Goal

Digital wisdom is still an underdeveloped concept, yet it should receive focused philosophical and scientific attention. Broadly speaking, it can be seen as the group of virtues and practices which enable a harmonious relationship with the digital world which is conducive to personal and collective human flourishing. It should be seen as an autoregulative heuristic capacity which should be developed within an ever-growing technological society. Internet and technological devices are so ingrained and normalized in our lives that we rarely stop to think about how it affects our behaviour, our relationships or even our cognitive abilities.
We want to be able to answer questions such as: is it possible to understand how digital wisdom is developed by assessing people's individual characteristics, values and traits and correlating it with digital behaviour patterns?
As a result of the knowledge acquired about digital wisdom, we intend to build a solid framework to support new practical applications of knowledge developed in business, education, religious formation, media and public policy. These applications intend to support people on the path to a healthy relationship with technology, integrating it to broader understandings of happiness and wise living.

Opportunity

This is a pioneer work stands on already established research on human wisdom (e.g. life-span psychology, positive psychology and the virtue ethics philosophy). Yet the digital super-connected world poses unique challenges.
The encyclical "Fratelli Tutti" pointed out that through internet we are more connected than ever, yet solidarity is decreasing. To change interconnection and information into cooperation and social capital we need a renewed understanding of how to develop it in this context.
Digital wisdom will be studied to understand how it reflects on people's character and traits and how it can make the internet work consistently for human flourishing.

Roadblocks

The term digital wisdom is yet to be defined when the individual and societal well-being aspects included in our framework are considered. This research requires vast knowledge in multiple fields that could bring conflicting perspectives on the analysis. We derive from previous research on wisdom such as the Berlin Wisdom Paradigm and the Chicago Center for Practical Wisdom.
Another challenge involves creating a unified framework that incorporates the many different technologies (e.g. social media interactions, wearable devices, virtual reality glasses). To find such a unique framework can be hard or even impossible (which would lead us to need multiple frameworks).

Breakthroughs Needed

To overcome the challenges, the study requires the possibility of incorporating as many variables to the system as possible. This way, it will be possible to define the most relevant aspects of the study based on data and solid analysis.
It will be necessary to construct the system for a virtual map of social digital behaviour which would enable correlating data from social psychology, social science, health and other sources to social media and internet behaviour. This will be our large framework map.
It is also possible to split the framework into smaller parts to help to overcome the different sorts of technologies in society.
The multidisciplinary collaboration in this project also provides ground for overcoming unexpected challenges that we might face on the process.

Key Indicators of Success

3 years: a solid method for data collection and experimentation. An operational base framework derived from the data collection.
5 years: a solid foundation for the framework. Apps ready for testing on people's support. Literature produced based on the knowledge developed.
10 years: a global framework developed. Products prototypes ready to assist people physically and mentally on health and well-being.

Additional Information

Eric Araújo holds the following positions:
- Adjunct Professor at the Computer Science Department at UFLA (Universidade Federal de Lavras, Brazil);
- The header of the Behavioural Informatics Laboratory (BILbo);
- Guest Researcher at the Social AI Research Group at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam, the Netherlands).
His main work is with cognitive modelling of social contagion phenomena. In other words, he explores the ways people influence each other about their opinions, behaviour and perceptions using agent-based and temporal-causal models.
His contributions are mainly in cognitive computing, modelling and simulation areas. Therefore, the work developed is multidisciplinary, using computer science tools to solve problems in areas such as public security, the spread of fake news, promoting healthier lifestyles, etc.
Collaborators:
Rev. Guilherme de Carvalho is a reformed baptist minister, and director of L'Abri Fellowship Brazil since 2008. He co-founded ABC2 (Associação Brasileira de Cristãos na Ciência), serving now as its vice-president. He writes weekly to the Gazeta do Povo newspaper.
Guilherme has been working with Science & Religion, Public Theology and Wisdom and Spirituality. As co-leader of a Templeton funded project, he edited the "Fé Cristã e Ciência Contemporânea" book series through Ultimato Publishing, and helped to establish a network of more than 60 sci-faith study groups in Brazil.
Lucas Nascimento holds a PhD in Language and Culture from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and holds the following positions: Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Portuguese Language at the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), Brazil.
- Coordinator of the Group of Dialogic Studies in Discourse and Argumentation (Dialógicos / UEFS).
- Guest researcher at the Discourse, Culture and Society Study Group (GEDISCult) at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA - CNPq) and;
- guest researcher at the Study Group on Rhetoric and Argumentation (GERAR) at the University of São Paulo (USP).
His studies are within the scope of Discourse Analysis, Rhetorical Argumentation Theories and Polemic Dialogism. In other words, he develops research that seeks to understand the nature of agreements and polemics in the public space, in a perspective that he has called Dialogical Analysis of Argumentation, whose foundation is in a philosophy of ethical responsibility applied to discourse. Thus, he has applied this approach, primarily, in the analysis of religious, political and affective discourses.