Here, you find four articles that make up a mini-series on the Information Revolution. They are presented in a chronological order, but they do not need to be read that way. Story 3 and 4 are more society-oriented. Story 1 and 2 are more business/organisation-oriented.
- If you read only one, read the fourth and last one: Gossip, Trust and the Information Revolution (‘value’ vs. ‘values’). It tells a story about what all that IT is doing to our societies and their institutions (and mainly our trust in them), why this is happening, and what we can/should do about it. It is based on the role of language in societies;
- The third story is about us humans as individuals and what that IT is doing to us. Specifically, we are becoming ‘extended humans’ because we act through IT and we are acted upon through our IT. No need for brain implants, IT is a ‘mental’ and not a physical tool, and we can become logical ‘cyborgs’ just by using IT.
- The second story is about the inertia of all that IT. Ever wondered why so many IT projects fail? And why suddenly everybody is organising their workforces along the lines of ‘Agile’ and ‘DevOps’? Why there is all that talk about ‘digital transformation’ or ‘the digital company’? It has all to do with the fact that IT has become so massive that it is becoming less and less easy to change. So, instead, we humans do.
- The first story is also about why it is so hard to do large IT projects and why IT is so hard to get right. Why it is vulnerable, why there are always problems. It turns out this has to do with the fundamental roots of IT: namely that it is all machine logic. And logic, for all its strengths, has some fundamental limitations.
Enjoy.




Link to a very condensed 40 minute presentation based on these articles: Master or Servant? Digital Architecture Design Day 2021 (updated to a newer version)