Translation
Original language
17.06.2025
New technology world
“The human mind is not a statistical machine like ChatGPT and its ilk, greedy for hundreds of terabytes of data in order to arrive at the most plausible answer to a conversation or the most likely answer to a scientific question.” On the contrary... it “is a sur- prisingly efficient and elegant system that works with a finite amount of information. It does not try to corrupt correlations fr om the data, but rather tries to create explanations”
Noam Chomsky The science fiction film The Matrix, written and directed by the Wachowski sisters (Lilly and Lana) (1999), reflects on humanity and the reasons that may lead to its demise. The film shows a hopeless future for humans who have depleted the plan- et’s resources, destroyed the sun, and are eventually enslaved by machines of their own creation.
The film also looks at attitudes towards technology and the increasing separa- tion of body and mind due to the development of robotics and virtual reality. It was believed that freedom was really nothing more than a predictable algorithm inside a computer programme, far fr om becoming a reality, at least in the near future. We are talking about the year 2199.
The film follows the adventures of Neo, a young hacker who was recruited by a resistance movement led by Morpheus, fighting against the domination of machines over humans. Morpheus offers him two pills of different colours: a blue one that will allow him to continue living in illusion, and a red one with which he will learn the truth.
Faced with this dilemma, the protagonist chooses the red pill and wakes up in a capsule. This is how he discovers that the human race is under the con- trol of an artificial intelligence and imprisoned in a computer programme that serves only as a power source. Neo realises that the Resistance sees him as the Chosen One: a kind of messiah who will free humanity fr om the slavery of the Matrix.
Although he doubts his destiny, throughout the film he learns to overcome the rules of simulation. He manages to rescue Morpheus, who has been kidnapped, and defeat Agent Smith aher a duel in which he proves his worth as a warrior and confirms that he is indeed the Chosen One.
Today, the world is witnessing events that make us question the established timeframes. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated automation in many indus- tries such as services, construction, medicine, food, defence and aerospace. Robo- tisation is developing rapidly. It affects not only work (remote working), but also decisively changes the way people live. It seems that machines have gained inde- pendence and now dominate people by invading their personal space. Indeed, there is no human space leh without gadgets, for example.
Hence the claim that in a few years we will have “robot friends” who will live in our homes, communicate with residents and become a kind of confidant who will listen to all our problems, sufferings, pains, anxieties and emotions.
Our observations below address the most striking features of a world wh ere technology has an almost existential impact on humans and wh ere machines are actively competing with them.
Loss of social ties
We can agree with Zygmunt Bauman that we live in a ‘liquid modernity’, which leads to a loss of social ties (people increasingly communicate more with a mobile phone or tablet than with relatives or friends), while “personal space, inti- macy, anonymity and the right to secrecy fall outside the principles of consumer society.”
Some argue that we are facing new forms of communication and social rela- tionships in a society of social networks, which raises the following questions: What happens to identity? Does it blur, disappear or hide behind emoticons/ emoji? Wh ere do words, language, ethics, lies/truths remain, and what types of social relations develop in this society?
According to American linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, the use of mobile phones and social media represents a step backwards as live communi- cation disappears, creating superficial relationships. He believes that new technol- ogies isolate people fr om each other.
Emoji language
People talk about different “deaths.” For example, the death of history according to Hegel’s philosophy or, in a more modern version, the end of history according to Francis Fukuyama. Also the death of God, according to Friedrich Nietzsche.
But now they’re talking about something more important: the death of the word with the advent of a worldwide language of emojis.
With their help, a world language was created, the so-called emoji or emoti- cons, which are small images without any borders, expressing and conveying anemotion or thought. These are sequences of keyboard characters used to convey emotions (smile, wink, surprise, sarcasm, sadness, or to send hugs and kisses).
These icons convey what words no longer express or cannot or will not say. So, any person (rich, poor, dark-skinned, blond, white, educated or not, male, female, homosexual, immigrant or native) becomes a decentred subject, that is, a subject in process, immersed in an unreal reality, influenced by the effects of reality.
These emoticons/emoji have become the perfect medium to communicate with people fr om any part of the world as they break language barriers, or even with our own friends/enemies when there is simply no need to write a lot of words to express what can be shown through pictures.
Social media
Today, it is not radio, television, print media or cinema, but the Internet and, in particular, social media that are the world’s main means of communication, changing the way information is disseminated, as they have cultural, economic, social and political implications for the global community, creating new forms of com- munication.
Today, for example, both the Internet and social media have become a major medium precisely because of the speed and ease of access and exchange of infor- mation, data of all kinds, and because of their ubiquitous and global nature. They erase boundaries. It is also a chaotic, multi-dimensional environmentwith a blurred hierarchy, wh ere - unlike television or newspapers - anyone can freely publish their thoughts. The user, more than in any other environment, acts as both consumer and content creator. The “I” that constantly manifests itself online is simultane- ously author, narrator and character.
