HOMO NUMERICUS

From Amazon to Tinder from Google to Deliveroo there is no facet of human life that the digital revolution has not streamlined and dematerialized Its objective was to reduce costs by forgoing face to face interactions and it was a direct result of the free market shock of the 1980s which sought to expand the marketplace seamlessly in every possible dimension Today we can be algorithmically entertained educated cared for and courted in a way that was impossible in the old industrial society where institutions structured the social world Today these institutions have been replaced by monetized virtual contact As the industrial revolution did in the past the digital revolution is creating a new economy and a new sensibility bringing about a radical revaluation of society and its representations While obsessed with the search for an efficient management of human relations the new digital capitalism gives rise to an irrational and impulsive Homo numericus prone to an array of addictive behaviours and subjected to intensive forms of surveillance Far from producing a new agora social media produce a radicalization of public debate in which hate filled speech directed against adversaries becomes the norm But these outcomes are not inevitable The digital r