The Center for the Study of Digital Life (CSDL) is a strategic research group dedicated to understanding the effects of digital technologies on the Three Spheres that now dominate global affairs -- East, West and Digital.
We believe that digital technologies have generated a new psycho-technological environment, previously unknown to humans, which has already fundamentally reshaped our behaviors and attitudes. We call ourselves "technological constructivists," contrasting our approach to those who suggest instead that society can be whatever we might imagine it to be. Alas, that imagined future is not were we are heading. Instead, we suspect that human perception has already shifted to favor Memory – in keeping with the underlying architecture of digital technology.
As a result of this new Digital Paradigm, we are committed to developing a new range of social sciences – replacing those generated in the previous paradigm, with particular focus on psychology and economics. As Thomas Kuhn described in his 1962 "The Shape of Scientific Revolutions," our new circumstances require new sciences. Just as Einstein overthrew Newton, we are now in the middle of a sweeping shift towards sciences based on digital fundamentals.
However, those in charge of the global Three Spheres produced by digital technology still think of themselves in terms of the previous paradigm and are largely incapable of understanding these new circumstances. So, as a result, tensions and potential conflicts have become a serious consequence of our new situation. The Center is dedicated to avoiding that outcome by assisting global leadership to take responsibility for the social and individual effects of digital technologies. But first they will need to understand the "new media" that shapes our lives.
The CSDL is privately funded and does not take an advocacy role. It supports scholarship across the full-range of disciplines, including the social sciences, biology/ecology and systems engineering. It provides research studies to the public and holds conferences while also advising corporations, NGOs and governments. Its scope is international, with a particular interest in China and other rapidly industrializing economies. The CSDL is a unique contributor to the strategic understanding of our digital future.