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One Bright Byte: Dōgen and the Re-embodiment of Digital Technologies

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Abstract

In this chapter, I argue that key functions of digital apps are based on a disembodied nature of our selves which is not compatible with our human nature. The solution is not just to redesign those digital apps—a proposal that blindly accepts the premises of technological determinism—but to reconsider the whole concept of what it means to be human. I give a brief sketch of the practical philosophy and metaphysics of the thirteenth-century Japanese philosopher Eihei Dōgen to present another view of what it means to be human, in order to conceptualize a re-embodied self in the World Wide Web.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For example, 有 時 (uji) en Japanese is a common word and it means “sometimes,” but Dogen uses it in a way that the reader needs to read it literally as “being-time.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    David Casacuberta

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  1. David Casacuberta
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  1. Department of Economic and Social Sciences, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Vincenzo Mario Bruno Giorgino

  2. Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA, USA

    Zack Walsh

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Casacuberta, D. (2018). One Bright Byte: Dōgen and the Re-embodiment of Digital Technologies. In: Giorgino, V., Walsh, Z. (eds) Co-Designing Economies in Transition. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66592-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66592-4_15

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