Homo Numericus

A new economy, new sensibilities and ideologies are restructuring society from top to bottom. The digital revolution poses a tremendous social and psychological challenge. The dematerialization and "efficient" management of human relationships, social isolation and algorithmic control of our emotions, desires or fears is creating a more irrational and impulsive homo numericus. In this concise essay, economist Daniel Cohen diagnoses the risks and possibilities, the lights and the shadows, of this deeply ambivalent time. Without catastrophizing and without moralizing, but with a critical sense, Cohen explores our possibilities to resist a system that promotes compulsive addiction and extreme vigilance. The good news is that technology still doesn't fully control our lives. We still have room to imagine a future based on shared values.