LA CITTÀ PROTO-DIGITALE

Abstract

As they deteriorated, all of the pieces of Theseus' vessel were replaced, until there was not a single nail or beam left from the original ship. The philosophers, for the logical question of things that grow; one side holding that the ship remained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same (Plutarch, Theseus, 23,1). According to Locke, identity is based on the unity of consciousness and on the continuity of memory, but it is evident that it is in becoming. This applies, with the due differences, also to the social system of the city; consciousness is the stabilitas loci and memory is the archaeological stratification of exchanges of goods, words, desires and memories. According to Luciano Floridi (Floridi L, The 4TH Revolution, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 67), identity depends on the context, the purpose and the perspective in which it is formulated: in other words, it is linked to the relevant interface. Until some time ago, it was possible to identify the two halves that constituted the city: the artifact (structural and infrastructural) and the citizens. Now the connection between the animated and non-animated components forms a third component. The 'onlife' situation implies the city's shift from a sum of social objects to a social system. The city is subjected to a continuous transformation that inexorably modifies its being. The new trinitarian composition of the city (artifacts + individuals + technology) creates a new social identity that lies precisely in the relationships between individuals and individuals, between individuals and objects, and between objects and objects. This connection creates a sensible social self of the city, which has never existed before and enables it to respond autonomously to the external solicitations coming from individuals and objects. Communication technologies have become forces capable of accelerating the becoming of the city’s identity, because they are able to influence reality through the new structuring of the environment.