Comtemplating the digital revolution

In this chapter, I argue that while the current technological revolution may look like one of the periodic accelerations of history that occur with the introduction of new technology, in fact, it is more than that. The Internet has become a “meta-medium” where the constantly evolving digital language penetrates and colonizes traditional means of communication. What characterizes the contemporary technological paradigm is the fact that information is raw material with pervasive effects that can be perceived in every aspect of individual and collective existence. This change, made possible by the unstoppable development of information technology, is occurring in several phases, but the most significant aspect is certainly the global and widespread expansion of the Internet. This is opening up horizons of reflection that allow for questioning the power of images; the relationship between facts and representations; the manipulation of news and question of post-truth; the link between emotions, knowledge and politics; and the languages of digital violence. The technification of lives, which began in the twentieth century, today has the appearance of a full mediatization and imagification that crosses all aspects of human existence. In this chapter, I will try to provide some possible ways of understanding the digital revolution in philosophical terms. The aim is not to choose one theory over another but to underline that diagnosing a complex and epochal phenomenon requires several analytical tools. A basic line between the considered philosophies and theories concerns the categories of space and time, at the subjective and even objective levels, and consequently the relationship between human beings and the world. This change inevitably has a conspicuous political consequence in terms of the immediacy or demedialization of the relationship between power and citizens.