The Digitalization of Society: Trends and Challenges

In the first two decades of the 21st Century the process of digitization of all human activities has accelerated. Two major technological breakthroughs spearhead the changes: 5G network connectivity (with 6G already in the experimental stage) and the coming of age of Artificial Intelligence that allows for increasingly autonomous machines with decision making capacity supported by distributed Big Data. Social practices, organizations and institutions are in flux. We do not know which will be the precise impacts of these developments, but we know the current trends and the issues they raise. The lecture will examine these trends and elaborate on the challenges they present in the organization of work, in communication, in political disinformation, in the autonomy of social movements, in education, and in warfare. The results of multidimensional and technological change are not predetermined. They will ultimately depend on policies and strategies that this lecture will discuss.