Pekka Himanen (born 19 October 1973) is a Finnish philosopher.
Pekka Himanen studied philosophy (and computer science as a minor) at the University of Helsinki, under professor Esa Saarinen. In 1994, with his thesis on the philosophy of religion, The challenge of Bertrand Russell , he received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the same university, breaking the record as the youngest person to obtain a PhD in Finland, following other record-breaking young PhDs supervised by Saarinen.
He has done research work[ citation needed ] in Finland (University of Helsinki), the United Kingdom (University of Oxford)), and the United States (Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley). At UC Berkeley, Himanen directed the Berkeley Center for the Information Society, a research group under Berkeley's International Computer Science Institute. The Center was active from September 2002 until 2005 .
Himanen has been a counselor to the president of Finland, Finnish government (including the Ministry of Education) and Finnish parliament, in the field of information society.[ citation needed ]
He was a visiting professor at the Oxford Internet Institute (based at Oxford University) from September 2005 to July 2006.
Himanen had multiple appointments as a fixed-term part-time professor at Helsinki School of Art and Design (now part of Aalto University as Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) from 2008 until 2014.
In his book HimEros written as a dialogue, Socrates’ wife Xanthippe relates to the Helsinkian what happened to Socrates in Hades, how Socrates decided to escape from Hades and go to study philosophy at the University of Helsinki, and how he was arrested, sentenced to death and executed as a result of a three-day conversation with the philosophers of the University. Xanthippe also transmits Socrates’ dialogue with the university teachers of philosophy Cyborg (Stephen Hawking), Pope (John Paul II), Unabomber (Theodore Kaczynski) and Madonna (Madonna Ciccone).
In The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age , Himanen is trying to understand the core of informationalism, the post-industrialist paradigm, extending the ideas of Manuel Castells' Information Age.[ citation needed ] As an alternative to the industrial-capitalist protestant work ethic he proposes a hacker ethic as something like a cyber communitarianism. The structure of the information society is a web, which in contemporary business world manifests itself, for instance, in dynamic outsourcing and even cooperation with one's competitors. The "knots" of such a web get activated according to the needs and opportunities.
In 2006, he established Global Dignity with Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and John Hope Bryant. Global Dignity is an independent, non-political organization that promotes the universal right of every human being to lead a dignified life.
Two Finnish journalists, Anu Silfverberg and Johanna Vehkoo, published a critical investigation of Himanen's research funding from public sources, the outcomes of his research, as well as his use of the title of "professor" without holding a professorship. [1] The investigation followed the critical reception of Himanen's recent research reports on information society done under contract with the Finnish government, and reports of disorderly conduct in public places while intoxicated. [2] [3]
Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, seeing painting and sculpture as "branches of the tree whose trunk is architecture." Aalto's early career ran in parallel with the rapid economic growth and industrialization of Finland during the first half of the 20th century. Many of his clients were industrialists, among them the Ahlström-Gullichsen family, who became his patrons. The span of his career, from the 1920s to the 1970s, is reflected in the styles of his work, ranging from Nordic Classicism of the early work, to a rational International Style Modernism during the 1930s to a more organic modernist style from the 1940s onwards.
The hacker ethic is a philosophy and set of moral values within hacker culture. Practitioners believe that sharing information and data with others is an ethical imperative. The hacker ethic is related to the concept of freedom of information, as well as the political theories of anti-authoritarianism, anarchism, and libertarianism.
Linus Benedict Torvalds is a Finnish-American software engineer who is the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel. He also created the distributed version control system Git.
Helsinki University of Technology was a technical university in Finland. It was located in Otaniemi, Espoo in the Helsinki metropolitan area. The university was founded in 1849 by Grand Duke of Finland, Emperor Nicholas I and received university status in 1908. It moved from Helsinki to Otaniemi campus area in 1966. The merger of HUT with two other schools created the Aalto University in 2010, and HUT briefly held the name Aalto University School of Science and Technology before being split into four schools in 2011.
Manuel Castells Oliván is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. He is a scholar of the information society, communication and globalization.
The Green League, shortened to the Greens, is a green political party in Finland. Ideologically, the Green League is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectrum. It is a reformist party and it is supportive of feminism, animal rights and green liberal ideas.
Esa Jouni Olavi Saarinen is a Finnish philosopher who was a professor of applied philosophy at Aalto University and co-director of the Systems Intelligence Research Group, until his retirement in 2021.
Matti Häyry is Professor of Philosophy at Aalto University School of Business in Helsinki, Finland. In 2004-2013, he was Professor of Bioethics and Philosophy of Law at the University of Manchester in England, and before that he held professorships in philosophy and moral philosophy at the universities of Central Lancashire and Kuopio.
The space of flows is a high-level cultural abstraction of space and time, and their dynamic interactions with digital age society. The concept was created by the sociologist and cybernetic culture theoretician Manuel Castells to "reconceptualize new forms of spatial arrangements under the new technological paradigm"; a new type of space that allows distant synchronous, real-time interaction. The space of flows first was mentioned in The Informational City: Information Technology, Economic Restructuring, and the Urban Regional Process (1989).
Kristian Valter Alexander Gullichsen was a Finnish architect. The son of Harry and Maire Gullichsen, he was born into a family of industrialists, designers and artists. His siblings were the renowned Finnish philosopher Lilli Alanen and Johan Gullichsen, a professor of engineering. Kristian Gullichsen had three sons and two daughters, one of the sons was the artist Alvar Gullichsen. Gullichsen was married twice; his second wife was architect Kirsi Gullichsen.
The architecture of Finland has a history spanning over 800 years, and while up until the modern era the architecture was highly influenced by Sweden, there were also influences from Germany and Russia. From the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield: first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country and then when the Finnish architect profession became established.
Aalto University is a public research university located in Espoo, Finland. It was established in 2010 as a merger of three major Finnish universities: the Helsinki University of Technology, the Helsinki School of Economics and the University of Art and Design Helsinki. The close collaboration between the scientific, business and arts communities is intended to foster multi-disciplinary education and research.
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age is a book released in 2001, and written by Pekka Himanen, with prologue written by Linus Torvalds and the epilogue written by Manuel Castells.
Marja-Sisko Aalto is a Finnish writer of detective fiction and former minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. She was the vicar of the Imatra parish from 1986 to 2010. She became notable as Finland's first openly transgender minister. In 2009, the Finnish Women's Association named Aalto Lyyti of the Year. Since her resignation as vicar, she has pursued a career as a writer.
Maria Lähteenmäki is a researcher of history, Jutikkala Professor at the University of Eastern Finland and Docent of Finnish and Scandinavian history at the University of Helsinki. She has produced many scientific monographs and textbooks and written a great number of articles.
Hannu Himanen is a Finnish diplomat. He was the Finnish Ambassador to Russia in Moscow from 1 May 2012 to August 2016 and retired shortly after the post to Moscow.
Nadarajah Asokan is a professor of computer science and the David R. Cheriton Chair in Software Systems at the University of Waterloo's David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. He is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aalto University.
Lyhdynkantajat is a group of sculptures at the front door of the Helsinki Central Station in Helsinki, Finland. The sculptures were designed by Emil Wikström and completed in 1914. Lyhdynkantajat is part of the facade of the Art Nouveau station designed by Eliel Saarinen.