Pursuing an interdisciplinary approach this book offers detailed insights into the empirical
relationships between overall social key figures of states and cultures in the fields of
information and communication technology (ICT) (digital divide inequality) the economy
education and religion. Its goal is to bridge the 'cultural gap' between computer scientists
engineers economists social and political scientists by providing a mutual understanding of
the essential challenges posed and opportunities offered by a global information and knowledge
society. In a sense the historically unprecedented technical advances in the field of ICT are
shaping humanity at different levels and forming a hybrid (intelligent) human-technology system
a so-called global superorganism. The main innovation is the combined study of digitization and
globalization in the context of growing social inequalities collapse and sustainable
development and how a convergence towards a kind of global culture could take place.
Accordingly the book discusses the spread of ICT Internet Governance the balance between the
central concentration of power and the extent of decentralized power distribution the
inclusion or exclusion of people and states in global communication processes and the capacity
for global empathy or culture.
