Mark Joshua C.
Amancio
4PHL
Borgmann’s Critique of the Information Society
Abstract:
I. The Three Stages of Human Development
Human development have already progressed from historical to the next stage when we
relate humanity with the usage and processes of information. Luciano Floridi 1 calls this third
stage the Hyperhistory. We will first discuss the first and second stage of human development
before we thoroughly discuss the third stage. The first and second stage of human development
are Prehistory and History, respectively.
As the term “pre-” means before, prehistory is the first stage of human development. In
this primitive age, there were no written or recorded evidences, documents, or data of civilization
and development. People in this age have no system of writing that served as record to the way
of living. It was the age in the human development prior the availability of recording systems. 2
Thus, it can be said that prehistory is the stage of human development where human being does
not produce information on how they lived.
In the Prehistorical settings, civilizations were not yet formed rather nomadic tribes that
went to different places for food. This tribes did not have the tools to keep or produce
information thus there are no written records of their way of life. Historians and archeologists
rely to the physical ancient artefacts – that are simple machines lie flints, wheels, sparks, ploughs
- that have been excavated to prove that people already lived in the ancient times. In this stage, as
a summary, has no way of producing information because of their crude way of communication.
There were no language that was formed, therefore, it was impossible to have a system of
writing. In addition, there were still no sophisticated information and communication
technologies (ICTs) which helps in the production and preservation of information. It was only
when a systematic language and systems of writing were formed when we entered the second
stage of human development, or History.
We have only entered the historical stage of human development when the ancient
Sumerians invented systems of writing, which for them was a means of communication used for
long distance trading.3 Historians and linguists thought that humans have developed language to
1
Luciano Floridi is a professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford. He is
also the Director of Research of the Oxford Internet Institute. His primary researches are about the Philosophy of
Information, Information and Computer Ethics and the Philosophy of Technology. Luciano Floridi. “Short
Biography,” From the Philosophy of Information. (2014). Accessed April 18, 2017. From
http://www.philosophyofinformation.net/about/.
2
Luciano Floridi. Information: a very short introduction. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010). p.1
3
Joshua Mark. “Writing.” Ancient History Encyclopedia. 2011. Accessed March 15, 2017. From
http://www.ancient.eu/search/?q=writing&sa.x=0&sa.y=0
express concepts concerning daily life and writing is the physical proof of this language. This
means that history has systems, primarily writing, that started to record events, which produce
and preserve knowledge and practices of certain civilization. 4 These recorded events were
accumulated and transmitted for future consumption.
History then can be synonymous to information age and the emergence, not only of
culture and civilization, but also information societies, which have their own unique language
and system of writing. Moreover, history also represents one of the most significant steps of
human development, especially in the fields of science and technology. It is in history that the
invention, evolution and maturation of ICTs to a more complex yet sophisticated technologies,
like video cameras and computers.
Majority of the world is still living historically. We enter the next stage of the human
development when human progress and welfare do not just “relate to” but also becomes
“dependent on” the efficient management of life cycle of information. This information cycle
refers to the process that information is produced, distributed and consumed. We discuss further
the interaction between information and information society in the historical and the
hyperhistorical, which is the third stage of human development as stated by Floridi.
Hyperhistory is the term used by Floridi to identify the third stage of human
development. In a relatively short time, ICTs provide the recording and transmitting
infrastructure of information of information, now also provided a breakthrough of other
technologies possible, with the direct consequence of our deepening reliance on them.5
Hyperhistory is the stage that is dominated by the massive amounts of data and the fast
processing of information. There are, however, difference between information societies that live
in the historical stage and hypherhistorical stage, in the next chapter we will discuss how such
informational societies live in their respective stages.
II. The Information Society
It was discussed above that the development of language and the invention of writing as
a primary tool to produce and preserve information was the sign that humanity have already
entered the history. It was said that it is in this stage that information society emerged and
developed. History also is the stage of remarkable progress in the field of science and
technology. ICTs were also invented in this stage. It was also in this stage, and at such relatively
short time that these technologies have evolved into more complex, powerful and sophisticated
tools. It was discussed that hyperhistory is the third stage of human development. It is a stage
that is created by the massive data, which includes the data inside the internet, and not just the
data that appear on books and televisions. In these stages, people live differently but they goes
with the same name, which is information society. We will discuss in this chapter the differences
between the information society that lives in the historical stage and the information society that
lives in the hyperhistorical stage.
4
Ibid.
