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printThe peculiarities of the subjectness phenomenon in the context of contemporary technological transformations
Volodenkov S.V.,
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, s.v.cyber@gmail.com
elibrary_id: 290314 | ORCID: 0000-0003-2928-6068 | RESEARCHER_ID: N-3606-2016
Fedorchenko S.N.,
Moscow Region State University, Moscow, Russia, s.n.fedorchenko@mail.ru
elibrary_id: 504738 | ORCID: 0000-0001-6563-044X | RESEARCHER_ID: Y-6720-2018
Article received: 2020.12.02. Accepted: 2021.10.14
DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2022.05.04
For citation:
Volodenkov S.V., Fedorchenko S.N. The peculiarities of the subjectness phenomenon in the context of contemporary technological transformations. – Polis. Political Studies. 2022. No. 5. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2022.05.04
Abstract
The active penetration of digital communications into crucial areas of the state and society, the intensive development of artificial intelligence technologies and neural network algorithms, the growing influence of digital platforms as new actors of modern socio-political processes, the reconfiguration of the usual system of social relations in the digital space warrant a review of the content and functional aspects of the traditional phenomenon of subjectness, which is one of the essential elements of the structure of power and society. Carrying out a critical analysis of the current scientific discourse in the field of transformations of traditional subjectness, the authors consider the concepts of platform capitalism and algocracy as explanatory models of the changes taking place in the system of modern socio-political communications. The study shows that digitalization and technological transformations, the formation of a new sociotechnical phygital space have not simply made adjustments to the sphere of subjectness familiar to us but also intensified the processes of its evolution. As a new phenomenon emerging in the digital space, atypical subjectivity is highlighted, associated with the potential for self-communication of AI agents in the conditions of the formation of artificial sociality. Special attention is paid to the new phenomenon of hybrid subjectness, formed within the framework of the functioning of digital centaurs, potentially capable of acting as extensions of the existing political institutions of the state. An attempt is made to show how the modern algorithmizing and technologization of the sphere of socio-political communications are consistent with the approaches of G. Agamben and F. Ankersmit, dedicated to the phenomenon of the “empty political center”. Although the prospects for the formation of new types of subjectness considered in work have not been realized today and are limited by modern technological capabilities, the article nonetheless outlines the potential for their implementation. Two key factors determine this potential: the exponential increase in the complexity of AI-technologies and the trend according to which modern people are increasingly inclined to rely on the ready-made solutions of AI systems.
Keywords
the phenomenon of subjectness, technological transformations, digitalization, artificial intelligence, neural network algorithms, algocracy, artificial sociality.
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Content No. 5, 2022
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