Let’s look at what some thinkers are saying:
Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman says:
“Social media don’t teach us to dialogue because it is so easy to avoid controversy… But most people use social media not to unite, not to open their horizons wider, but on the contrary, to cut themselves a comfort zone wh ere the only sounds they hear are the echoes of their own voice, where the only things they see are. Social media are very useful, they provide pleasure, but they are a trap.” Portuguese writer Boaventura de Sousa states:
“This is one of the contradictions of our time. We welcome social media and the internet as platforms, as a form of democratisation of knowledge and informa- tion. But recently, in the post-truth era, social media and the internet have been used to manipulate public opinion based on what is difficult for the average person to understand.”
The era of social networks is developing within what the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze called the “Societies of Control” – that is, societies dominated by biopolitics (regulation of the species), flexible and changeable networks; where power relations are rooted in scientific and technological innovation and seek to encompass the entire social body, leaving virtually nothing outside of control.
South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues that in a performance society, social media is a space in which people need to constantly stand out by displaying an idealised image of themselves. The search for recognition and val- idation becomes an obsession, creating a constant pressure to get likes, followers and positive comments.
This dynamic of performance on social media leads to the alienation of peo- ple. In an attempt to conform to the standards of success and happiness imposed by society, people become disconnected fr om their true selves and become mere consumer goods. Authenticity is lost, replaced by a carefully constructed image that seeks external approval.
Social networks generate a typical confrontation between those who defend them at all costs (“pro-technology hysteria”, as German professor Peter Sloterdijk puts it) and those who consider them diabolical and the cause of all ills (“anti-tech- nology hysteria”).
Social media as an international player
However, today social media have become an extremely important interna- tional player, as many political changes and coups d’état have taken place through them. For example, the “colour revolutions” in some post-Soviet countries (the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Lemon or Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005), the Arab Spring in 2010 and the so-called “outraged.” Latin America and the Caribbean have also been hit by such coups. And Venezuela is experiencing this, being turned into and has becme a breed- ing ground for such technologies, which this is nothing new.
What is said on these platforms about Venezuela and spread around the world is that our country is a dictatorship state, that there is a civil war, that we are killing each other, and many erudites, progressives and even lehists, including those fr om Latin America and the Caribbean, believe these allegations.
But this is nothing new. For example, a document entitled “Plan to Over- throw the Venezuelan Dictatorship: Masterstroke, released in February 2018 and attributed to Admiral Kurt Walter Tidd, commander of US Naval Force Southern Command, explicitly points to the importance of social media in achieving the goals set. In this sense, the author suggests the following approach: “Increasing, inside the country and through the mass media established abroad, the dissem- ination of designed messages based on testimonies and publications originated in the country, making use of all the possible capacities, including the social net- works. Claiming, through that mass media, the need to put an end to this situation because of its unsustainable essence.”
In this situation, according to President Nicolas Maduro, “Venezuela contin- ues to be the jewel in the crown for the imperial elites of the United States and its allies. The country is also a target for cyberattacks.”
Ilon Musk, owner of Platform X, and Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator and founder of Facebook (fr om 2021 Meta Platforms), both of whom profited fr om the COVID- 19 pandemic and wield enormous power – not only in the economic but also in the media sphere – are aiming to undermine the Bolivarian revolution and the Presi- dent in an attempt to reverse history.
It is important to mention that against the backdrop of the information war that is being waged in Venezuela, disinformation is becoming a powerful weapon. It is therefore essential to strengthen the country’s digital defence capabilities to counter manipulative campaigns and protect the credibility of information.
Are we living through a time of “brain strike”?
Fr om a lexicographical point of view, a strike means a collective cessation of labour activity by workers in order to demand certain conditions or to express pro- test. Let us add that in the world of capital strikes can also be staged by peasants, teachers, professors and even entrepreneurs.
However, in this Liquid Modernity, as Zygmunt Bauman calls it, wh ere the only certainty is the constant presence of uncertainties and voids to be filled, we are liv- ing through what is called a “brain strike,” which means nothing less than a refusal to use the brain and its neurons. And this happens at times when we are faced with an overabundance of information (infodemia) in our global world, which, paradox- ically, brings about misinformation. This is not a fiction, not a fairy tale, not a fable, but a reality.
The schemes are almost identical. Gene Sharp, a theorist of nonviolent action, lays them out in his works Fr om Dictatorship to Democracy and The Methods of Non- violent Action.
Hence, social media is one of the major international players with tremendous effectiveness, shaping subjective opinions and penetrating daily life, family, inter- net, wi-fi, mobile phone, violating privacy, invading personal space, becoming part of everyday life every second of the day.
