The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality

— —

Luciano Floridi (Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford)

The Fourth Revolution

How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality

Luciano Floridi (Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford)

$42.95

Paperback

Not in-store but you can order this
How long will it take?

Availability Information

We source books from suppliers in Australia and overseas. For books we don't currently have in stock, the time it takes to get them from our suppliers can vary widely - from a few days to a few months - so we check each book with each supplier to determine the expected time it will take to be supplied to us.

We then advise you accordingly. If the time taken to get any book is too long for you, you can let us know and we will cancel or adjust your order, and refund as required.

To find out the anticipated arrival time for specific items prior to ordering, please contact us by phone or email:

Phone +61 2 9264 3111, or 1800 4 BOOKS (1800 4 26657) if outside Sydney:
option 1 Abbey's Bookshop (Crime, History, Science, Kids & more) • info@abbeys.com.au
option 2 Language Book Centre (ESL & Foreign Languages) • language@abbeys.com.au
option 3 Galaxy Bookshop (Sci-fi, Fantasy, Romance, Graphic Novels) • sf@galaxybooks.com.au

QTY:

English

Oxford University Press
08 July 2014

Society & Social Sciences; Philosophy of science; Popular science; Computing: general; Computer science

"Who are we, and how do we relate to each other? Luciano Floridi, one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy, argues that the explosive developments in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is changing the answer to these fundamental human questions.

As the boundaries between life online and offline break down, and we become seamlessly connected to each other and surrounded by smart, responsive objects, we are all becoming integrated into an ""infosphere"". Personas we adopt in social media, for example, feed into our 'real' lives so that we begin to live, as Floridi puts in, ""onlife"". Following those led by Copernicus, Darwin, and Freud, this metaphysical shift represents nothing less than a fourth revolution.

""Onlife"" defines more and more of our daily activity - the way we shop, work, learn, care for our health, entertain ourselves, conduct our relationships; the way we interact with the worlds of law, finance, and politics; even the way we conduct war. In every department of life, ICTs have become environmental forces which are creating and transforming our realities. How can we ensure that we shall reap their benefits? What are the implicit risks? Are our technologies going to enable and empower us, or constrain us? Floridi argues that we must expand our ecological and ethical approach to cover both natural and man-made realities, putting the 'e' in an environmentalism that can deal successfully with the new challenges posed by our digital technologies and information society."

By: Luciano Floridi (Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 223mm, Width: 148mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 418g
ISBN: 9780199606726
ISBN 10: 0199606722
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 08 July 2014
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Acknowledgements List of figures 1: Hyperhistory 2: Space: Infosphere 3: Identity: Onlife 4: Self-Understanding: The Four Revolutions 5: Privacy: Informational Friction 6: Intelligence: Inscribing the World 7: Agency: Enveloping the World 8: Politics: The Rise of the Multi-Agent System 9: Environment: The Digital Gambit 10: Ethics: E-nvironmentalism Further Reading References Endnotes Index

Luciano Floridi is Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Information at the University of Oxford, Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute, and Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Among his recognitions, he has been appointed the Gauss Professor by the Academy of Sciences in Gottingen, and is recipient of the APA's Barwise Prize, the IACAP's Covey Award, and the INSEIT's Weizenbaum Award. He is an AISB and BCS Fellow, Editor in Chief of Philosophy & Technology and of the Synthese Library, and was Chairman of EU Commission's 'Onlife' research group. His most recent books are: The Ethics of Information (OUP, 2013), The Philosophy of Information (OUP, 2011), Information: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2010), and The Cambridge Handbook of Information and Computer Ethics (CUP, 2010).

Reviews for The Fourth Revolution: How the Infosphere is Reshaping Human Reality

Fascinating stuff. * Douglas Heaven, New Scientist * searing studyNon-alarmist and very, very smart * Barbara Keiser, Nature * [H]e widens the high-tech horizon * Peter Day, BBC News Online * hugely well-informed and well-written book * David Lorimer, Network Review *