some perspective problems of information science. towards a global sustainable information society...
TRANSCRIPT
Some perspective problems of Information Science.Towards a Global Sustainable Information Society
Wolfgang HofkirchnerAssociate Professor, Vienna University of Technology
President Elect, ISISPresident, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems ScienceAcademician, International Academy of Systems and Cybernetic Sciences
Perspectives of information in Global Education as a new approach in the 21st centuryFIS 2013Moscow, 21–24 May, 2013
Some perspective problems of Information Science.Towards a Global Sustainable Information Society
Wolfgang HofkirchnerAssociate Professor, Vienna University of Technology
President Elect, ISISPresident, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems ScienceAcademician, International Academy of Systems and Cybernetic Sciences
Perspectives of information in Global Education as a new approach in the 21st centuryFIS 2013Moscow, 21–24 May, 2013
Contents
1 The Age of Global Challenges
2 The vision of the Global Sustainable Information Society2.1 A global society2.2 A sustainable society2.3 An information society
3 Education for the Global Sustainable Information Society3.1 Zeitgeist3.2 Information3.3 The reflexive imperative
1 The Age of Global Challenges
global challenges = challenges that
(1) affect (the survival of) all humanity (objective factor) and
(2) can successfully be treated only by humanity as a whole (subjective factor)
1 The Age of Global Challenges
global challenges are owed to disparities in the relationships between
– humans and society (among humans): parochial cultures, nationalism, fundamentalism;authoritarian or technocratic rule;uneven distribution of wealth, of chances for development
– humans and nature: degradation and pollution of the environment
– humans and technology: warfare, high-risk technologies
1 The Age of Global Challenges
global challenges are complex challenges:their complexity exceeds the problem-solving capacity of any currently existing social system – complexity needs to be reduced in order to enable the system to cope with the challenges*: by establishing a meta-level**)
*) Ross W. Ashby: requisite variety =def. the amount of variety a system needs to have to be able to steer another system (at least the same variety as that system has)**) Arkady D. Ursul: information =def. the variety contained by an agent reflecting the variety of an object
2 The vision of the Global Sustainable Information Society
that complexity might be reduced by aninformationalised, sustainabilised, globalised social system, that is, a system that is
(1) existent on a planetary scale – "global" –
(2) capable of acting upon the dangers of anthropogenic breakdown – "sustainable" – because it is
(3) capacitated, by means of ICTs, to create requisite knowledge – "informational"
2.1 A global society
•world society is a higher-order organisation of societal systems; it can catch up with the complexity that ensues from civilisation's own development, if it provides unity through diversity
2.2 A sustainable society
•as long as societies could externalise effects at the cost of other societies, their self-organisation was compatible with the enclosure of the common(-good)s; now that they are interconnected as they are, the enclosure of the commons is not tenable any more
2.3 An information society
•informationalisation is the process of raising the problem-solving capacity of the nascent world society to a level that allows for successfully tackling the problems that arise from society's own development
•this process is based upon informatisation, that is, the spread of information and communication technologies that makes society more and more responsive to information;but informatisation has to be tamed so as to be harnessed for informationalisation (Ivan Illich: conviviality)
3 Education for the Global Sustainable Information Society
3.1 Zeitgeist
education
•has been streamlined according to short-termed economic development
•in the sense of Antiquity or Humboldt has been reduced to training of skills (life-long learning for the information society?)
•does not contain critical thinking any more, no ethics, no values other than values of self-regarding individuals
3.2 Information
environment
agent
input/output option
self-organisationof an agent vis-à-vis its environment
3.2 Information
environment
agent
macro-levelmicro-level(agent)
self-organisation
behaviour
perturbation
self-organisationof an agent vis-à-vis its environment
3.2 Information
environment
agent
macro-levelmicro-level(agent)
self-organisation
behaviour
perturbation
self-organisationof an agent vis-à-vis its environment
macro-levelmicro-level(agent)
self-organised order = generated/utilised information (mediator)
3.2 Information
environment
agent
information
behaviour
perturbation
self-organisationof an agent vis-à-vis its environment
macro-levelmicro-level(society)
self-organisation (individual and societal)
ego
alter
interaction1
2
3
3.3 The reflexive imperative
structure of common(-good)s production/provision:
the "third" that mediates between ego and alter
social self-organisation
macro-levelmicro-level(society)
information in tribalism
incarnation n
incarnation n+1
structure of common(-good)s production/provision:
cognition
cognition
communi-cation
in-sync co-operation
"We"
3.3.1 Unevolved information (tribalism)
top-down self-organisation
1
1
1
1
macro-levelmicro-level(society)
information in individualism
"I"
"You"
restricted cognition
restricted cognition
restrictedcommuni-
cation
restricted co-operation
1
2
3.3.2 Restricted information (individualism)
structure of common(-good)s production/provision:
bottom-up self-organisation
macro-levelmicro-level(society)
information in cosmopolitanism
"Me"
"Thee"
extended cognition
extended co-
operation
extended co-
operation
extended communi-
cation1
2
"Us"
extended cognition
3
3.3.3 Extended ("third"-regarding) information (cosmopolitanism)
structure of common(-good)s production/provision:
full-fledged self-organisation
3.3.3 Extended ("third"-regarding) information (cosmopolitanism)
the reflexive imperative:
education today means education for becoming common(-good)s-regarding individualsable to cope with the global challenges