“I cannot get rid of the ghosts I have called.”

Like Goethe’s sorcerer’s apprentice, we sometimes stand helpless before the countless possibilities of our virtual world. With digitalization we have created a powerful tool – now we ourselves are becoming the object, our data the product of this revolution. Until the turn of the century, life in the gigabit society was still accompanied by broad euphoria. With the abolition of the classic sender-receiver model, the possibility for everyone to communicate with the whole world and a new culture of participation through the Internet, one hoped for a more democratic society. Now however, the digital space has revealed itself not only as the extended arm of existing social conflicts and threats, but partly also as their origin. Microtargeting, negative campaigning, social bots, troll armies and the attention economy in social media seem to threaten democracy. Questions of privacy, free speech, questions of data protection and the future of employment loom large. Solutions are needed so that society may deal appropriately with these new technologies that pose a potential danger to our political system.

Together with experts from technology, communication, business and law, Eurac Research’s Center for Advanced Studies sheds light on the Homo Digitalis.