5
Cf. Luciano Floridi. “Hypherhistory, the Emergence of the MASs, and the Design of Infraethics” in The
Next Step: Exponential Life, (2017) Accessed March 16, 2017. From www.bbvaopenmind.com
Information societies, in the historical sense, are societies that already have the systems,
tools and capacity to produce, store, and use information, in any means possible, especially
writing. This is because information, in the information age, can be understood as the record,
documentaries, and other materials that we can access in order for us to connect to the past and
relate into the current events. This information can be physical, like written documents, or
virtual, like videos and recordings. We might be using computers and other ICTs that can record
and transmit data, but in the historical information society, we rely on them as mere recorder and
transmitter of data. This means that ICTs have not yet overtaken other technologies in their role
as technologies. Information society in the historical stage consume information just to be able to
relate with the world. In this society, progress and work are not yet overtaken by ICTs.
Hypherhistorical information society are different from the historical ones. Societies
that live hyperhistorically do not only rely on ICTs to record and transmit data but also relies on
the data processing capabilities of ICTs becomes necessary condition for the maintenance and
development of societal welfare and personal well-being. In this case, people that live in a
hyperhistorical society are susceptible and vulnerable to vital threats of cyber-attack. Only those
who live by the digit may die by the digit. 6 They transform our way of living, we become
interconnected to each other because of the influence of the internet and ICTs. This means that
people rather society now relies on ICTs for almost everything because ICTs dominate and
control the progress of humanity because of the massive data that they can gather and process in
a short amount of time.
In short, historical information society live where ICTs only record and transmit data,
and human societies still depend on other kinds of technologies for their well-being. In
hyperhistory, however, there are already ICTs that record, transmit and process data. In
hyperhistory, human societies become vitally dependent on them and on the information as a
fundamental resource.7 Prehistory’s excavated and discovered artefacts and history’s recorded
events of human societies act like ICTs but what they all do is to relate us to how people lived on
certain eras. On the other hand, hyperhistory’s data and recorded documents do not only relate to
how we live but also transform our way of living.
Not all philosopher, on the contrary, share the same insight as Luciano Floridi did
towards the changes that is brought by ICTs. Albert Borgmann 8 criticized the way people living
in the hypherhistorical information society which relies in the ICTs to do all the work. In the next
chapter, we will discuss Borgmann’s critique of information society.
III. Borgmann’s Critique of Information Society
Hyperhistorical information society as discussed above is a society that have become
reliant to the processing power and massive data of ICTs in order to progress and to get through
6
Cf. Ibid.
7
Luciano Floridi. “Hyperhistory and the Philosophy of Information Policies”. Philosophy and Technology,
vol. 25, (2012). p. 130
8
Albert Borgmann is a regents Professor Emeritus of Philosophy in the University of Montana. He is
specializing in philosophy of technology, with the research interests in the philosophy of society and culture.
life. This makes one’s life easier as we become detached to the work that we should be doing.
Albert Borgmann have a negative view of life in a technological era.
There is a relation between technology and good life. Technology promotes the good
life by making it easier and richer.9 However, there are risks in having a good life in the
hyperhistorical information era. Albert Borgmann and his central concept in the philosophy of
technology, the device paradigm10 critiqued the life that is made easier by these modern day
technologies. It is in contrast with focal things and practices. 11 Focal things and practices are the
traditional and familiar way of running and doing things. Borgmann argued that technology are
disburdening us, in a negative way, of the tasks that we should be doing. An example of this
technology that is disburdening us of work is the air conditioning unit. The traditional way of
heating up a house in a cold day is to chop down woods, and put up a fire in the hearth. Today,
we can use air conditioning system also as a heater and sometimes automatically adjust the
temperature according to how hot or cold it is outside. This disburdened us of the works of
chopping woods and the time of putting up a fire.
Borgmann describes life inside a device paradigm is a life that is neither noble nor
happy. For him, works that are dominated by technology becomes monotonous and devoid of
any challenges since they require less real human skills. The job becomes means of profit while
it should be an expression of our existence as a human person. In relation to leisure, recreation
and our free time, technology brings less nobility because technology turns leisure activities to
shallow activities powered by the excessive consumption and entertainment. Borgmann’s
analysis of contemporary society that relies vitally on technology is that their life are unfocused
or disintegrated.12 For him, we were wrong if we expect that reliance to technology to disburden
us of work will make our life more meaningful.
9
Topi Heikkero. “The Good Life in a Technological World: Focal Things and Practices in the West and in
Japan” in Technology in Society vol. 27 (2005) p. 251
10
Albert Borgmann. Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life: a Philosophical Inquiry.
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1984)
11
Heikkero, Good Life. p. 252
12
Ibid. p. 253
