Sarah Spiekermann: The Nature of the Digital and the Nature of Human Beings

In this talk I will talk about some key characteristics determining the nature of the digital. Specifically, I will talk about the naturally devided,unsaturated and incomplete nature of the digital that triggers an auto-completion mechanism in human beings. I will progress by outlining that digital technologies as we know them since broadband introduction are inherently connected to light and change-rates; both mechanisms that enforce human attention. These mechanisms of change are combined these days with addictive design and the introduction of social network echoes. The latter again bind human to the Net are Narcissus was bound to his mirror image.

Based on these observations I will outline a number of requirements we would need to consider for Ethical Machines in the light of the nature of today’s digital technologies.