- Byung-Chul Han published “Infocracy”, a book that analyzes the current situation of information and power.
- The author says that the possession of means of production is no longer relevant, but access to information.
- “People believe they are free, authentic and creative and that they fulfill themselves, but they do not see that they are docile to the information regime.”
The Korean writer Byung-Chul Han says that the “planet has changed”, that the “world revolves only around data and information” and that “Power is not now the possession of the means of production, but access to information.”
In his new book, Infocracy, Han explains in detail how new technologies influence today’s democracies by undermining their base of support.
Han says that the world is no longer the same due to the impact of social networks and “hyper information” and assures that the high volume of data that people dump on the web can take away their freedoms.
Han describes today’s citizen as “consumer cattle” who live immersed in an algorithm of data obtained about him which are then used to predict their behavior.
For Han, information management has radically changed the scenario and serves to dominate industrial capitalism and Western democracy.
The philosopher also explains that it is possible for society to be subdued based on information, transforming people into “submissive cattle”.
The author claims that people believes to be free, authentic and creative and it fulfills itself, but they do not see that they are docile to the information regime.
Mentioning social networks, Han explains that algorithms and artificial intelligence shape the supposed freedom of men, who allow themselves to be influenced without knowing it.
The critical mass of people now depends on the information they receive through phones, trends and data on the Internet, he analyzes.
Infocracy, transparency and the culture of the like
Regarding transparency, Han assures that people are not free, the information is what is free, because the “digital prison is transparent”.
He strongly criticizes the permanent surveillance of smartphones, search engines, voice assistants or applications that carefully record everyone’s daily life. He says that “the ‘like’ excludes any revolution”.
Han says that the key to infocracy is that “we think we are free.” The system makes people believe that they are free, but in reality they are subjected to a whole protocol for the control of their psychopolitical behavior. “It is not the consciousness of permanent surveillance, but the felt freedom, which ensures the functioning of power”, Han analyzes in his book Infocracy.
He adds that there is a “crisis of the truth” and that “the information regime has displaced the truth.”
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