The New Digital Wave of Rationalization: A Loss of Autonomy

The new wave of digitization and the ensuing cybernetic loop lead to the fact that biological, social, and cognitive processes can be understood in terms of information processes and systems, and thus digitally programmed and controlled. Digital control offers society and the individuals in that soc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inInternational journal of technoethics Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 59 - 74
Main Authors Royakkers, Lambèr, van Est, Rinie
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published IGI Global 01.01.2020
Subjects
Digitization
Human rights
Social aspects
Technology and civilization
New York
Netherlands
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The new wave of digitization and the ensuing cybernetic loop lead to the fact that biological, social, and cognitive processes can be understood in terms of information processes and systems, and thus digitally programmed and controlled. Digital control offers society and the individuals in that society a multitude of opportunities, but also brings new social and ethical challenges. Important public values are at stake, closely linked to fundamental and human rights. This paper focuses on the public value of autonomy, and shows that digitization—by analysis and application of data—can have a profound effect on this value in all sorts of aspects in our lives: in our material, biological, and socio-cultural lives. Since the supervision of autonomy is hardly organized, we need to clarify through reflection and joint debate about what kind of control and human qualities we do not want to lose in the digital future.
ISSN:1947-3451
1947-346X
DOI:10.4018/IJT.2020010105