We live, without fear of making a mistake, in the era of cut and paste, which means that it is possible to find on the Internet any monograph or other work writ- ten by another author and pass it off as one’s own. This is happening not only at the undergraduate level, but also at the master’s level, and even at the highest level, in doctoral studies. Sad but true, in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of the professions that could be replaced is said to be teaching.
Today, new technologies and neoliberalism do not call for reflection, rather quite the opposite. The reality is that people no longer read books, novels or even essays. Everything is now simplified by social media, which is also dominated by the “I like” philosophy according to Byung-Chul Han, meaning that we post or for- ward what we like, without bothering to verify its content. This trend has acceler- ated with the emergence of post-truth and fake news.
We believe that the best way to resist the “brain strike” is to return to reading, using the word and reflection, constantly and continuously, so as “not to die in the attempt,” because, in the end, “The dangerous thing about living without reading is that it makes you believe everything you are told” (Mafalda).
The Age of Infocracy
In 2022, South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han wrote the work entitled Infocracy. There he argues that Infocracy can be compared to an information regime and says: “With the term ‘information regime’ I refer to a form of domination in which information and its processing by algorithms and artificial intelligence have a decisive influence on social, economic and political processes.”
In the current era, the supremacy of information and digital algorithms is taking root in the political sphere, which has its consequences, especially in the selection of new rulers, i.e. information is destructive to the democratic process. Therefore, for Han, “Democracy is degenerating into Infocracy.”
For Byung-Chul Han, “In Infocracy, election campaigns degenerate into infor- mation warfare,” with political parties taking more interest in controlling this infor- mation than in developing their proposals and development plans. “Voters are not told about a party’s political programme but are manipulated by election adver- tising tailored to their psychoprogramme. And ohen with the help of fake news” (Han). Therefore, the speeches, actions and plans of political parties no longer matter. Information warfare is conducted with algorithmic weapons.
In Infocracy, information warfare is expressed as political warfare, and social media users resemble an overly docile and compliant herd.
“In electoral campaigns understood as information warfare, it is no lon- ger the best arguments that win, but the smartest algorithms,” Han says. Hence, democracy becomes subject to digital algorithms that can guide human behaviour. Commanding this information and these algorithms is the most effective form of sovereignty nowadays. “Sovereign is he who has control over the information on the web” (Han), that is, sovereign is the one who determines what is true based on information. What is valuable and necessary for the people.
We would say: we live in an era wh ere the technological divide is undermining the democratic process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a combination of algorithms designed to create machines with the same abilities as humans. It is a technology that still seems distant and mysterious to us, but which has been present in our daily lives for several years now, constantly, and continues to gain ground in many areas of the modern world.
With artificial intelligence comes a scenario wh ere, over time, some jobs can be done without any human involvement at all.
AI is replacing professional workers. For this reason, about 85 million jobs in medium and large companies are expected to be cut this year. 80 million of them will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
There is increasing talk that 5 professions are under threat and could disap- pear, giving way to artificial intelligence. Here they are:
1. Education. Business experts say that artificial intelligence can provide effec- tive learning materials to students without contact with a teacher, and many AI companies are interested in investing in educational tools. ChatGPT, devel- oped by OpenAI in 2022, is said to be able to deliver lessons.
They also say that machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, will help revolutionise the education system, and it will no longer exist as we know it. Since AI can recommend content to students.
The advantage for teachers or education professionals, experts warn, is that with the use of artificial intelligence, a teacher may not have to worry about administrative tasks and can focus on the quality of learning.
Infocracy is becoming a phenomenon of digital media, wh ere the abun- dance of information makes it possible to create algorithms that work with users’ data to manage their behaviour and preferences. Digital algorithms are develop- ing the psychometrics of social media users. According to Han, “psychometrics, also known as psychography, is a data-driven procedure for obtaining a person- ality profile.” This profile is developed based on the pattern of information con- sumption in digital networks. Algorithms, together with psychometrics, form a user who is subject to a regime of information. This regime, in turn, is an expres- sion of psychopolitics, that is, it has the power to control and manipulate the human psyche. Consequently, the abilities inherent in the democratic process, such as autonomy or free will, are destroyed in the name of Infocratic domina- tion. Democracy as the power of the people yields to Infocracy as the power of information. The digital algorithm acts arbitrarily and favours certain politicians or parties.
For Byung-Chul Han, “In Infocracy, election campaigns degenerate into infor- mation warfare,” with political parties taking more interest in controlling this infor- mation than in developing their proposals and development plans. “Voters are not told about a party’s political programme but are manipulated by election adver- tising tailored to their psychoprogramme. And ohen with the help of fake news” (Han). Therefore, the speeches, actions and plans of political parties no longer matter. Information warfare is conducted with algorithmic weapons.
