070211 SE Research Seminar - The Cybernetic Revolution from a Global History Perspective (2021W)

Cybernetic revolution (often: Industry 4.0.) refers to the transition into a post-industrial age, characterized by complex computerized network, artificial intelligence and a new relationship between humans and machines. Platforms coordinate jobs and work-flows, data replace major raw materials, algorithms take over decision-making processes. Leading sectors of the industrial age give way to branches: medicine, additive, nano, bio, robo, information and cognitive sectors (MANBRIC). They are supposed to pave the way to a new business cycle (Kondratiev cycle) as well as a new production regime (Cybernetic principle) – with long-lasting consequences for what it means to be a human: work, communication, identity, life. This is the moment for societies to discuss and decide how much and which digitalization is helpful, how big data can be kept under control and how democracy, human dignity and participation should look like under cybernetic conditions.
The seminar aims at embedding ongoing transitions into long-term and comparative perspectives at a moment, when fundamental changes are under way and social scientists are challenged to contribute to shaping the future. How do current developments relate to long-term-cyclical patterns and trends? Which were the major historical turnarounds which can serve as points of comparison? Which are the dynamics of change and who are the relevant actors? What is the meaning of core and periphery in in a world characterized by shifting hegemonies and growing social and regional gaps? Are new hegemons on the rise? Does business governance and its interplay with state-power allow democratic participation? We face wide-spread delegitimation of democracy on the one hand and a wide-spread believe in technological solutionism on the other hand. Can we conceive a new cycle of capital accumulation without a war? Will the cybernetic revolution kick off a consolidation of crises-shaken global capitalism? Will it give way to distopian shocks and chaos? Or will it – directly or indirectly – open space for a more social, more inclusive world-order respecting both humans and nature? If yes, under which political conditions, on which technlogical level?
It is quite obvious that these questions are too broad to be all adressed in a seminar or even answered by the participants. The seminar encourages taking part in shaping the discussion for the future development of mankind in a moment of fundamental change. How do we embedd today’s events and developments into long term cycles and trends of human history? Existing models of assessing the history of mankind require being confronted and tested in front of different social, sectoral and regional interests and perspectives, in case-studies and personal observations.