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Informatics and sustainability
Wouter van Dieren
IMSA Amsterdam (NL)
The hope for redemption is so deeply rooted in our society that we keep
projecting it on every new wave of thought, technology and religious outbreaks
we come across. All days' misery on earth demands an ever reviving hope
for relief. Politically , perhaps the last personifications of this hope
were John F. Kennedy, Michael Gorbatchov and Nelson Mandela. They represented
the image of the second coming, this 2000 year old esperance for the return
of the Salvator, whose interrupted blessful works can then be completed.
Man desperately needs this hope, as otherwise we are bound to accept that
life on earth has no meaning at all, and is just a biological accident.
Hope for a better world or for redemption has always been linked not
only to religions, but, in a strange marriage, also to technology. And
indeed, many new technologies have brought relief from pain, misery and
poverty; the discovery of bacteria and their abatement have saved the lives
of billions, to name the best example. Electricity has brought light in
the dark, and radio and television enabled us to link the ouer corners
of the world together. No doubt that the machine has released the burden
of hard labour, and there is no question that the car is faster than the
carriage.
But the downsides of all these technological miracles are all too well
known, and it can be argued that we did make the world a great deal more
technological, but also more complex and definitely not a safer, happier
place to live in.
Climate change, the extinction of species, the spreading of (new) diseases,
disappearance and vulgarisation of cultures, the automobile's massacre,
to name just a few modern, negative feedbacks of technology.
Why then, should there be a different result from the new global informatics-revolution?
The protagonists of it claim, hope and pray, that here is a final technology
which will make the world indeed a paradise. Due to the unstoppable flow
of information, mankind will, at the dawn of the new millennium, finally
become wiser and even enlightened.
This is the old dream about every new technology. Is there a chance
for the better this time?
Certainly, a dictator will have a hard time in the days of the fax and
the E-mail. Controlled centralisation of information is definitely over
now. Yet, there are signs that some dominant powers can produce sufficient
ingenuity to redress this course of history, back into the dark ages of
control. Certainly, the potential is there to now make available such splendid
information-packages that only the best of every solution can and shall
be chosen. And indeed, the virtual possibilities of the informatics revolution
to replace material volume are gigantic.
In theory, like with all major new technologies, the world has a chance
to be better off with the help of Informia, this new virtual land of unlimited
potential.
Yet, history tells us that we have never really mastered our technological
innovative powers. The Jurassic-effect is a proven fact. The reverse effect
of the created techno-paradise has been with us since the dawn of the industrial
revolution.
If indeed we want to make a change now, then there is a need for a drastic
investigation into the needs of the "roots of the unleashed technology",
in order to finally be able to bridle this newest technology. Naive scuba-diving
into this ocean, as we see all around us, will certainly lead to the next
major technological accident.
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