2008/10/01 by Luciano Floridi, LUCIANO FLORIDI · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Ethics and Social Impacts of AI
paper · doi:10.1111/j.1467-9973.2008.00573.x
openalex publication_date 2008/10/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Abstract: In this article I argue that the best way to understand the information turn is in terms of a fourth revolution in the long process of reassessing humanity's fundamental nature and role in the universe. We are not immobile, at the centre of the universe (Copernicus); we are not unnaturally distinct and different from the rest of the animal world (Darwin); and we are far from being entirely transparent to ourselves (Freud). We are now slowly accepting the idea that we might be informational organisms among many agents (Turing), inforgs not so dramatically different from clever, engineered artefacts, but sharing with them a global environment that is ultimately made of information, the infosphere.