Michael Eldred - On the Digital Age: Challenges for Today's Thinking
Channel: Katina Michael
Date: 2020-09-22

Philosopher and mathematician, Dr Michael Eldred presents his work, "On the Digital Age: Challenges for Today's Thinking." In his presentation, Eldred emphasises the concepts of #interplay #movement #esteem #power #persuasion #players that are so prevalent in his research. Eldred calls on us to discover the philosophical works of Plato and Aristotle, and later the German philosophers Hegel, Marx, Heidegger and many more. He asks deep questions of technoscience, and considers the current state of affairs in the context of whoness and whatness, the ultimate objectification of the human being, away from the analogue to the digital realm. Eldred emphasises the differences between the cyberworld and the physical world and considers the seductiveness of the shiny gadget, the all-too-convenient App, and operational efficiencies in supply chains in the context of retail. Together with Katina Michael he reflects on technique versus technology, and the need for citizens to understand the power that they exercise in all their life-movements, including those of resistance. Underlying Eldred's thesis is the 'three-dimensionality of time' as he puts it, as distinct from the one-dimensionality of traditional linear clock-time . Eldred positions his ideas so eloquently by describing the differences between the brain, the mind, and the psyche, pointing to the futility of attempting to hack the brain, as if that would be equivalent to hacking human thought.

In this sober presentation, Eldred challenges his audience by questioning the Digital Age we live in, the creation of digital "things" (above all algorithms and the binary data they copulate with to enhance the prospects of gainful movement in the cyberworld), and where this #technoscience might well lead us all by aiding and abetting this cybernetically controlled gainful game, along with 'enriching' the powers of state surveillance. Eldred is calling us toward awareness: awareness of our incalculable interplay with one another, awareness of the role of us as players in the world, estimating and esteeming each other in all kinds of power plays, awareness of who we are as unique selves. For more visit: https://www.arte-fact.org 

This presentation is pre-recorded for IEEE ISTAS20 (International Symposium on Technology and Society). The date of the pre-record was 21 September 2020. If you'd like to participate in the discussion head over to: https://attend.ieee.org/istas-2020/