Track: BCSSS Workshop

Invited participants

Felix Tretter, Clinical Psychology, University of Munich; Vice-President of the Bavarian Academy of Addictions, Germany
Introduction
Michael Trimmel, Institute of Psychology, University of Vienna; Centre for Public Health, Institute of Environmental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
Homo informaticus – man as a subsystem of computers
Klaus Miesenberger, Institute Integriert Studieren, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
Homo Informaticus: Equal opportunities for people with disabilities
Werner Mewes, Genome-oriented Bioinformatics, Technische Universität München, Germany
Big data in health issues – Perspectives of Omics-Medicine
Peter Fleissner, retired, Design and Assessment of Technology, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
Homo informaticus and Information society – critical comments

Moderator

Felix Tretter, Fellow, Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science

Objectives

Information technologies (IT) offer new options of information processing for humans. Communication seems to become more efficient, everyday activities are supported by different hardware and software tools. The mobile phone is the most important everyday companion and essential part of the life world. The IT-dominated life situation might change our cognitive and affective states and processes, especially in our children. But these tools are also helpful for people with special needs.

However, in this context brain research and informatics stimulate a new image of man as a neurobiochemical information processing machine. Additionally, the shadows of IT use and exposure entail an increasing informational stress level, a loss of non-digital thinking and also a loss of control over personalized “big data” that are used and abused by economy.

We would like to discuss these issues by focussing on this raising image of man as an information processing biomolecular machine.