What Kinds of Shifts in Value will we have to Reckon with?

Abstract

“We know very little about the social and political aspects of an information society.” This statement by Karl W.Deutsch, the director of the International Institute of Comparative Social Research at Berlin’s Science Center, is in remarkable contrast to a great deal of what one can usually read or hear about this subject. There is a growing tendency to already try and categorize a condition which we still have to come to terms with, to project a phantom picture of one’s own fears and wishes, and to file away the future in neatly labeled pigeonholes. Information society conveys a number of meanings for different people. For the economist it is a new type of economic production, for the engineer a certain stage in the development of digital information and communication networks, and for the sociologist a qualitative change for people in the field of job occupation. While the sceptic sees it as a further step in the direction of a total technocracy, for the politician it is a “terra incognita.” Depending on his/her viewpoint, one should warn about the writing on the wall or announce the inauguration of a new age.