Machina Sapiens: Artificial Intelligence Between the Symptomatics of Cognitive Capitalism and the Revolutionary Promise of Posthumanism
Machina Sapiens: Artificial Intelligence Between the Symptomatics of Cognitive Capitalism and the Revolutionary Promise of Posthumanism

Summary/Abstract: This paper situates Artificial Intelligence (AI) within two conflicting theoretical frameworks-cognitive capitalism and posthumanismto explore its dual role as both a symptom of capitalist exploitation and a distinct cognizing agent that necessitates posthumanist analysis. The first section examines AI’s evolution as machina sapiens in the problematic context of the Marxist notion of the general intellect, tracing its development through the interplay of cybernetics, ICT, and the planetaryscale megastructure of cognitive capitalism (the Stack). Drawing on Benjamin Bratton’s insights, it argues that cognitive capitalism embeds AI within exploitative frameworks of reification of information and knowledge commodification. The second section adopts posthumanist perspectives to challenge binary distinctions between humans and machines. Engaging with hypernaturalist theories and Katherine Hayles’ concept of cognitive assemblages, it reconceptualizes agency as collective, material, and entangled, moving beyond humanist assumptions about intelligence and cognition. In its conclusion, the paper introduces nooecological noopolitics as a paradigm to navigate the tensions between the exploitative dynamics of cognitive capitalism and AI’s transformative potential. This vision imagines a future where cognition, knowledge, and agency are reconfigured within a hybrid, symbiotic, and generative commons.

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