Critical, Crisical, and Dialectical Dimensions of the Internet

Milwaukee.
The next speaker at AoIR 2009 is László Ropolyi. He begins by conceptualising the idea of crisis: this is a kind of transformation in which an established system loses its integrity and gets disorganised, from which a new system emerges - a process of disorganisation followed by reorganisation. In a society without crisis, in other words, there is a usual order of events, a universal and dominant organising principle expressed in a commonly held ideology, style, or paradigm. In case of crisis, these usual organising principles lose their power and are invalidated.

From an Artistotelian perspective on process, then, such a crisis has three stages, which can be described through the ideas of possibility and actuality, and dynamis, energeia, and entelechia: the stages are possibility, actualisation, and being actualised. These can be described as the critical, crisical, and dialectical stages, then.

In the critical stage, the unique existing actuality has rule-bound possibilities. However, these rules are no longer universally and unquestioningly accepted - a possibility of change (that is, dynamis) has already appeared. Typical ideologies at this stage are different forms of criticism: critical philosophies, utopias, or avant-garde movements in art, for example. Such criticism belongs to the universe of modernity.

In the crisical stage, the previously existing unique existing reality as a basis for the searching activity has been destroyed. Change is actualised (this is energeia) - actuality loses its dominant position, so reality is relativised and pluralised. From this we gain many competing actualities which cannot be compared, and this is characterised by postmodern ideologies.

Finally, in the dialectical stage, we can comprehend the change in world order as a change which has been actualised; this is entelecheia. Everything is commensurable, interconnected, and interrelated; not everything has the same value, but we can make connections and compare the different possible meanings. Actuality is a developing entity with multiple possibilities of a complex and open nature. Typical ideologies here are dialectical philosophies.

Applying this to the Internet, then, requires a very complex, Aristotelian view: here there are four fundamental contexts. The Internet is a complex being created by human activity, with material, formal, efficient, and final causes; this points to technological, communication, cultural, and organismic contexts.

The technological context points to the Net as a network of computers, but this is not as simple as it may seem, as humans are also present here; the communication context points to the Net as an active agent of communication situations; the cultural context highlights the creation of a world from beings by evaluation and reevaluation; and the organismic context points to the Net as an artificial sphere of life for modern people, a product of the crisis of modernity. The formation of the Net can be associated with a crisis development process, with the advancement of the crisis of modernity.

From a crisical perspective on the Net, these four work in synergy; from a dialectical perspective, they generate emergence - a transition from two worlds (natural and social, natural and cultural, cosmic and human values) to three (natural, social, and Web-life). These three are always simultaneously present - a new period of human existence has started.

Technorati : AoIR 2009, Internet, change, community, crisis, society, transformation
Del.icio.us : AoIR 2009, Internet, change, community, crisis, society, transformation