Pierre Levy

Pierre Lévy is a philosopher who has devoted his professional life to the understanding of the cultural and cognitive impacts of the digital technologies and to promote their best social uses.

 

Cyberspace as a meta-evolutive step

Life begins with the invention of a digital code, DNA. It complexifies, learn faster and arrives at the subjective experience with the digital code of the nervous system. The creation of new forms accelerate with human langage, an other digital code. Since the emergence of culture, the main line of evolution flows into the techno-linguistic sphere. Writing is the autonomous memory of the language, print is its reproductive system and the cyberspace is the environnement where language is ubiquitous and active by itself (the sofware). Is the emergence of cyberculture the moment of evolution when the language sphere directly and explicitely controls the evolution of the biosphere who support it ?

 

Pierre Lévy

- Born in 1956 (in Tunisia!)

- Master degree in history of science (Paris, France, Sorbonne, 1980).

- PhD in sociology (Paris, EHESS, 1983).

- Researcher at the CREA (École polytechnique, Paris, France) about history of cybernetics, artificial intelligence and artificial life, 1983-1986.

- Visiting professor at the University of Quebec in Montréal (Canada), communication department, 1987-1989. Teaching the use of computers in communication.

- Professor in educational sciences at the University of Paris-Nanterre (France), 1990-1992. Teaching educational technologies.

- PhD in information and communication sciences (Grenoble, France, 1991).

- Co-founder and researcher at the Neurope Lab (Geneva, Switzerland). Researches on the economy and technology of the ´knowledge ageª, 1991-1995.

- Member of a think-tank for a special project concerning open and distance learning commanded by the french prime minister Edith Cresson (1992-1994).

- Co-inventor of the ´knowledge treeª, a software system for the mapping, assessement and exchange of knowledge in communities.

- Full Professor at the ´hypermediaª department of the University of Paris-St Denis (France) from 1993 to 1998.

- Member of the editorial board of the ´revue virtuelleª of the Pompidou Center (Paris, France) from 1995 to 1997.

- Author of a report on cyberculture for the Council of Europe (1996)

- Cyberculture and social communication Professor at the University of Quebec, Canada (Dept of social communication, UQTR), since 1998.

- Consultant about governance and electronic democracy for the Forward Studies Unit of the European Union (Brussels, Belgium), since 2000.


 

Short bibliography
  1. World Philosophie. Le marché, le cyberespace, la conscience, (World-Philosophy: Market, Cyberspace, Consciousness) Odile Jacob, Paris, 2000.
  2. Le feu libérateur (Liberation Fire), Arléa, Paris, 1999. translated in italian and Bresilian.
  3. Cyberculture. Odile Jacob, Paris, 1997. To be translated in the United States (Minnesota UP) and translated in Catalan, Italian, Czeck, Korean, Spanish, Portugese, Brazilian.
  4. Qu’est-ce que le virtuel ? (Becoming Virtual) La Découverte, Paris, 1995. Translated in the United States (Plenum Press, NY) Germany, Italy, Brazil, Spain, Greece, Korea, Romania.
  5. L'intelligence collective. Pour une anthropologie du cyberspace. (Collective Intelligence) La Découverte, Paris, 1994. Translated in the United States (paperback, Perseus Books, Cambridge Mass.), Brazil, Korea, Germany, Italy, Portugal.
  6. Les arbres de connaissances (Trees of Knowledge), (in collab. with Michel Authier), La Découverte, 1992. Translated in Italy, Brazil and Portugal.
  7. De la programmation considérée comme un des beaux-arts, (Computer Programming Considered as a Fine Art) La Découverte, Paris, 1992.
  8. L'idéographie dynamique. Vers une imagination artificielle ? (The Dynamic Ideography. Towards an Artificial Imagination) La Découverte, Paris, 1991. Translated in Portugal and Brazil.
  9. Les technologies de l'intelligence. L'avenir de la pensée à l'ère informatique, (Technologies of Intelligence. The Future of Thought in The Computer Age) La Découverte, Paris, 1990. Translated in Argentina, Italy, Brazil, Portugal.
  10. La Machine Univers. Création, cognition et culture informatique. (The Universe-Machine. Creation, cognition and Computer Culture) La Découverte, Paris, 1987. Translated in Portugal and Brazil.
    11.