• Institute
    • Leadership
    • Committees
      • Academic Advisory Board
        • Members' List since 1981
      • Board of Trustees
      • Members' Assembly
    • Contact Persons
    • The Kolleg
      • History
        • History of the Institute
          • History of the Kolleg
        • History of the Buildings and Gardens
          • Hauptgebäude
            • Excursus - Villa Linde's Grounds
          • Weiße Villa
          • Neubau
          • Villa Jaffé
          • Villa Walther
        • History of the Signet
      • Funding & Charters
        • Foundation Deed of the Ernst Reuter Foundation for Advanced Study
        • Charter of the Wissenschaftskolleg
      • Donors & Friends
    • Initiatives & Cooperations
      • Working Futures
        • Interviews
          • Gabriel Abend
          • Ève Chiapello
          • Elena Esposito
          • Michel Lallement
          • Sophie Bernard
          • David Stark
          • Richard Swedberg
        • Publications
          • Shifting Categories
          • Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times
            • The digital transformation of work. COVID-19 as a taste of things to come?
            • Thinking the Global Rise of Forced Labor: Old, New, and Changing Forms of Labor Exploitation in Times of Crisis
            • Rearticulating globalization, solidarities, and work in Ethiopia
            • The future of shopping - Corona as a catalyst for the transformation of work
            • The End of the Pandemic of Productivism?
            • Covid and Looking for the Exit
            • Who or what is being tested in pandemic times?
            • The Crisis as Beginning of a New Relationship to the Professional World?
            • Controlled Avalanche – A Regulated Voluntary Exposure Approach for Addressing Covid-19
            • Caring about what we hold dear and the final purposes of work
            • How does the Corona crisis affect the future of work and our view of it?
            • "Useful", "indispensable", “essential”: Is the health crisis changing the categories with which we consider professional activities?
            • The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future
            • The Need for De-Integration in Pandemic Times
            • The COVID 19 crisis accelerates structural change in the world of work
            • How can we strengthen the contributory logic of work?
        • Events
        • Network
      • Blankensee-Colloquia
      • Anna Krüger Foundation
      • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
      • Support for Ukraine
      • VUIAS
        • Bilder der Eröffnungsfeier
      • Elkana Fellowships
    • Library
      • Ordering and Borrowing
      • Research
        • Journals and Newspapers
        • Catalogs
        • Specialised Information Services (Fachinformationsdienste)
        • Archives
      • Books & Music on-site
      • Questions?
  • Fellows
    • Fellow Finder
    • Fellows 2024/2025
    • Permanent Fellows
      • Former Permanent Fellows
    • Alumni
      • Fellows' Club
        • Club
          • History
        • Membership
        • Newsletter
          • March 2025
            • Editorial
            • Architecture of Survival: An Interview with Natalia Romik (Elkana Fellow 2024/2025)
            • “Definitions Are Not Ultimate Truths”
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • The School of Human Rights Association: Building an Egalitarian and Democratic Academia in Turkey
            • Academic Freedom on a Small Scale
            • Save the Date: Annual Meeting of the Fellows’ Club
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2024
            • Editorial
            • Feeding the World with Edible Insects
            • Schöner Leben
            • Further Videos in the Wikotheque
            • Conversation with a Left-Handed Hairdresser: The Cutting-Edge Sociology of Barbara Thériault (Fellow 2023/24)
            • Dishes that Raise Questions: Interview with chef de cuisine Sonja Frühsammer
            • Round and round the Grunewald Lake: Five Years of Wicked Wiko Runners
            • Save the Date – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2024
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2023
            • Editorial
            • History Teacher of the People
            • War and Peace. The Past and Future of Ukraine
            • Cold, Ashamed, Relieved: On Leaving Russia
            • Music of a Refugee
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2023
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • March 2022
            • Editorial
            • Politics, Law, and Science in Times of the Pandemic
            • Pandemics: The Maths, the Masks, the Madness
            • Roni Taharlev: The Harbinger of Corona
            • Rachel Wheatley: Berlin with a Mask
            • A Word from the Chairman
            • Save the dates – Meeting of the Fellows’ Club 2022
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Membership Fee and Donations
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Obituaries
          • February 2021
            • Editorial
            • Between Eigenzeit and Interdisciplinarity
            • The Masked Kolleg Unmasked
            • Was war und zu welchem Ende studiert man Trumpismus?
