Open access
THE TRANSFORMATION OF INFORMATION WAVE INTO VIRTUAL CIVILIZATION AND ITS ETHICS QUESTION
Andrew S. TARGOWSKI1
Digital World in the Making
Publication language: English
Journal article
Transformations No. 3-4 (90-91) 2016, Publication date: 19 November 2016
Keywords: Virtual Civilization, infrastructural characteristics, social implications, common good, ethics issues
Abstract The purpose of this investigation is to define the central contents and issues of the impact of informing systems on the rise and development of Virtual Civilization. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the Virtual Civilization’s elements of development and their interdependency. Among the findings are: Virtual Civilization has infrastructural characteristics, a world-wide unlimited, socially constructed work and leisure space in cyberspace, and it can last centuries/millennia - as long as informing systems are operational. Practical implications: The mission of Virtual Civilization is to control the public policy of real civilizations in order to secure the common good in real societies. Social implication: The quest for the common good by virtual society may limit or even replace representative democracy by direct democracy which, while positively solving some problems, may eventually trigger permanent political chaos in real civilizations. Originality: This investigation, by providing an interdisciplinary and civilizational approach at the big-picture level defined the ethics question of the role of informing systems in the development of Virtual Civilization.
Western Michigan University, USA
E-mail: andrew.targowski@wmich.edu