The information industries have enabled the collection and exploitation of huge data storages that represent the world around us. What used to take months of thankless work to solve a combinatorial problem, sort sources or describe a natural phenomenon in detail is now done in a matter of moments, provided adequate hardware, software and an effective method is used. And, if there is no instrument, if the search engine returns empty handed at our request, nothing prevents us from venturing out, to create what is missing in order to benefit others! The digital wave is transforming the way we act, observe, describe and explain facts, living beings and nature. It favors those who are able to imagine how to gather, process and exploit the resourceful information that hangs around us. Fortunately, digital machines are doing these recurring tasks quickly and well, as we are mentally incapable of managing the abundance and complexity of raw information. The man-machine relationship has been taking advantage of this natural complementarity for the past 50 years, and still retains a great deal of potential for invention.
The Internet broadens and prolongs this trend. Of course, the ubiquity of the network multiplies data, diversifies sources and facilitates its exploration; the web further increases the complexity of the digital world. But, alongside our electronic assistants – phones, tablets and computers that store images, sounds, texts, charts and databases that accumulate on our virtual desktop – the field of exploration and discovery is immense. That’s why so many people are rushing to the El Dorado of data that their great predecessors have been ploughing through for the past 15 years: Apple, Amazon, eBay, Google, Leboncoin, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec and many others, the overwhelming majority of whom were established in North America. In this context, there is still much to be done and much to invent, since change is rapid. The flow of innovation does not dry up: technical discoveries, certainly; but also method or process improvements, transfers of skills and expertise, geographical and sectoral, etc. Creative imagination is expressed everywhere and often finds the human and financial resources needed to attempt the venture.
The five chapters that follow describe the challenges of such ventures, whose impetus comes more often from the mind than from the hand: from mathematics to medical practice and pharmacopoeia, the field of investigation is very broad and the forms of inventive cooperation are very diverse, as demonstrated on a global scale by the extraordinary success of blockchains, a venture which is located in the antipodes of the multinational giants frequently associated with the digital industry and America. The games are afoot: so, let’s get to work!
1
Digital Omnipresence: Its Causes and Consequences
The objects that connect us to one another are numerous and varied: telephones, computers, tablets, consoles, televisions, etc. Each of them collects, processes and stores digital data. Some focus on specific activities: playing, reading, writing, working and having fun. Many extend their usefulness far beyond their original purpose: computers are designed for versatility; telephones too. Others, such as watches, are trying to be killjoys in this digital world where the number and variety of devices are increasing, each one seeking to replace a part of the others: we play games on a computer, we take photos with a phone, we Skype with a tablet, etc.
Digital storage and transmission facilitates media convergence and merging. The services to which the connected devices give access were unknown in 1990, before the Internet conquered Europe and the rest of the world. Just 25 years have been enough for it to reach billions of children, men and women, on five continents.
The combined faculties of electronics and digital signal have enabled this rapid evolution: in just a few years, digital tools and services have transformed our lives and habits; they are disrupting social relationships and renewing a growing part of the economy. This great upheaval could inspire us to adopt a formula that is analogous to the words of La Rochefoucault addressing King Louis XVI on July 14, 1789: “Sire, it is a revolution!” For it is one; in this introductory chapter, we try to define it and understand its causes before its effects submerge us; this is what the book will be about.
Forty years ago, clever minds were already trying to understand and predict the impact of digital technology on man and society1. A plethora of industrial, commercial and service innovations aroused our curiosity: the digitization of radio communications, the widespread use of consumer electronics, the nature and role of public policy have changed. We are followers of multiple digital applications, in all circumstances of our lives; and everywhere in the world, it is the same. The technical evolution that seemed to us to only have affected developed countries has extended to everyone, even to the borders of industrial society. The information economy – characterized by activities that Daniel Bell2 [BEL 76] had foreseen for the future – continues to attract the attention of our contemporaries. It is a truism to underline its importance in our personal life, in our work and in society. The digital era has therefore arrived: practically universal in scope, it concerns all conscious humanity and marks our time by its omnipresence; some of its ambitions could prove to be promising according to the bold prophecies of the few “gurus”, to whom the largest companies in this industry give their undivided attention3!
From analog to digital
As early as the industrial revolution of the 18th Century, machines were analogue. Locomotives, cars, presses, industrial machines, energy production (turbines, alternators, boilers), airplanes and the telephone were all controlled and assisted by hydraulic or electromechanical devices, transmitting a signal proportional to the pilot’s or production agent’s gesture; the pedals necessary to drive a car still act like this. The more I press the brake, the stronger the deceleration; the more I turn the steering wheel, the more the car turns.
The first industrial computers, around 1960, tried to maintain this analogical mode, as it is natural for a human operator to adapt his act to the importance of the effort he exerts! This period is over, with a few exceptions. All industrial equipment is now digitally controlled: sensors deliver a digital signal (e.g. a thermometer), motors, actuators, sensors and valves only receive or emit digital signals, all industrial processes are controlled by one or more computers, for example, the dispatching system that organizes the production and distribution of electricity in a country such as France is a digital machine that symbolically – or analogically – represents the condition of the electricity network. Likewise, a bank’s table of exchange rate and the operation of an airliner have been subject to digital control for some 20 years: the financiers decide on their orders to buy, sell or exchange securities, currencies or raw materials, guided by a computer; the on-board commanders are surrounded by digital instruments. As for countries, companies or households, their daily lives are also regulated by digital tools (telephones, computers, tablets, etc.) connected to interactive web services, a network of international networks, 24/7.
Computerization, prior to the digital revolution
IT services have slipped into the heart of the economic activities they were being absorbed by without actually changing the essentials of careers. For example, the introduction of management computers in banks and insurance companies during the 1970s did create new professional functions (such as analyst programmers); but, in most circumstances, neither essential professional practices nor procedures were really disrupted by the computerization of management tasks. Old habits have been adapted; IT procedures are faster, more detailed and less clumsy, but ultimately unchanged4. A large part of the jobs prior to computerization has not disappeared; some new practices have been added to the existing ones. Habits and organizations have changed, more by distorting themselves than by disappearing!
On the other hand, many facts underline that digital objects and services have been easily accepted by the population [TRE 15]: in half a generation (less than 15 years), households and consumers have discovered and then adopted without hes...
