The Myth of the Information Revolution and Hidden Labor

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study explores the underlying reasons for the conflict between 1) the ideal of information technology (IT) and the myth of ‘information society’ and 2) human labor to create that myth. The myth of information and communication technology (ICT) promotes the idea of a ‘better society,’ in which humans do not need to lean heavily on physical activity. Herein lies the inherent conflict between labor and the myth of the information revolution: Labor as the fundamental condition of human beings is somehow invisible in the process of the information revolution.
Indeed, the ideology or myth of the information revolution is to minimize physical labor from human society as much as possible. Thus, if labor is as visible as it was in the past, the information revolution is no revolution at all. Moreover, the more the myth about the information society is prevalent, the more labor is hidden. Any revolution, or the framing and myth of that revolution, does not need to undermine the meaning of labor, i.e., the fundamental reality of the human condition, the solid anthropologic- philosophical insight. No revolution has the right to declare the end of labor.

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