Digital Shock: Confronting the New Reality

by Hervé Fischer

Herve Fischer believes that the digital revolution is a definitive moment in human history, as important as the discovery of fire. Deceptively quiet, it is invasive, radical and affects all aspects of human activity. Fischer cautions that we need to develop a cyber-philosophy to confront this new reality. In Digital Shock, the first English translation of his critically acclaimed Le Choc du numerique: A l'aube d'une nouvelle civilization, le triomphe des cyberprimitifs, Fischer warns that we must take a critical approach to these immensely beneficial, yet potentially devastating, technologies. The challenge, argues Fischer, is to avoid falling into cyber-primitivism - into allowing new technologies to enslave us by enshrining a symbolic, virtual cyber-world and powerful techno-scientific utopia. This could lead to another Middle Ages, destroying the modern idea of a political and social utopia. From cyberspace to artificial intelligence to genetic engineering, Digital Shock exposes the relationships between human beings and digital technology and examines our response to the myths and promises of the digital revolution."

288 pages, Hardcover

First published September 21, 2006

Reviews

[Alex]

Digital Shock has interesting thoughts on how the advent of the "Digital Age," where the internet corrupts humanity's relationship with itself through a sort of disambiguation between reality and almost-reality.

I still haven't read the whole thing, but the gist is to create a philosophical foundation for a new humanity in the digital age.

[Liz]

cover design by David Drummond