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Redressing the Balance: A Yin-Yang Perspective on Information Technology

Year: 2024

Type: conference-paper

Abstract: Information is an essential aspect of how we interact with the world around us. We acquire information and then integrate it to build knowledge, understanding, and trust, which in turn serve in preparing actions. Information technology (IT) is supposed to support all these phases of information processing. But does it? An assessment of IT through the yin-yang lens from Chinese philosophy shows that over the last decades, support for the yin processes of building knowledge, understanding, and trust has been neglected, the focus of most research and development having been on the yang processes of acting. IT shares this imbalance with other aspects of Western and globalized culture. I discuss possible directions for re-establishing a yin-yang balance in IT, as a small contribution to redressing the balance in the world at large.

Source: ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software (Onward!)

DOI: 10.1145/3689492.3689808

Author: Konrad Hinsen

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Synchrotron SOLEIL

Language: English

Topic: Information Systems Theories and Implementation

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

OpenAlex ID: W4403492889

FWCI: 1.315

Cites: 21

Cited by: 1

Related to: 10