In Infocracy, information warfare is expressed as political warfare, and social media users resemble an overly docile and compliant herd.
“In electoral campaigns understood as information warfare, it is no lon- ger the best arguments that win, but the smartest algorithms,” Han says. Hence, democracy becomes subject to digital algorithms that can guide human behaviour. Commanding this information and these algorithms is the most effective form of sovereignty nowadays. “Sovereign is he who has control over the information on the web” (Han), that is, sovereign is the one who determines what is true based on information. What is valuable and necessary for the people.
We would say: we live in an era wh ere the technological divide is undermining the democratic process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a combination of algorithms designed to create machines with the same abilities as humans. It is a technology that still seems distant and mysterious to us, but which has been present in our daily lives for several years now, constantly, and continues to gain ground in many areas of the modern world.
With artificial intelligence comes a scenario wh ere, over time, some jobs can be done without any human involvement at all.
AI is replacing professional workers. For this reason, about 85 million jobs in medium and large companies are expected to be cut this year. 80 million of them will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
There is increasing talk that 5 professions are under threat and could disap- pear, giving way to artificial intelligence. Here they are:
1. Education. Business experts say that artificial intelligence can provide effec- tive learning materials to students without contact with a teacher, and many AI companies are interested in investing in educational tools. ChatGPT, devel- oped by OpenAI in 2022, is said to be able to deliver lessons.
They also say that machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, will help revolutionise the education system, and it will no longer exist as we know it. Since AI can recommend content to students.
The advantage for teachers or education professionals, experts warn, is that with the use of artificial intelligence, a teacher may not have to worry about administrative tasks and can focus on the quality of learning.
2.Journalism. Artificial intelligence has proven to be highly effective in collect- ing data, analysing it and finding patterns. For this reason, some companies are abandoning journalists and replacing them with artificial intelligence. Report- edly, about 50 journalists have been fired from Microsoh in 2020. However, not all is lost for journalists, as even tools such as ChatGPT require verification of their information.
3.Graphic design. The ChatGPT artificial intelligence has also shown that graphic design as a profession may disappear in the future. Currently, ChatGPT can create personalised images based on user needs.
4.Finance. The financial sector and jobs in it will be displaced by artificial intel- ligence, which already spots fraud. It can also provide financial counselling services 24 hours a day and search for potential clients without the need for human intervention.
AI can write code, design websites, and create high-performance user inter- faces, jeopardising professions in the field.
Machines dominate humans
It is worth noting that technology itself is neither good nor bad - it all depends on the ethics of those who use it. We are not against technology, but we wonder: who controls whom? Are the machines controlling us or are we controlling them? What will happen when machines become smarter than us? Will we be able to live without them?
The example of the World Cup in Qatar, which has caused much controversy and criticism of FIFA for choosing a country with human rights issues, especially against women, shows the role machines play today.
Robotisation is developing rapidly. It affects not only work (remote working), but also decisively changes the way of life. It seems that machines have gained independence and now dominate people, invading their personal space.
Therefore, some argue that in a few years we will have robotic friends who will live in our homes, communicate with the occupants and become a kind of confi- dant, listening to our problems, opinions, pains, anxieties and emotions.
In football, which is called the king of sports, we see the dominance of machines. VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is a system introduced by the Federa- tion Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to eliminate refereeing errors. Today, hardly any football match can do without this technology. VAR consists of a set of cameras whose images are analysed by FIFA referees in a special room with monitors. They make decisions, which are then relayed to the head referee and line judges.
Here we can say that technology has been put at the service of the king of sports, and all the controversies are ultimately decided by the machine.
VAR is still used in the following cases:
•When a goal is scored. Potential rule infringements such as offsides, fouls, hand play or other offences are checked.
•In the case of a penalty kick. It is checked whether the decision to award or cancel a penalty has been correctly made. Situations both inside and near the penalty area are analysed.
•Penalties. VAR checks whether the removal of a player was justified.
•Player identification. Sometimes the referee may mistakenly show a card to the wrong player. In such cases, VAR intervenes and informs the referee of the error.
As we can see, we didn’t have to wait until 2199, as in the The Matrix, for the machine to finally subjugate man; at least in football this is already a reality.
Conclusion
In light of the above, the following questions arise:
Who will ultimately dominate our complex world: machines or we humans?
Is it possible that machines will become smarter than humans? And if that happens, what will happen to us? Will we be able to live without them?
If there are huge risks with today’s technology and talk of something frighten- ing, what will happen to the technology of the future?
Should we allow machines to flood our information channels with propaganda and lies?
Should we create non-human species of intelligence that may eventually sur- pass us in numbers, intelligence and replace us?
What will happen to love, feelings, experiences, joys and sorrows - all the things that make us human? Will these qualities be transferred to machines? Some argue that he who works like a machine thinks and feels like a machine. Will he then be able to operate like a human being?
