Our Computational Culture: From Descartes to the Computer

Abstract

It has been assumed that electronic computers and telematics are part of an electronic revolution which causes to obsolesce many of the perceptual, psychic and social cultural effects of phonetic literacy and typography and their subsequent perceptual, psychic, and social effects, particularly as they relate to the lifestyles and production techniques we associate with the seventeenth‐century new science and the mechanical Industrial Revolution. Shows that the digital computer, “the ultimate assembly line”, and its various effects represent a vast extention and amplification of centuries‐old trends, and, indeed, seem to present us with habits and attitudes at odds with those induced by older electronic media such as radio and television. Among the results of digital technologies are business‐as‐usual 24 hours a day and societal breakdown which occurs as a result of continuing acceleration and the splitting apart of human functions and human psyche.

Citation

Dreyer Berg, R. (1992), "Our Computational Culture: From Descartes to the Computer", Kybernetes, Vol. 21 No. 7, pp. 16-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb005948