Presentation of a seminary held in Mälardalen University (Västeraas, Sweden), 2013 June 18th

1. Informationsphilosophie. Information und urbanes Systeme 1
Mälardalen University, June 2013
José María Díaz Nafría
Universidad de León, Spanien | Munich University A.S.

2. Can Information Tecnologies Contribute to
the Building of Participatory Democracy?
1. Utopical Perspective: from social
utopias to tecnoutopism
2. Brief notes on telecommunication
history
3. The projects of the Information
Society
4. Case Example at the EHEA - My
University Project
2June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

3. I. Utopic perspective
“Someone made a remark about the telegraph which seems to me
infinitely correct, and which brings out its full importance, namely
that, at bottom, this invention might suffice to make possible the
establishment of democracy among a large population. Many
respectable men, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, thought that the
establishment of democracy was impossible among large populations.
How could such a people deliberate? Among the Ancients, all the
citizens were assembled in a single place; they communicated their
will…. The invention of the telegraph is a new factor that Rousseau
did not include in his calculations. I can be used to speak at great
distances as fluently and as distinctly as in a room. There is no reason
why it would not be possible for all citizens of France to communicate
their will, within a rather short time, in such a way that this
communication might be considered instantaneous.”
(Alexander Vandermonde, 1795)
3June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

4. I. Utopic perspective
“Universal History is perhaps the history of a few metaphors”
(J.L. Borges)
“You are quite right, he replied, in maintaining the general inferiority
of the female sex: although many women are in many things superior
to many men, yet on the whole what you say is true.
And if so, my friend, I said, there is no special faculty of
administration in a state which a woman has because she is a woman,
or which a man has by virtue of his sex, but the gifts of nature are
alike diffused in both; all the pursuits of men are the pursuits of
women also, but in all of them a woman is inferior to a man… Isn’t it
the best for the republic counting with the best men and the best
women?...”
(Plato, The Republic)
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5. I. Long running utopias
5
Utopic background Supporters Utopias of the
Information Society
Supporters Dystopia
Perfect Language Lull, Wilkins Computable Language Turing,
Chomsky
Borges: „The analytic
language of John Wilkins“
Perfect thought Lull, Leibniz Computable Thought Babbage,
Hollerith,
Turing
Hesse: „The Glass Bed
Game“
Perfect wisdom Bacon,
Encyclopedist,
Comte
Unlimited Availability of
Knowledge
Outlet, La
Fontaine
Borges: „The library of
Babel“, „Funes the
Memorius“
Perfect social order Nicholas of Cusa, Computable Social Order
(Normalization)
Saint Simon,
Comte,
Babbage
Huxley: „Brave New
World“
Deleuze: „Control society“
Transparent society Rousseau,
Emerson,
Chevalier
Communication without
borders
Mumford,
Shannon,
McLuhan
Orwell: „1984“
Trustful society Bentham, Tarde Security vs Trust of the
Information Society
J. Nye, Orwell: „1984“
June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

6. 1. Long-running Utopias
6
Ideas
Form Appearance
I
Observador
Decontextualizing:
Die existing Forms belong
to the otherworldliness (a-
spatial, a-temporal)
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7. 7
1. Long-running Utopias
• From the viewpoint of the modern signal
theory (Digital Transmission): Ideal of
transparence
Si
{S1, S2,… SN}
Noise
Si’ Compared with
{S1, S2,… SN}
Si
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8. 8
1. Long-running Utopias
June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

9. 9
1. Long-running Utopias
June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

10. 10
1. Long-running Utopias
June 2013 Information technologies and participatory democracy

11. 11Information technologies and participatory democracy
• How long can the human voice reach?
Understanding-threshold
Perception-Threshold
Reach of a human
speaking voice
Reach of an screaming
voice
2. Brief Notes on ICT History

12. 12Information technologies and participatory democracy
Aeschylus (5.Jh)
Agamemnon
(Clytemnestra
receives the message
of Troja‘s victory)
Argos Troya
Kaz Dag
Athos, 2033 m
177 km
154 km
2. Brief Notes on ICT History

13. 13Information technologies and participatory democracy
Hellenical Optical Telegraph
(Towers-System)
Roman Optical Telegraph
(Towers-System)
Polybios (s.II v.Chr.) Sextus Julius Africanus (s.III dC)
2. Brief Notes on ICT History

14. 14Information technologies and participatory democracy
Electrical Telegraph (Gauss, Weber,
Canstadt, Steinheil, Wheatstone, Cooke,
Siemens, Morse)
Telephone (Antonio Meucci, P.
Reiss, E. Gray, A.G. Bell)
2. Brief Notes on ICT History

15. 3. The Projects of the
Information Society
15Information technologies and participatory democracy
M.Foucault (The eye of the power):
„Bentham was the complement to
Rousseau. What in fact was the
Rousseauist dream that motivated many
of the revolutionaries? It was the dream of
a transparent society, visible and legible
in each of its parts, the dream of there no
longer existing any zones of darkness [...]
It was the dream that each individual,
whatever portion he occupied, might be
able to see the whole society…”

16. 3. The Projects of the
Information Society
16Information technologies and participatory democracy
• G. Tarde (Sociologist and criminologist)
“All the improvements of social organization… have the consequence of enabling that one
meditated, coherent, individual project arrives purer, lesser polluted, deeper, and through
the safer and shorter means into the minds of all the associated” (Tarde, Public opinion and
the crowd. 1690, §107).
• Public Opinion (co-option) ~ Control Society (Deleuze)
“The material and economic aspects of opinion were not acknowledged. They believed it “is fair
by nature, it disseminates by itself, and it is a sort of democratic surveillance […]” (Foucault)
• Decolonization and reaction (1950-1970s)
• New International Economic Order (1974), New World
Inf. and Comm. Order (1974), C. MacBride
• Hard Power vs. Soft Power (Joseph Nye)
Global Information Dominance (Echelon, National
Imagery and Mapping Agency, Future Imagery Architecture)

17. 4. Case Example at the EHEA -
My University Project
17Information technologies and participatory democracy
Project website: www.myuniversity‐project.eu
Duration: 30 months (October 2010‐March 2013)
Programme: the Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT)
Policy Support Programme of the
Competitiveness and Innovation
Framework Programme (CIP)‐(CIP‐ICT
PSP‐2009‐3bis)

18. 4. Case Example at the EHEA -
My University Project
18Information technologies and participatory democracy
Close cooperation and interaction between:
 Governments
 Higher education institutions
 Students
 Staff
 Employers
 Quality assurance agencies,
towards the success of the Bologna Process and the
creation of unified European Higher Education Area.

19. 4. Case Example at the EHEA -
My University Project
19Information technologies and participatory democracy

20. 4. Case Example at the EHEA -
My University Project
20Information technologies and participatory democracy

21. 4. Case Example at the EHEA -
My University Project
21Information technologies and participatory democracy

22. Is information a sufficient basis for cognition?
22