We conclude with three thoughts.
“The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold” (Glenn Doman).
Noam Chomsky The science fiction film The Matrix, written and directed by the Wachowski sisters (Lilly and Lana) (1999), reflects on humanity and the reasons that may lead to its demise. The film shows a hopeless future for humans who have depleted the plan- et’s resources, destroyed the sun, and are eventually enslaved by machines of their own creation.
The film also looks at attitudes towards technology and the increasing separa- tion of body and mind due to the development of robotics and virtual reality. It was believed that freedom was really nothing more than a predictable algorithm inside a computer programme, far fr om becoming a reality, at least in the near future. We are talking about the year 2199.
The film follows the adventures of Neo, a young hacker who was recruited by a resistance movement led by Morpheus, fighting against the domination of machines over humans. Morpheus offers him two pills of different colours: a blue one that will allow him to continue living in illusion, and a red one with which he will learn the truth.
Faced with this dilemma, the protagonist chooses the red pill and wakes up in a capsule. This is how he discovers that the human race is under the con- trol of an artificial intelligence and imprisoned in a computer programme that serves only as a power source. Neo realises that the Resistance sees him as the Chosen One: a kind of messiah who will free humanity fr om the slavery of the Matrix.
Although he doubts his destiny, throughout the film he learns to overcome the rules of simulation. He manages to rescue Morpheus, who has been kidnapped, and defeat Agent Smith aher a duel in which he proves his worth as a warrior and confirms that he is indeed the Chosen One.
Today, the world is witnessing events that make us question the established timeframes. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated automation in many indus- tries such as services, construction, medicine, food, defence and aerospace. Robo- tisation is developing rapidly. It affects not only work (remote working), but also decisively changes the way people live. It seems that machines have gained inde- pendence and now dominate people by invading their personal space. Indeed, there is no human space leh without gadgets, for example.
Hence the claim that in a few years we will have “robot friends” who will live in our homes, communicate with residents and become a kind of confidant who will listen to all our problems, sufferings, pains, anxieties and emotions.
Our observations below address the most striking features of a world wh ere technology has an almost existential impact on humans and wh ere machines are actively competing with them.
Loss of social ties
We can agree with Zygmunt Bauman that we live in a ‘liquid modernity’, which leads to a loss of social ties (people increasingly communicate more with a mobile phone or tablet than with relatives or friends), while “personal space, inti- macy, anonymity and the right to secrecy fall outside the principles of consumer society.”
Some argue that we are facing new forms of communication and social rela- tionships in a society of social networks, which raises the following questions: What happens to identity? Does it blur, disappear or hide behind emoticons/ emoji? Wh ere do words, language, ethics, lies/truths remain, and what types of social relations develop in this society?
According to American linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky, the use of mobile phones and social media represents a step backwards as live communi- cation disappears, creating superficial relationships. He believes that new technol- ogies isolate people fr om each other.
Emoji language
People talk about different “deaths.” For example, the death of history according to Hegel’s philosophy or, in a more modern version, the end of history according to Francis Fukuyama. Also the death of God, according to Friedrich Nietzsche.
But now they’re talking about something more important: the death of the word with the advent of a worldwide language of emojis.
With their help, a world language was created, the so-called emoji or emoti- cons, which are small images without any borders, expressing and conveying anemotion or thought. These are sequences of keyboard characters used to convey emotions (smile, wink, surprise, sarcasm, sadness, or to send hugs and kisses).
These icons convey what words no longer express or cannot or will not say. So, any person (rich, poor, dark-skinned, blond, white, educated or not, male, female, homosexual, immigrant or native) becomes a decentred subject, that is, a subject in process, immersed in an unreal reality, influenced by the effects of reality.
These emoticons/emoji have become the perfect medium to communicate with people fr om any part of the world as they break language barriers, or even with our own friends/enemies when there is simply no need to write a lot of words to express what can be shown through pictures.
Social media
Today, it is not radio, television, print media or cinema, but the Internet and, in particular, social media that are the world’s main means of communication, changing the way information is disseminated, as they have cultural, economic, social and political implications for the global community, creating new forms of com- munication.
Today, for example, both the Internet and social media have become a major medium precisely because of the speed and ease of access and exchange of infor- mation, data of all kinds, and because of their ubiquitous and global nature. They erase boundaries. It is also a chaotic, multi-dimensional environmentwith a blurred hierarchy, wh ere - unlike television or newspapers - anyone can freely publish their thoughts. The user, more than in any other environment, acts as both consumer and content creator. The “I” that constantly manifests itself online is simultane- ously author, narrator and character.
