Is being “digitally connected“ a cultural technique? The Janus face of digital literacy in the context of a“Critique of Digital Reason”
The imperialism of writing is far-reaching: The genetic code of life was written out as DNA, and nearly all applications of contemporary digital life are initialized by letters. We are currently experiencing the transition from the alphabetic into digital literacy. But how are both connected? There are significant ambivalences here: The creation of a new intransparency of algorithmic machine interactions operating behind a graphic user interface; the time regime of acceleration, which is incompatible with a biological and socio-cultural order of time; the paradox of mobility-enhancing networks, which reveal themselves to be data traps. This gives rise to the question: Is the “Critique of Digital Reason” as a “digital Enlightenment”, transforming the original Enlightenment, actually necessary? How can Philosophy contribute to this?
Professor of Philosophy at the Free University of Berlin, guest professorships at the Universities of Tokyo, Vienna, Graz, Zurich, Lucerne. Former member of the German Scientific Council as well as the Scientific Panel of the European Research Council (Brussels). Member in the Senate and Main Committee of the German Research Foundation.Sybille Krämer was a Permanent Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and a speaker of the graduate research group “Notational Iconicity”. Fellowships at the IFK Vienna (2010), IKKM Weimar (2012), of the research group “Computer Simulation” Lüneburg (2014). Her research topics include: theory of the mind and epistemology, philosophy of language and images, media philosophy and theory.
Figuration, Anschauung, Erkenntnis: Grundlinien einer Diagrammatologie, Berlin 2016; gem. mit Christina Ljungberg, Thinking with Diagrams – The Semiotic Basis of Human Cognition, Boston/Berlin 2016; “The messenger as a model in Media Theory. Reflections on the philosophical dimensions of theorizing Media”, in: Norm Friesen (Hg.), Media Transatlantic: Developments in Media and Communication Studies between North America and German-speaking Europe, Switzerland 2016, p. 197 – 213; “Leibniz ein Vordenker der Idee des Netzes und des Netzwerkes?“, in: Martin Grötschel u. a. (Hg.), Vision als Aufgabe. Das Leibniz-Universum im 21. Jahrhundert, Berlin, Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften 2016, S. 47 – 60.
Der „Imperialismus der Verschriftung“ reicht weit: Nicht nur wird der genetische Code des Lebens als DNA buchstabiert, sondern nahezu alle Anwendungen zeitgenössischer Digitalität werden durch Buchstabengebrauch initialisiert und sind algorithmisch fundiert in der Entscheidungslogik des Binäralphabets.