Summary
Maurizio Ferraris: Where are you?
Ontology of the mobile phone For today's 20-year-olds, the time before the appearance of the mobile phone is equal to, let's say, the Middle Ages. Because it is almost unfathomable to them the time in which people could wait for dozens of minutes, hours, or days without being able to contact each other. Landline telephones were usable, but under the assumption that the interlocutor was somehow attached to a certain place. In this respect, the mobile phone led to a revolution equal to, say, the invention of the steam engine, with the speed with which the mobile was adopted somewhat nullifying the force of change, or, at least, our perception of change. The contemporary Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferraris in his extremely witty book about the mobile phone Where are you? - which, it should be added, despite a slightly more relaxed tone, does not lose its seriousness - tries to use philosophical means to penetrate the effects of the revolution produced by the mobile phone. Because not only has communication been transformed, not only have the possibilities and speed increased, but with these changes, vectors are also changing that we almost don't even think about. For example, the concept of territory is changing. The perception of myths is changing. The understanding of the concept is changing. The way we look and the way we listen is changing. And all this thanks to a mobile phone. (F13)
Biblos Newsletter
New titles, special copies and quiet recommendations from the antiquarian bookshop.