Let’s look at what some thinkers are saying:
Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman says:
“Social media don’t teach us to dialogue because it is so easy to avoid controversy… But most people use social media not to unite, not to open their horizons wider, but on the contrary, to cut themselves a comfort zone wh ere the only sounds they hear are the echoes of their own voice, where the only things they see are. Social media are very useful, they provide pleasure, but they are a trap.” Portuguese writer Boaventura de Sousa states:
“This is one of the contradictions of our time. We welcome social media and the internet as platforms, as a form of democratisation of knowledge and informa- tion. But recently, in the post-truth era, social media and the internet have been used to manipulate public opinion based on what is difficult for the average person to understand.”
The era of social networks is developing within what the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze called the “Societies of Control” – that is, societies dominated by biopolitics (regulation of the species), flexible and changeable networks; where power relations are rooted in scientific and technological innovation and seek to encompass the entire social body, leaving virtually nothing outside of control.
South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han argues that in a performance society, social media is a space in which people need to constantly stand out by displaying an idealised image of themselves. The search for recognition and val- idation becomes an obsession, creating a constant pressure to get likes, followers and positive comments.
This dynamic of performance on social media leads to the alienation of peo- ple. In an attempt to conform to the standards of success and happiness imposed by society, people become disconnected fr om their true selves and become mere consumer goods. Authenticity is lost, replaced by a carefully constructed image that seeks external approval.
Social networks generate a typical confrontation between those who defend them at all costs (“pro-technology hysteria”, as German professor Peter Sloterdijk puts it) and those who consider them diabolical and the cause of all ills (“anti-tech- nology hysteria”).
Social media as an international player
However, today social media have become an extremely important interna- tional player, as many political changes and coups d’état have taken place through them. For example, the “colour revolutions” in some post-Soviet countries (the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine in 2004 and the Lemon or Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005), the Arab Spring in 2010 and the so-called “outraged.” Latin America and the Caribbean have also been hit by such coups. And Venezuela is experiencing this, being turned into and has becme a breed- ing ground for such technologies, which this is nothing new.
What is said on these platforms about Venezuela and spread around the world is that our country is a dictatorship state, that there is a civil war, that we are killing each other, and many erudites, progressives and even lehists, including those fr om Latin America and the Caribbean, believe these allegations.
But this is nothing new. For example, a document entitled “Plan to Over- throw the Venezuelan Dictatorship: Masterstroke, released in February 2018 and attributed to Admiral Kurt Walter Tidd, commander of US Naval Force Southern Command, explicitly points to the importance of social media in achieving the goals set. In this sense, the author suggests the following approach: “Increasing, inside the country and through the mass media established abroad, the dissem- ination of designed messages based on testimonies and publications originated in the country, making use of all the possible capacities, including the social net- works. Claiming, through that mass media, the need to put an end to this situation because of its unsustainable essence.”
In this situation, according to President Nicolas Maduro, “Venezuela contin- ues to be the jewel in the crown for the imperial elites of the United States and its allies. The country is also a target for cyberattacks.”
Ilon Musk, owner of Platform X, and Mark Zuckerberg, co-creator and founder of Facebook (fr om 2021 Meta Platforms), both of whom profited fr om the COVID- 19 pandemic and wield enormous power – not only in the economic but also in the media sphere – are aiming to undermine the Bolivarian revolution and the Presi- dent in an attempt to reverse history.
It is important to mention that against the backdrop of the information war that is being waged in Venezuela, disinformation is becoming a powerful weapon. It is therefore essential to strengthen the country’s digital defence capabilities to counter manipulative campaigns and protect the credibility of information.
Are we living through a time of “brain strike”?
Fr om a lexicographical point of view, a strike means a collective cessation of labour activity by workers in order to demand certain conditions or to express pro- test. Let us add that in the world of capital strikes can also be staged by peasants, teachers, professors and even entrepreneurs.
However, in this Liquid Modernity, as Zygmunt Bauman calls it, wh ere the only certainty is the constant presence of uncertainties and voids to be filled, we are liv- ing through what is called a “brain strike,” which means nothing less than a refusal to use the brain and its neurons. And this happens at times when we are faced with an overabundance of information (infodemia) in our global world, which, paradox- ically, brings about misinformation. This is not a fiction, not a fairy tale, not a fable, but a reality.
The schemes are almost identical. Gene Sharp, a theorist of nonviolent action, lays them out in his works Fr om Dictatorship to Democracy and The Methods of Non- violent Action.
Hence, social media is one of the major international players with tremendous effectiveness, shaping subjective opinions and penetrating daily life, family, inter- net, wi-fi, mobile phone, violating privacy, invading personal space, becoming part of everyday life every second of the day.
We live, without fear of making a mistake, in the era of cut and paste, which means that it is possible to find on the Internet any monograph or other work writ- ten by another author and pass it off as one’s own. This is happening not only at the undergraduate level, but also at the master’s level, and even at the highest level, in doctoral studies. Sad but true, in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), one of the professions that could be replaced is said to be teaching.
