Anticipations of Digital Sustainability: Self-Delusions, Disappointments and Expectations

Abstract

The strong momentum of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the last decades has been associated with mostly positive anticipations of their impact as drivers of human progress, especially as a key element of response to the challenges posed by the unsustainability of our current social, economic and environmental behaviors. A particular perspective is taken on the actual impact of ICTs to show that, contrary to the mainstream perception, for now their net impact on overall sustainability is negative. This in turn is suggested to be a result of how ICTs and innovation in general are presently conceived and framed, in a way that actually inhibits their potential for human progress in harmony with the environment. The need is claimed for a more complex anticipatory framework of the interplay between Science, Technology and Society, in order to reverse the situation and make digital tech useful for life as a whole.