            • When Computers Took Their First Steps
            • A Farewell to Sonja Grund
            • Angelika Leuchter
            • Blog Series on Academic Freedom
            • Save the dates – Meetings of the Fellows’ Club 2021 and 2022
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club!
            • Obituaries
          • March 2020
            • Editorial
            • Constitution as Nonviolent Revolution
            • Imre Kertész und die europäische Literatur der Gegenwart
            • A Profound Sense of Loss
            • The Wissenschaftskolleg and the East: The New Europe College in Bucharest
            • Save the date - Meeting of the Fellows’ Club - Biodiversity: Conceptual Challenges in an Era of Rapid Change, June 11 and 12, 2020
            • New Publications in the Fellows’ Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows’ Club
            • Obituarium
          • March 2019
            • Editorial
            • Paintings for the Future
            • Landmark Papers Revisited
            • Working Futures
            • Society Benefits From Our Autonomy
            • Two Million Blossoms in a Jar
            • Save the Date - Meeting of the Fellows' Club: June 13-14, 2019
            • Lectures on Film
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Prizes
            • Join the Fellows' Club
            • Obituaries
          • March 2018
            • Editorial
            • A Good Bet: Five Years of the College for Life Sciences
            • Lectures on Film: Lisa Herzog
            • Return to Gdańsk
            • Sign the Gdansk Petition
            • Lecture Series: "Recht und Digitalisierung"
            • The Future of the Humboldt Forum: An Epiphany
            • (Almost) A Lifer
            • Late Checkout
            • Save the Date - Fellowtreffen
            • Prizes
            • New Publications in the Fellows' Library
            • Obi­tu­a­ri­um
          • March 2017
            • Editorial
            • Luca Giuliani: Facets of Stephen
            • Berliner Abend 2017
            • Michael Jennions: Walking Berlin
            • Nostalgia
            • Prizes
          • June 2016
            • Editorial
            • Daniel M. Weary: Three days at Wiko to imagine a new world
            • Katharina Wiedemann: Travelling Lights
            • Wiliam Marx (fr)
            • Luc Steels: Grunewaldkirche, Bach, and Passions
            • Nostalgia
          • June 2015
            • Editorial
            • Adam S. Wilkins: Humanities and Natural Sciences
            • Rob Page: The Decline of the Humanities?
            • Alfons Söllner: From "Exilforschung" to "Emigrationsforschung"? A Journey in Memory.
            • Susan Rose-Ackerman and Bruce Ackerman: Wiko Then and Now: 1991-1992 and 2014-2015
            • Daniel Schönpflug: Ins Grüne
          • December 2014
            • Editorial
            • Sebastian Conrad: Global History
            • Sahotra Sarkar, Chris Margules: Biodiversity group at the Kolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: On Uwe Pörksen: Camelot im Grunewald. Szenen aus dem intellektuellen Leben der achtziger Jahre
            • Meredith Reiches: "Literary studies and biology: The Shakespeare-Workshops at the Kolleg 2012 and 2013"
            • Simon Teuscher: Workshop: Perspectives on Actors in Social History
            • Gebhard Kirchgässner: Workshop “The Economic Model of Human Behaviour”
            • Gerald Wilkinson: Workshop “Mind the Gap: Closing the Gulf between Genomic and Phenotypic Studies of Sexual Selection”
            • Sonja Grund: News from the Fellows’ Club
          • May 2014
            • Editorial
            • Peter Reill: From the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin to Wiko: Reflections on a Return after Twenty-Seven Years
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus:Why artists are needed at research institutions
            • Martin Loughlin: Constitutions beyond the Nation-State
            • Franco Moretti: Invisible objects
            • Stefanie Rentsch: The Forum Transregionale Studien – its Mission and History
          • November 2013
            • Editorial
            • Jim Hunt: Ten Years in the Rearview Mirror
            • Thorsten Wilhelmy: My First Year at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Giovanni Frazzetto: The College for Life Sciences at the Wissenschaftskolleg
            • Reinhart Meyer-Kalkus: The Fellow Forum for Former Fellows
      • Fellow Forum
  • Events
    • Calendar of Events
    • Workshops
    • Series of Events
      • Lecture Recitals
      • Zur Zeit
      • Observatorium
      • Ernst Mayr Lecture
    • Three Cultures Forum
  • Wikotheque
    • Wiko Shorts
    • Lectures & Keynotes
    • Features
    • Köpfe und Ideen
    • Projects
    • Yearbook
    • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte
  • Becoming a Fellow
    • Individual Fellowships
    • College for Life Sciences
      • Program
      • Application
      • Fellows
      • Scientific Committee
      • FAQ
    • Living and Working
      • Financial Arrangements
      • Housing
      • Academic Life
      • Services
      • Services for Partners and Families
image/svg+xml
DeutschEnglish
 Login


