Dr. Detlev Doherr is Professor in Informatics and Geoinformatics of the University of Applied Sciences Offenburg, Germany, since 1990. He received the degrees of diploma and Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Göttingen, Germany in 1983. After an employment at the German Rock salt and Potash industry, where he developed a Geographical Information System for mining and exploration together with IBM, he serves as Professor in Offenburg beginning in 1990. In 1992 he founded the Steinbeis-Transfer Center of Information Technology in Offenburg, which is part of the German Steinbeis- Stiftung. Since 2001 he is working in the fields of digital libraries, Internet portals and virtual environments. He has more than 20 years experiences in developing of Internet based information systems combined with knowledge bases and artificial intelligence. His current interests include knowledge based computing, information technology, and history of natural sciences.
Our idea of nature is mainly based on the research of the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt, who carefully examined the complexity and diversity of nature and saw all elements integrated into natural processes, in which not a single element can be found isolated. His view of nature has become much more detailed through the knowledge of phenomena and natural processes, resulting in a more precise but largely unchanged view of nature, shaped by Humboldt.
Today's technological progress and the artificial intelligence of highly developed computer systems disrupt this view and will change the established world view through a new, unprecedented interaction between man and machine. Therefore, we need digital axioms and comprehensive rules and laws for such autonomous systems that determine human interaction between cybernetic systems and biological individuals. This digital humanism should encompass our relationship to nature, our dealings with the complexity and diversity of nature, and the technological influences on society in order to avoid technical colonialism through supercomputers.