Today, new technologies and neoliberalism do not call for reflection, rather quite the opposite. The reality is that people no longer read books, novels or even essays. Everything is now simplified by social media, which is also dominated by the “I like” philosophy according to Byung-Chul Han, meaning that we post or for- ward what we like, without bothering to verify its content. This trend has acceler- ated with the emergence of post-truth and fake news.
We believe that the best way to resist the “brain strike” is to return to reading, using the word and reflection, constantly and continuously, so as “not to die in the attempt,” because, in the end, “The dangerous thing about living without reading is that it makes you believe everything you are told” (Mafalda).
The Age of Infocracy
In 2022, South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han wrote the work entitled Infocracy. There he argues that Infocracy can be compared to an information regime and says: “With the term ‘information regime’ I refer to a form of domination in which information and its processing by algorithms and artificial intelligence have a decisive influence on social, economic and political processes.”
In the current era, the supremacy of information and digital algorithms is taking root in the political sphere, which has its consequences, especially in the selection of new rulers, i.e. information is destructive to the democratic process. Therefore, for Han, “Democracy is degenerating into Infocracy.”
For Byung-Chul Han, “In Infocracy, election campaigns degenerate into infor- mation warfare,” with political parties taking more interest in controlling this infor- mation than in developing their proposals and development plans. “Voters are not told about a party’s political programme but are manipulated by election adver- tising tailored to their psychoprogramme. And ohen with the help of fake news” (Han). Therefore, the speeches, actions and plans of political parties no longer matter. Information warfare is conducted with algorithmic weapons.
In Infocracy, information warfare is expressed as political warfare, and social media users resemble an overly docile and compliant herd.
“In electoral campaigns understood as information warfare, it is no lon- ger the best arguments that win, but the smartest algorithms,” Han says. Hence, democracy becomes subject to digital algorithms that can guide human behaviour. Commanding this information and these algorithms is the most effective form of sovereignty nowadays. “Sovereign is he who has control over the information on the web” (Han), that is, sovereign is the one who determines what is true based on information. What is valuable and necessary for the people.
We would say: we live in an era wh ere the technological divide is undermining the democratic process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a combination of algorithms designed to create machines with the same abilities as humans. It is a technology that still seems distant and mysterious to us, but which has been present in our daily lives for several years now, constantly, and continues to gain ground in many areas of the modern world.
With artificial intelligence comes a scenario wh ere, over time, some jobs can be done without any human involvement at all.
AI is replacing professional workers. For this reason, about 85 million jobs in medium and large companies are expected to be cut this year. 80 million of them will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
There is increasing talk that 5 professions are under threat and could disap- pear, giving way to artificial intelligence. Here they are:
1. Education. Business experts say that artificial intelligence can provide effec- tive learning materials to students without contact with a teacher, and many AI companies are interested in investing in educational tools. ChatGPT, devel- oped by OpenAI in 2022, is said to be able to deliver lessons.
They also say that machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, will help revolutionise the education system, and it will no longer exist as we know it. Since AI can recommend content to students.
The advantage for teachers or education professionals, experts warn, is that with the use of artificial intelligence, a teacher may not have to worry about administrative tasks and can focus on the quality of learning.
Infocracy is becoming a phenomenon of digital media, wh ere the abun- dance of information makes it possible to create algorithms that work with users’ data to manage their behaviour and preferences. Digital algorithms are develop- ing the psychometrics of social media users. According to Han, “psychometrics, also known as psychography, is a data-driven procedure for obtaining a person- ality profile.” This profile is developed based on the pattern of information con- sumption in digital networks. Algorithms, together with psychometrics, form a user who is subject to a regime of information. This regime, in turn, is an expres- sion of psychopolitics, that is, it has the power to control and manipulate the human psyche. Consequently, the abilities inherent in the democratic process, such as autonomy or free will, are destroyed in the name of Infocratic domina- tion. Democracy as the power of the people yields to Infocracy as the power of information. The digital algorithm acts arbitrarily and favours certain politicians or parties.
For Byung-Chul Han, “In Infocracy, election campaigns degenerate into infor- mation warfare,” with political parties taking more interest in controlling this infor- mation than in developing their proposals and development plans. “Voters are not told about a party’s political programme but are manipulated by election adver- tising tailored to their psychoprogramme. And ohen with the help of fake news” (Han). Therefore, the speeches, actions and plans of political parties no longer matter. Information warfare is conducted with algorithmic weapons.
In Infocracy, information warfare is expressed as political warfare, and social media users resemble an overly docile and compliant herd.
