Sorin Ivan, The “Googleberg” Galaxy and the Making of Digital Man
The “Googleberg” Galaxy and the Making of Digital Man.
Towards a New Paradigm of Existence, Communication, Culture and Knowledge The Gutenberg Galaxy, built on the printed word, is the space of existence of civilization, in the center of which stands the “typographic man”. Marshall McLuhan describes in his famous book The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962) the paradigm of human existence in the print era. He also talks about the impact of technology on civilization, about the future of humanity, about the transition from the individual to the collective existence, on a “tribal base”, in the “global village”, and about the control exercised by Big Brother through electronic means. New technologies, especially information technology, make the transition of civilization and of the individual into the Digital Era and virtual universe. Based on McLuhan’s model, we can now talk about: The “Googleberg” Galaxy and the Making of Digital Man. Technology generates a new paradigm of existence, communication, culture and knowledge. Its benefits are huge for the individual and for humanity. But so are its risks and dangers: the transfer of the existence from real to virtual, the transformation of the real human being into a virtual being, his or her depersonalization, despiritualization, and deculturalization, the superficial knowledge and mediocrization, the control and manipulation of all, massification and uniformization of individuals through the digital technology within the globalization process.
Keywords: the Gutenberg Galaxy, typographic man, technology, the “Googleberg” Galaxy, digital man, new paradigm, real and virtual existence, control, manipulation
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