Skip to content

No image available
No image available

D' or Et d'Airain: Penser, Cliquer, Agir Paperback - 2017

by Eric Briys


From the publisher

Nous embrassons un capitalisme du gigantisme digital. Souvent aveuglement, toujours avec embarras. Les mots et expressions que nous employons en disent long sur la violence de notre relation a la prosperite numerique: "destruction creatrice", "disruption", "darwinisme digital", "uberisation", "big data", "monetisation", "the winner takes it all"... C'est finalement une bien etrange metallurgie que celle qui, a l'or des mots, prefere l'airain des neologismes bricoles a la hate. Et si nous meditions sagement notre rapport au monde digitalise ? La libre et instructive promenade que guide Eric Briys nous invite a flaner avec un historien, a faire l'ecole buissonniere, canif en poche, a reprendre le chemin de la bibliotheque, a apprendre a eplucher une banane, a franchir le cap de Bonne-Esperance, a ecrire de la twitterature, a converser avec les robots, a prendre le pouls de la classe moyenne...et a ne plus confondre l'or et l'airain, pour, enfin, agir. Education, work, objects, places, people: everything is going digital, everything is interconnected and becoming information. The picture painted in glowing colours by the Internet is the promise of a new golden age. Planets have certainly never been so well-aligned. Digital capital is plentiful and inexpensive. Digital production's marginal cost is virtually null: a simple copy-and-paste. Never before have so much data been created and devoured by computers. The Internet confers a gift of unprecedented omnipresence on every activity. Yet this planetary golden age may ultimate amount to a mere bronze age. The Internet feeds on powerful network effects that inevitably lead to a world in which, inescapably, the winner takes all, a world in which modern-day blacksmiths armed with digital anvils acquire unmatched power. They owe this power to increasing returns to scale (the more they win, the more they win), but also, and most importantly, to a Faustian pact which, under the guise of the all-too-familiar "creative destruction" that we have naively accepted, is trading the gold of our data for a cheap free access that conceals a redoubtable threat. This allegiance to digital blacksmiths is, in reality, a submission to the algorithmic dictat that everything is quantifiable: "To each according to his number!" The more we progress numbed by the instant gratification of gratuitousness, the more we exchange our gold for the digital blacksmiths' bronze: our (free) data are nourishing these robots and algorithms which merely exacerbate the inequalities between the winners and losers. We have reached the breaking point between gold and bronze: a critical and ambiguous breakaway in which anything remains possible. By (re)visiting familiar places (libraries, schools, lighthouses, etc.) and everyday objects (pocket knife, book, keyboard, banana, etc.), by observing people going about their daily lives (employees, members of the middle class, entrepreneurs, blacksmiths, pirates, etc.), and by relying upon history, philosophy, economics, sociology, science and poetry, this book illustrates how poor an advisor our impatience is, and how deceiving those truths presented to us as established can really be. It is not in "creative destruction" (gold supposedly gleaned from bronze), but in "creolisation" (as defined by poet Edouard Glissant) that we must steep ourselves to escape from the formidable triptych which imprisons us: embarrassment of riches (abundance can be burdensome), a Faustian pact which tarnishes our data and concentrates them in unreliable hands, corruption, and the predatory capture of value (monopolised beyond all reason, talent, or marginal productivity). We have the data - our data - we need to regain control of our lives, to belong to ourselves and not/no longer belong to whomsoever it may be under any algorithmic form whatsoever. We can - as in this industrious revolution preceding the 18th century's industrial revolution - build our own platforms, our digital neighbourhoods, connect them to each other like rhizomes, and exploit their benefits without having to completely (and politically) submit to the digital blacksmiths, by unmasking the deception of this bronze which shines too much to be gold.

Details

  • Title D' or Et d'Airain: Penser, Cliquer, Agir
  • Author Eric Briys
  • Binding Paperback
  • Pages 272
  • Volumes 1
  • Language FRE
  • Publisher Les Belles Lettres
  • Date 2017-01
  • ISBN 9782251446288 / 2251446281
Back to Top

More Copies for Sale

No image available

D' Or et d'airain: Penser, cliquer, agir

by Éric Briys

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9782251446288
ISBN 10
2251446281
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Morangis, France
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£4.02
£9.64 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Les Belles Lettres, 2017. Paperback. Good. Former library book. Slight signs of wear on the cover. Soiling on the side. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this item's net price to charity organizations.
Item Price
£4.02
£9.64 shipping to USA
No image available

D' Or et d'airain: Penser, cliquer, agir

by Éric Briys

  • Used
  • good
  • Paperback
Condition
Used - Good
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9782251446288
ISBN 10
2251446281
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Morangis, France
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£8.47
£9.64 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Les Belles Lettres, 2017. Paperback. Good. Slightly creased cover. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this book's net price to charity organizations.
Item Price
£8.47
£9.64 shipping to USA
No image available

Or et d'airain

by Briys,

  • New
  • Paperback
  • first
Condition
New
Edition
1st
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9782251446288
ISBN 10
2251446281
Quantity Available
4
Seller
ISD
Bristol, Connecticut, United States
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£18.47
£3.20 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Les Belles Lettres, 2017. 1st. paperback. New. 85x12x132.
Item Price
£18.47
£3.20 shipping to USA
No image available

D' or Et D'Airain: Penser, Cliquer, Agir (Romans, Essais, Poesie, Documents)

by Briys, Eric

  • New
  • Paperback
Condition
New
Binding
Paperback
ISBN 13
9782251446288
ISBN 10
2251446281
Quantity Available
1
Seller
Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
Seller rating:
This seller has earned a 4 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.
Item Price
£32.49
£10.00 shipping to USA

Show Details

Description:
Les Belles Lettres, 2017. Paperback. New. 272 pages. French language. 8.27x5.28x0.71 inches.
Item Price
£32.49
£10.00 shipping to USA