“In electoral campaigns understood as information warfare, it is no lon- ger the best arguments that win, but the smartest algorithms,” Han says. Hence, democracy becomes subject to digital algorithms that can guide human behaviour. Commanding this information and these algorithms is the most effective form of sovereignty nowadays. “Sovereign is he who has control over the information on the web” (Han), that is, sovereign is the one who determines what is true based on information. What is valuable and necessary for the people.
We would say: we live in an era wh ere the technological divide is undermining the democratic process.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a combination of algorithms designed to create machines with the same abilities as humans. It is a technology that still seems distant and mysterious to us, but which has been present in our daily lives for several years now, constantly, and continues to gain ground in many areas of the modern world.
With artificial intelligence comes a scenario wh ere, over time, some jobs can be done without any human involvement at all.
AI is replacing professional workers. For this reason, about 85 million jobs in medium and large companies are expected to be cut this year. 80 million of them will be replaced by artificial intelligence.
There is increasing talk that 5 professions are under threat and could disap- pear, giving way to artificial intelligence. Here they are:
1. Education. Business experts say that artificial intelligence can provide effec- tive learning materials to students without contact with a teacher, and many AI companies are interested in investing in educational tools. ChatGPT, devel- oped by OpenAI in 2022, is said to be able to deliver lessons.
They also say that machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, will help revolutionise the education system, and it will no longer exist as we know it. Since AI can recommend content to students.
The advantage for teachers or education professionals, experts warn, is that with the use of artificial intelligence, a teacher may not have to worry about administrative tasks and can focus on the quality of learning.
2.Journalism. Artificial intelligence has proven to be highly effective in collect- ing data, analysing it and finding patterns. For this reason, some companies are abandoning journalists and replacing them with artificial intelligence. Report- edly, about 50 journalists have been fired from Microsoh in 2020. However, not all is lost for journalists, as even tools such as ChatGPT require verification of their information.
3.Graphic design. The ChatGPT artificial intelligence has also shown that graphic design as a profession may disappear in the future. Currently, ChatGPT can create personalised images based on user needs.
4.Finance. The financial sector and jobs in it will be displaced by artificial intel- ligence, which already spots fraud. It can also provide financial counselling services 24 hours a day and search for potential clients without the need for human intervention.
AI can write code, design websites, and create high-performance user inter- faces, jeopardising professions in the field.
Machines dominate humans
It is worth noting that technology itself is neither good nor bad - it all depends on the ethics of those who use it. We are not against technology, but we wonder: who controls whom? Are the machines controlling us or are we controlling them? What will happen when machines become smarter than us? Will we be able to live without them?
The example of the World Cup in Qatar, which has caused much controversy and criticism of FIFA for choosing a country with human rights issues, especially against women, shows the role machines play today.
Robotisation is developing rapidly. It affects not only work (remote working), but also decisively changes the way of life. It seems that machines have gained independence and now dominate people, invading their personal space.
Therefore, some argue that in a few years we will have robotic friends who will live in our homes, communicate with the occupants and become a kind of confi- dant, listening to our problems, opinions, pains, anxieties and emotions.
In football, which is called the king of sports, we see the dominance of machines. VAR (Video Assistant Referee) is a system introduced by the Federa- tion Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) to eliminate refereeing errors. Today, hardly any football match can do without this technology. VAR consists of a set of cameras whose images are analysed by FIFA referees in a special room with monitors. They make decisions, which are then relayed to the head referee and line judges.
Here we can say that technology has been put at the service of the king of sports, and all the controversies are ultimately decided by the machine.
VAR is still used in the following cases:
•When a goal is scored. Potential rule infringements such as offsides, fouls, hand play or other offences are checked.
•In the case of a penalty kick. It is checked whether the decision to award or cancel a penalty has been correctly made. Situations both inside and near the penalty area are analysed.
•Penalties. VAR checks whether the removal of a player was justified.
•Player identification. Sometimes the referee may mistakenly show a card to the wrong player. In such cases, VAR intervenes and informs the referee of the error.
As we can see, we didn’t have to wait until 2199, as in the The Matrix, for the machine to finally subjugate man; at least in football this is already a reality.
Conclusion
In light of the above, the following questions arise:
Who will ultimately dominate our complex world: machines or we humans?
Is it possible that machines will become smarter than humans? And if that happens, what will happen to us? Will we be able to live without them?
If there are huge risks with today’s technology and talk of something frighten- ing, what will happen to the technology of the future?
Should we allow machines to flood our information channels with propaganda and lies?
Should we create non-human species of intelligence that may eventually sur- pass us in numbers, intelligence and replace us?
What will happen to love, feelings, experiences, joys and sorrows - all the things that make us human? Will these qualities be transferred to machines? Some argue that he who works like a machine thinks and feels like a machine. Will he then be able to operate like a human being?
We conclude with three thoughts.
“The human brain is unique in that it is the only container of which it can be said that the more you put into it, the more it will hold” (Glenn Doman).
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