On the Relevance of Angeletics and Hermeneutics for Information Technology¹

This paper deals with the relevance of ‘angeletics’ (from Greek ‘angelía’ = message) or message theory and hermeneutics or theory of interpretation for information technology. In the first paragraph the difference between the concepts of ‘information’ and ‘message’ is explained. Different information concepts have given rise to the so-called “Capurro's trilemma” which is briefly explained in the second paragraph. The power of selecting information from a message becomes a challenge for present democracies facing digital globalization. International regulations are needed no less than “technologies of the self” (M. Foucault). Angeletics is the implicit foundation of hermeneutics as explained in the next paragraph. We live in message societies which means that the ethics of traditional mass media are not enough for dealing with the new technological and societal challenges. The last paragraph opens a dialogue with Régis Debray's “médiologie” and envisages the future task of empirical angeletics.