Historia rerum naturae gestarum and Hyper-History. Philosophical and sociological intersections for a Hyper-World

The concept of history has always been an object of philosophical reflection, since the meaning of human actions, freedom, and the influence of material circumstances converge in it. This article focuses on the problem of how to start thinking philosophically about history in the information age and in big data society. The usual classifications used to distinguish natural history (historia naturae) from the history of human beings (historia rerum gestarum) have become inadequate by now, because human beings are producing technological artifacts that modify their own nature. History is giving way to hyper-history, which depends on the flow of information in which we are immersed. Yet the type of objects that this hyper-history should describe is still uncertain, because the natural and the artificial are becoming increasingly mixed. In this uncertainty, readings and interpretations of the post-human and trans-human future are multiplying, often mixing ideology and philosophy. Instead, it would be important to build on a kind of history and future perspectives that are founded upon – and can help us reflect on – digital artifacts as human events. The hyper-historical objects that will populate the hybrid age raise countless ethical questions, which all concern objects that mix the artificial and the natural. These very objects seem to produce a new concept of history (historia rerum naturae gestarum). Human beings can continue to play a leading role in the hyper-world of the age of information, increasingly driven by the logic of digital culture, but this role needs to be clarified from a philosophical standpoint and integrated by sociological perspectives.