Human Responsibility is Changing: How the Age of Information is Questioning Ethics
It is a well known fact that information is changing the world we live in. It has changed the way we eat, work, communicate, and so much more. One aspect it has changed might be less obvious than the evolution of the landline to the cell phone, or monitor to laptops, and that is the way it has affected the moral obligations of each individual person in the world.
In his chapter “Ethics after the Information Revolution” Luciano Floridi breaks down this moral change in humanity through a simple equation:
A + B = C
A = the substantial erosion of the right to ignore
B= the exponential increase in common knowledge
C = the steady increase in the human responsibility (morally speaking)
To better understand this equation and what it really means to an individual in the height of the information age we must take a step back and better understand how we are being influenced by Information Computer Technologies (ICTs). Across history we see tales and stories about information oppression and the burning of books, or the divinity complex of knowledge and its connection to power. For centuries people were deprived of basic understanding and learning in their everyday lives and were ignorant to the fact it was happening. This idea of the blocking of knowledge and information can be referred to as friction. Floridi defines this as “ontological friction… the forces that oppose the flow of information within (a region of) the infosphere, and hence (as a coefficient) to the amount of work and effort required to generate, obtain, process and transmit information in a given environment…”(pg. 5) and goes on to explain how we as a society are now living in an essentially “frictionless” age of information.
We have unlimited knowledge and information in our back pockets that we can access anytime, anywhere. Humanity, as a whole, has never before had this kind of power, yet we continue to see blatant benightedness of so many people. This was most relevant during the recent Black Lives Matter protests and the drawn attention to “White Silence” and the common excuse of not knowing enough information about the subject to properly support the movement and therefore, deciding to do nothing.
Signs and images like the ones seen above started to appear more and more as the 2020 Black Lives Matter Protests grew in strength and support. These are examples of what Floridi was referring to when talking about the “erosion of the right to ignore”. Individuals no longer can rely on the excuse of lack of knowledge and understanding when it comes to important cultural and life events today. Movements like this have substantial writings, and information available to anyone that is willing to look for it. With the new technological innovations that are becoming available to the public daily we have more and more ways to teach and challenge ourselves and what we know or once perceived as the truth. We have the ability to change the world simply by being interested in learning something new and changing things that once were only known by scholars and educators into common public knowledge.
During the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement this image continued to appear on my Instagram feed: “in the age of information, ignorance is a choice.” The image and quote originated by digital artist Donny Miller was reposted and shared across all media platforms.
This simple quote is portraying exactly what Floridi was writing about: as we have more access to information, we have less room for excuses. Human responsibility is changing because human power is changing. Those who used to be repressed and undermined now have the information and understanding necessary to stand up for what is right, they are no longer blinded by incompetency. As individuals living in a frictionless age of information, we no longer have the “right to ignore” because we are increasing our “common knowledge” and therefore, have an increased “human responsibility” to fight for change.
