We no longer inhabit earth and dwell under the sky: these are being replaced by Google Earth and the Cloud. The terrestrial order is giving way to a digital order, the world of things is being replaced by a world of non-things – a constantly expanding ‘infosphere’ of information and communication which displaces objects and obliterates any stillness and calmness in our lives. Byung-Chul Han’s critique of the infosphere highlights the price we are paying for our growing preoccupation with information and communication. Today we search for more information without gaining any real knowledge. We communicate constantly without participating in a community. We save masses of data without keeping track of our memories. We accumulate friends and followers without encountering other people. This is how information develops a form of life that has no stability or duration. And as we become increasingly absorbed in the infosphere, we lose touch with the magic of things which provide a stable environment for dwelling and give continuity to human life. The infosphere may seem to grant us new freedoms but it creates new forms of control too, and it cuts us off from the kind of freedom that is tied to acting in the world. This new book by one of the most creative cultural theorists writing today will be of interest to a wide readership.
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PrefaceFrom Things to Non-ThingsFrom Possessing to ExperiencingSmartphoneSelfiesArtifical IntelligenceViews of Things      The Villainy of Things      The Reverse of Things      Ghosts      The Magic of Things      The Forgetfulness of Things in Art      Heidegger’s Hand      Things Close to the HeartStillnessExcursus on the JukeboxNotes
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“Byung-Chul Han […] has sounded the alarm about the next and even more sinister stage of societal evolution, wherein the terrestrial order itself gives way to the rising digital order.”Matthew Olemesky, The American Spectator
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781509551705
Publisert
2022-05-20
Utgiver
Vendor
Polity Press
Vekt
159 gr
Høyde
208 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Dybde
15 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
110

Forfatter
Oversetter

Biographical note

Byung-Chul Han is the author of more than twenty books including The Burnout SocietySaving Beauty and The Scent of Time.