MENU

  • Institute
  • Fellows
  • Events
  • Wikotheque
  • Becoming a Fellow

  • Leadership
  • Committees
  • Contact Persons
  • The Kolleg
  • Initiatives & Cooperations
  • Library

  • Working Futures
  • Blankensee-Colloquia
  • Anna Krüger Foundation
  • Some Institutes for Advanced Study (SIAS)
  • Support for Ukraine
  • VUIAS
  • Elkana Fellowships

The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future

Dirk Helbing

For a long time, experts have warned of the dangers of a non-sustainable world, but few have understood the implications with regard to the use of mass data. The digital revolution allowed the machinery of utility maximization to reach new heights. Today’s surveillance capitalism not only collects detailed information about each and every one of us, but also sells detailed digital copies of our lives. The possibility of digitally producing human digital doubles triggered new debates about the value of life, which, from a strict market point of view, is put under pressure not only by overpopulation, but also by automation and artificial intelligence. I have previously warned of the dangers of an emerging data-based system that could autonomously decide about people’s lives and deaths on the basis of a citizen score reflecting their “systemic value”.

Then came the Corona virus. In the past 75 years, we have perhaps never been closer to the end of the civilization as we know it and grew up with. Suddenly, the fundamental principles of civil society were at stake. From one week to the other, driven by fear, we have lost some of our fundamental human rights: the freedom of mobility, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of worship, and – some of us, under the pressure of medical “triage” – even the right to live. The crisis seemed to push states not only towards obligatory testing, but also towards mass surveillance of data on health, on movement, on contacts, towards mass storage of such data, and potentially, later, towards immunity certificates. If these plans came true, we would no longer be far from a big-data-based totalitarian state. Actually, some countries, like Hungary, have shattered what was left of their democracies over the pandemic.

However, in this historical situation, other democracies decided to weight lives and rights over money, solidarity over full state control. At least in Western Europe, even in times of lockdown and fear, they decided to preserve their citizens’ privacy and informational self-determination. The latest debates and decisions on tracking applications for smartphones, in Germany for instance, suggest that a new framework for the digital society is on its way – one based on decentralization, the right to maintain one’s private sphere, and freedom to choose. Even Google and Apple will have to comply with such a decision. This might be the dawn of a new society. It may take years to realize that it was a nasty virus that helped us build a more livable, more sustainable future together – a digitally enabled future and beyond.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dirk Helbing is Professor of Computational Social Science at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2019/2020, he is a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin.

More articles of the series "Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times" can be found here.

  • Interviews
  • Publications
    • Shifting Categories
    • Wiko Briefs - Working Futures in Corona Times
      • The digital transformation of work. COVID-19 as a taste of things to come?
      • Thinking the Global Rise of Forced Labor: Old, New, and Changing Forms of Labor Exploitation in Times of Crisis
      • Rearticulating globalization, solidarities, and work in Ethiopia
      • The future of shopping - Corona as a catalyst for the transformation of work
      • The End of the Pandemic of Productivism?
      • Covid and Looking for the Exit
      • Who or what is being tested in pandemic times?
      • The Crisis as Beginning of a New Relationship to the Professional World?
      • Controlled Avalanche – A Regulated Voluntary Exposure Approach for Addressing Covid-19
      • Caring about what we hold dear and the final purposes of work
      • How does the Corona crisis affect the future of work and our view of it?
      • "Useful", "indispensable", “essential”: Is the health crisis changing the categories with which we consider professional activities?
      • The Corona Crisis Reveals the Struggle for a Sustainable Digital Future
      • The Need for De-Integration in Pandemic Times
      • The COVID 19 crisis accelerates structural change in the world of work
      • How can we strengthen the contributory logic of work?
  • Events
  • Network

Institute for Advanced Study

  • Press Releases
  • Contact Persons
  • Contact
  • Vacancies
  • Legal Notice
  • Privacy
  • Sitemap

Institute

  • Leadership
  • Committees
  • Contact Persons
  • The Kolleg
  • Initiatives & Cooperations
  • Library

Fellows

  • Fellow Finder
  • Fellows 2024/2025
  • Permanent Fellows
  • Alumni

Events

  • Calendar of Events
  • Workshops
  • Series of Events
  • Three Cultures Forum

Wikotheque

  • Wiko Shorts
  • Lectures & Keynotes
  • Features
  • Köpfe und Ideen
  • Projects
  • Yearbook
  • Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte

Becoming a Fellow

  • Individual Fellowships
  • College for Life Sciences
  • Living and Working