Futurica Trilogy

History is always written from the perspective of the ruling or rising elite at the time of writing. Concepts like The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, et cetera, were of course unknown during those periods that used to be called the stone age and the bronze age. They were invented during the 19th century to make sense of a development that seemed to reach its climax with industrialisation and the modern factory. The Netocrats is a history of the world from the perspective of the netocrats, the rising elite of Informationalism, the emerging society of information networks, shaped by digital interactivity. And it also looks beyond the past and the present, far into the future of all the central aspects of society: politics, culture, economy, consumption, creation of social identity, et cetera. Why do these dramatic changes occur? How do they compare with information-technological revolutions in the past like speech, writing and print? Who will benefit? Which, of course, makes The Netocrats not only the most penetrating but also the most indispensable guide to the digital future. This book is part 1 of 3 in the Futurica Trilogy. About the triology: The Futurica Trilogy is a work of philosophy, sociology and futurology in three closely related movements. The first volume, The Netocrats, deals with human history from the perspective of the new elite of Informationalism, the emerging society of information networks, shaped by digital interactivity, making prophecies about the digital future of politics, culture, economy, et cetera. The second volume, The Global Empire, explores the near future of political globalisation and the struggle to form new, functioning ideologies for a world where global decision making is a necessity. The third volume, The Body Machines, deals with the sad demise of the Cartesian subject. It discusses the implications of a materialist image of humanity and explains how it relates to the new, emerging hypertechnological paradigm. It explains why we are all nothing but body machines, and why this is actually good news.

Following the massive international success The Netocrats and its ambitious follow-up The Global Empire, in this third installment of The Futurica Trilogy, Bard & Söderqvist approach something far more personal - the fragile human being herself and, most of all, her brain. The Body Machines, with a title borrowed from René Descartes, explains what a brain is, how it has developed and how it functions, and why it spends such an incredible amount of time and energy on fooling itself. The Body Machines matches and mixes the latest neuroscience with philosophy and psychoanalysis, in the process portraying a confused but incredibly interesting little machine that is doomed to constantly create new fictions about itself and its surroundings for its own consumtion, but which remains social by nature, and therefore able to create, together with other similar machines, enormously productive communities. The Body Machines is not only a work of science but also a work of philosophy, a prophetic book on how the humans of the digitalised and globalised future will have to view themselves, their world, and what values and valuations will come to dominate and replace the old and dysfunctional humanism. This is a hybrid book by hybrids for hybrids. This book is part 3 of 3 in the Futurica Trilogy. About the triology: The Futurica Trilogy is a work of philosophy, sociology and futurology in three closely related movements. The first volume, The Netocrats, deals with human history from the perspective of the new elite of Informationalism, the emerging society of information networks, shaped by digital interactivity, making prophecies about the digital future of politics, culture, economy, et cetera. The second volume, The Global Empire, explores the near future of political globalisation and the struggle to form new, functioning ideologies for a world where global decision making is a necessity. The third volume, The Body Machines, deals with the sad demise of the Cartesian subject. It discusses the implications of a materialist image of humanity and explains how it relates to the new, emerging hypertechnological paradigm. It explains why we are all nothing but body machines, and why this is actually good news.

The Global Empire has correctly been described as Bard & Söderqvist's philosophically most profound work. In this book, they explore what a world view is, how it is constructed, how it is defended under pressure from surrounding technological change, and how it finally implodes and must be replaced at the tipping point that is called a paradigm shift. The authors then move ahead and construct a new credible world view for the internet age where they replace the God of feudalism and the Individual from capitalism with The Net itself as the metaphysical centre of the digital age. The placing of The Net over The Earth is the starting point from which humans can identify themselves as dividuals rather than individuals, living inside subcultures rather than nation-states. The Global Empire is then filled with early examples of this metaphysics already being subconsciously implemented, and the book discusses how almost all ideological constructions are dramatically affected by this necessary change of focus. Everything is from now on a result of network dynamics in a world where everything affects everything else, including itself. It is consequently The Net itself that creates the entity which carries the title of the book, namely the global empire. This book is part 1 of 3 in the Futurica Trilogy. About the triology: The Futurica Trilogy is a work of philosophy, sociology and futurology in three closely related movements. The first volume, The Netocrats, deals with human history from the perspective of the new elite of Informationalism, the emerging society of information networks, shaped by digital interactivity, making prophecies about the digital future of politics, culture, economy, et cetera. The second volume, The Global Empire, explores the near future of political globalisation and the struggle to form new, functioning ideologies for a world where global decision making is a necessity. The third volume, The Body Machines, deals with the sad demise of the Cartesian subject. It discusses the implications of a materialist image of humanity and explains how it relates to the new, emerging hypertechnological paradigm. It explains why we are all nothing but body machines, and why this is actually good news.