhaps that of Isocrates. The sheer presence of the amount of Greek legal oratory we s2ll possess in wri2ng tes2fies to this fact. More important for the discipline of philosophy is the climate of sophistry that this created for which Plato’s Academy could become an an2dote.” (Beavers, 2011)



1. The Epigraphic Revolu'on & Ancient Philosophy

Though talk of Plato and the sophists is the stuff of introductory classes, this clash between persuasion and truth-‐telling nonetheless provided the cri2cal context for understanding Plato’s corpus and perhaps jus2fies his skep2cism over wri2ng expressed in the Phaedrus. Greek philosophy emerges in a social and poli2cal climate that problema2zed the rela2onship between speech and wri2ng in light of social problems arising by confusion in the informa2on environment of the day and that may have led, at least on a Platonic reading, to the Athenian loss of the Peloponnesian War. Philosophy began, in other words, with a pressing need to sort out the true from the false in an age where the confla2on of speech and wri2ng made this necessary. Only in such a context could it make sense for Socrates (or anyone) to ask another to “hand over a speech” (on reflec2on, an odd locu2on) for scru2ny. (Redacted from Beavers, 2011)



2. The Prin'ng Revolu'on & Modern Philosophy

“The gradual rise of individualism as both a prevailing symbolic form and a predomi-‐ nant moral idea flourished in the prin2ng environment. The mass produc2on of printed material favored newly circula2ng no2ons of authorship, copyright, and in-‐ dividual subjec2vity, while the portability of printed books facilitated the trend to-‐ ward silent, private reading and intellectual isola2on and reflec2on. (Deibert, 1997, p. 100) The Reforma2on brought with it not only a theological protestan2sm, but also an epistemic one, perhaps best represented by Descartes’ turn from the received wisdom of the ancients to the desire to establish truth on his own. Other moderns followed in his wake by applying mathema2cal methods to philosophical ques2ons in an ajempt to bring philosophy in line with a newly developing science.



3. The Mul'media Revolu'on & 19th/20th Century Philosophy

“The [19th century] reac2on [to Kant] was largely centered around a telling issue, the individual against an emerging mass society, Hegel arguing on behalf of society (on some readings) and Marx, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche (along with others) advoca2ng for the individual that was being exploited or lost in a herd. During this par2cular period of philosophy it was as if philosophy was an2cipa2ng changes in informa2on technology that would come later in the century, or perhaps bejer put, that society itself was providing a vacuum that would need to be filled by such technologies.” (Beavers, 2011, p. 267) Later in the century, acer 1880, language itself became a central preoccupa2on in philosophy in a contest between Frege and Husserl. Philosophy divides into two methodological camps, one favoring the analysis of language, the other an imagis2c descrip2on of experience. The argument con2nues to this very day.



4. The Digital Revolu'on & …

Neo-‐scholas2cism or Innova2on?

The answer is up to us … But, then, what should we embrace?

What Unifies the Progress of Informa2on History?


3000 BCE 1450 CE 1940 CE 20?? CE

This is precisely to ask: Given the persistent historical development of informa2on and communica2on technologies, what are the persistent problems to which they provide an answer?



The Human/Computer Network •  While focusing on the developing of informa2on technologies in isola2on paints

a portrait of improvements in data storage, increases in the speed of transmission, and the ease of retrieval, viewing the history from a func2onal point of view, leads to a “network concep2on” of our interconnec2vity.

•  The history of informa2on is, thus, the history of an emerging ubiquitous network in which subnet assimilates with subnet to allow informa2on to flow more freely and more openly.

•  With the Digital Revolu2on, one-‐way media gives way to two-‐way interac2vity, thus wiring mind to mind in a global informa2on network rather than situa2ng individuals orthogonally toward centers of ins2tu2onalized authority.



The Human/Computer Network If we wish to preserve some semblance of a Turing metaphor, we could say that humans and networked computers are both: •  Read/write heads with internal informa2on buffers (on board storage) that

interact with a common tape. •  That the networked world is precisely such a tape; that is, an offline informa2on

store for each of us as individuals. •  And that from a cogni2ve science point of view, intelligence is a property best

ajributed to the species, while individuals (both human and computers) are mere nodes that contribute par2ally to an emerging global species intellect.

1982: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?


•  If one had to pick a year when informa2on started to take another leap forward, it could be 1982.

•  Digi2zed media was just star2ng to become popular.

•  Yet, we s2ll largely understood ourselves as captured in a media environment of one way communica2on.

•  But as we will learn in the next decade, interac2vity will change everything.

1982: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?


In 1982 Emmanuel Levinas characterized society at the 2me as one ... “whose boundaries have become, in a sense, planetary: a society, in which, due to the ease of modern communica2ons and transport, and the worldwide scale of its industrial economy, each person feels simultaneously that he is related to humanity as a whole, and equally that he is alone and lost. With each radio broadcast and each day's papers one may well feel caught up in the most distant events, and connected to mankind everywhere; but one also understands that one's personal des2ny, freedom or happiness is subject to causes which operate with inhumane force. One understands that the very progress of technology—and here I am taking up a commonplace—which relates everyone in the world to everyone else, is inseparable from a necessity which leaves all men anonymous. Impersonal forms of rela2onship come to replace the more direct forms, the 'short connec2ons' as Ricoeur calls them, in an excessively programmed world.” (Levinas, 1982, p. 212) Is this twen2eth-‐century diagnosis being undone by the presence of the Internet?

What Does Philosophy Require in the Informa2on Age?


Conclusion If we are to escape irrelevance and contribute to the viability of our species: •  We must turn our ajen2on to problems that ul2mately plague the species and if

lec unsolved will lead to our demise. This does not mean universal ac2vi2sm, since there is serious work to be done across all branches of philosophy.

•  We must drop the agonis2c no2on that philosophy proceeds by combat and help each other form the best arguments possible for whichever posi2on is being advoca2ng.

•  We must accept our responsibility to protect the integrity of informa2on, pu{ng the search for truth second to a more primary direc2ve of preserving the integrity of the infosphere. We are and always have been shepherds of informa2on.

References


•  Beavers, A. Historicizing Floridi: The Ques2on of Method, The State of the Profession, and the Timeliness of Floridi’s Philosophy of Informa2on. E<ca & Poli<ca 13.2 (2011), 255-‐275.

•  Beavers, A. In the Beginning Was the Word and Then Four Revolu2ons in the History of Informa2on. In Luciano Floridi's Philosophy of Technology: Cri<cal Reflec<ons, edited by Hilmi Demir (Springer, Philosophy of Engineering and Technology Book Series, 2012), forthcoming.

•  Casson, H. The history of the telephone. A. C. McClurg and Co., 1910. •  Deacon, T. Incomplete Nature. Norton, 2011. •  Deibert, R. Parchment, Prin<ng, and Hypermedia: Communica<on in World Order Transforma<on.

Columbia, 1997. •  Febvre, L and H-‐J Mar2n. The coming of the book: The impact of prin<ng 1450-‐1800. Translated by

David Gerard. Verso, 1958/1976. •  Floridi, L. The informa2on society and its philosophy: Introduc2on to the special issue on ‘The

philosophy of informa2on, its nature and future developments.’ The Informa<on Society 25.3 (2009): 153-‐158.

•  Floridi, L. The Philosophy of Informa<on. Oxford, 2011. •  Levinas, E. The pact. In The Levinas reader, ed. Seán Hand, 211-‐226. Blackwell, 1982/1989. •  Lyman, P. and H. Varian. How much informa<on? 2003. hjp://www2.sims .berkeley.edu/research/

projects/how-‐much-‐info-‐2003/, 2003. Accessed 14 February 2011.

The Philosophy of Information and the Structure of Philosophical Revolutions

Technology

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